Creative Metaphors, Synchronicity, and Quantum Physics

Philosophy & Rhetoric Jun 2011

Creative Metaphors, Synchronicity, and Quantum Physics

Thomas Frentz

Abstract

Abstract In this work, I argue that creative metaphors are formed when some persistent problem, caused by an inadequacy in preexisting knowledge, descends into the collective unconscious, is reconfigured unconsciously in novel ways, and then reemerges back into consciousness where the impasse is resolved by the metaphorical expression of new knowledge. To develop this position, I (1) review and critique some well-known language-based studies of metaphor, (2) summarize psychoanalytic and depth psychological approaches to the psyche as one way to overcome the shortcomings of the language-based scholarship, (3) relate C. G. Jung's account of the psyche and his related notion of synchronicity to creative metaphors, (4) graft a quantum physics approach to material reality back onto Jung's work as a provisional structure of the collective unconscious, and finally, (5) offer some suggestions about how creative metaphors might work psychologically.

Journal: Philosophy & Rhetoric
Published: 2011-06-01
DOI: 10.5325/philrhet.44.2.0101
Open Access: Closed
Topics: multilingual writers

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Also cites 3 works outside this index ↓

Frentz, Thomas S. 1974. “Toward a Resolution of the Generative Semantics/Classical Theory Controversy: A Psyc…

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Osborn, Michael. 1977. “The Evolution of the Archetypal Sea in Rhetoric and Poetic.” Quarterly Journal of Spe…

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Stampe, Dennis. 1968. “Toward a Grammar of Meaning.” Philosophical Review 77 (2): 137–74.

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