Metaphorical Paradoxes : A Window on the Conceptual System

This paper reviews the inconsistencies surrounding the English metaphor of the Self and demonstrates that 1) similar metaphorical paradoxes concerning the Self exist in Chinese and Japanese, and 2) these paradoxes occur in English, Japanese, and Chinese because the Inner Self (our internal voice) is being compared either with the Social Self (how we interact with others) or the Physical Self (our body). Thus the paradoxes reflect what the psychologist William James referred to in 1892 as the 'spiritual me, material me, and social me' . In addition, these paradoxes mirror neurological phenomena found in brain damaged patients. In short, the linguistic and neurological findings point to a strikingly similar portrait of the Self, and argue for studying metaphorical paradoxes in greater detail in order to gain insight into other aspects of our conceptual framework.