Abstract
As a complex disorder that encompasses a wide range of physical, cognitive and emotional symptoms, depression gives rise to experiences that are often difficult to express. Due to this complexity, and especially in a cross-cultural study, sensitivity to metaphorical expressions and narratives of depression are important. Using the cognitive-linguistic framework for metaphors, universal and cultural metaphors of depression are examined. While universal metaphors of depression, rooted in the embodied experience of the disorder highlight what is unique to depression itself, cultural metaphors bring to attention the culturally unique modes of understanding, interpreting and experiencing depression that merit further investigation. Metaphors of colour and water, used by Iranians, signal a cultural understanding of the self and the world in depression, traceable to Persian literature and religious conceptions.
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Notes
- 1.
This symbology of course, is not unique to Ancient Persia and is in fact seen in mythologies of Ancient Egypt, Babylon, and India.
- 2.
In the West, this notion can be seen in the Fountain of Youth, although the portrayal and the stories that follow are slightly different.
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Mirdamadi, M. (2023). Metaphors of Depression. In: A Phenomenological Study of Depression in Iran. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-30407-1_3
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