What Conceptual Metaphors Appear in Texts on Psychedelics and Medicine? Corpus-Based Cognitive Study
Respectus Philologicus January 1, 2022 DOI: 10.15388/respectus.2022.42.47.115 via Elsevier
Summary
AI-generated from the abstractAn analysis of 160 online texts from 2020 about psychedelics in medical research, mental health, and therapy identifies three main conceptual metaphors: psychedelic experience is a trip (a single event involving adventure, sacredness, or challenge that requires return), psychedelic experience is a journey (a series of experiences, integration, and development that may involve healing), and psychedelic substance is a tool, bridge, vehicle, or agent providing access. Collocates of the word "psychedelic" also suggest the substances or experience are conceptualized as medicine.
Study at a glance
| Characteristics | Corpus analysis Qualitative Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 160 |
| Population | Online texts about psychedelics from organizations popularizing knowledge |
| Key finding | The analyzed texts employ the conceptual metaphors of psychedelic experience as a trip or journey and psychedelic substance as a tool, bridge, vehicle, or agent, with collocates also suggesting a medicine conceptualization. |
Abstract
This paper aims to present conceptual metaphors employed to discuss psychedelics in texts published online by organizations popularizing knowledge about psychedelic substances. The foundation of this investigation comprises Cognitive Grammar, Conceptual Metaphor Theory, and Corpus Linguistics. A corpus of 160 texts on medical research, mental health, and therapy published in 2020 is built to enable quantitative and qualitative analysis. The investigation reveals the existence of the conceptual metaphors: psychedelic experience is a trip (a single experience that requires return and may involve adventurous, sacred, challenging aspects), psychedelic experience is a journey (a set of experiences (trips), integration process, and development, may involve healing), psychedelic substance is a tool / bridge / vehicle / agent providing access. The study of collocates of the word “psychedelic” also suggests the conceptualization of the psychedelic substances and/or experience as medicine in the analyzed corpus.