Friday, 1 May 2026

Claire O'Callaghan - "Metaphors open up our minds - but can also shut them down"

https://psyche.co/ideas/metaphors-open-up-our-minds-but-can-also-shut-them-down

 

Is there danger, then, in these analogies that can delight and inspire? One risk is that they close down possibilities. They can shut down our thinking, coercing it to fit the shape of someone else’s comparison rather than our own. In feeding you an analogy, I’m not just telling you about a thing – I’m telling you how you should think about that thing and, in doing so, robbing all opportunity for your thoughts to take their own meandering leap into unmapped territories.