In an attempt to examine the frequency of occurrence and significance of figurative language in spoken discourse, a line-by-line analysis of such language in a single session of psychotherapy was performed. Results of such an analysis showed that for this particular case, figurative language occurred at a rate of between 3 and 6 figures per 100 words of text, and that novel, as opposed to frozen, figures tended to occur in extended bursts. These bursts were shown to relate to other aspects of the therapeutic process, particularly those involving patient problem-setting and problem-solving. In general, novel figurative language was seen to be a method whereby intimate personal qualities and problems could be talked about in a non-intrusive and therapeutically helpful manner.

Traditionally it has been left to poets and novelists to unravel and discuss the relation between metaphoric language and the experience of insight. The psychological and psychoanalytic commentary on this relationship is fragmentary and implicit. This paper offers both clinical and empirical data which leads to the speculation that novel metaphoric language constitutes not only the contents of specific therapeutic insights but also the thematic interface upon which psychotherapy procedes . A clinical demonstration illustrates the simple co-occurence of a patient coming to insight while communicating with his therapist in a highly figurative manner. This is followed by an experimental study in which metaphoric language and therapeutic insight, both of which are defined operationally, are investigated quantitatively and qualitatively. The conclusions of this empirical study validate clinical impressions. Apt novel metaphors concretize troublesome experiences and function heuristically. In doing so the patient comes to experience insight. Insight is achieved by verbalizing implicit experiences in novel figurative expressions and then by working out the implication of such communications over time.

Taking on the giants of psychological developmental theory (the likes of Erikson, Kohlberg, Freud, Piaget, Vaillant, Levinson) smacks of grandiosity. Doing so with grace, perspective, and intelligence transforms the shades of grandiosity into a demonstration that sensible and intelligent research still is being done in the real world. Maybe it is "Harvard" or her association with David McClelland or just the confluence of these factors with native ingenuity, but Carol Gilligan's In A Different Voice ought to inspire a retrofit of graduate psychology curriculum for the next decade.Her hypothesis is simple. The current theories of psychological development are biased by a single track comprehension of maturityseparation-individuation. This is a motif for all modern theories. There is nothing wrong here, except, the separation-individuation track has a distinctly male turn to it. In other words men develop in that way but, typically, women hardly identify with it.Gilligan studies, among other things, the relation between identity and moral choice as they are integrated during the long transition from adolescence to adulthood. For the male ". . . individual achievement rivets the male imagination. Great ideas or distinctive activity defines the standard of self-assessment and success . . . Power and separation secure the man in an identity achieved through work but they leave him at a distance from Requests for reprints should be sent to

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