Conceptual Metaphors of the “Self”

The increasing interest in embodied cognition has heightened the need for cognitive models that reflect the relationship of the body with the physical world. Issues of particular interest have to do with the notion of “Self.” According to Lakoff and Johnson (1999), there is no unified way to conceptualize our inner life, as the metaphors we use to understand the Self are intrinsically inconsistent and incompatible with what we know about the mind from a scientific perspective. However, once both the source domain and target domain are clearly defined, the inconsistencies surrounding the Self metaphors disappear and leave in their place a coherent explanation: They reflect what William James referred to in 1892 as the “spiritual me, material me and social me.”