Metaphoric impoverishment

Women and the Underside of Meetings (Part #8)

Perhaps the most problematic consequence of denial, especially regarding sexual behaviour, is the inability to draw upon metaphors of sexuality to frame healthy (and unhealthy) strategic possibilities, and to communicate them successfully (Responding to Conceptual and Value Polarities: learnings from sexuality, 1998; Enhancing the Quality of Knowing through Integration of East-West metaphors, 2000). Given the worldwide familiarity with the associated processes and their subtle complexity -- beyond those adequately encompassed by rational discourse -- a vital vehicle of communication is effectively lost.

To the extent such behaviour is then recognized in discourse, only the simplest metaphors are used -- typically in their most primitive, violent form -- as is the case in corporate environments and in trading on the financial markets. As such they are fundamental to the language and strategies of the Masters of the Universe (Backside to the Future: coherence and conflation of dominant strategic metaphors, 2003).