The proverbs reflect the experience of a people in which a person grows and develops. Sayings and proverbs are a figurative phrase, they carry a certain, quite obvious meaning, but in a figurative sense. This is a kind of formula that transfers wisdom to a new generation from previous ones.
The technique of interpretation of proverbs and metaphors in modern psychology is very widely used; it helps to see the problems that arise in adolescents in their team, and to recognize the problems of thinking in the initial stages.
Methodology
A technique is the science of how to teach or explore patterns. Each psychologist tries to develop his own technique.
In our case, we are talking about the proverbial interpretation technique, which allows us to understand how effective and streamlined the thinking processes are in a teenager or adult.
What is a proverb? Folklore and Psychology of Communication
Proverbs have been formed in the linguistic environment since antiquity under the influence of cultural and socio-political ties. These are figurative expressions, which, in principle, have a well-known interpretation. For example, "A hand washes a hand," or "God protects a Caregiver." But the proverbial imagery is specific. The proverb is short. In fact, this is a small expression that carries extensive meaning.
But in the study of the individual’s character and thinking, proverbs can be used as material for “fishing out” from the subconscious mind those mental images that a person hides from the public. If you ask several people for a broader interpretation of the same proverb, the answers will be different. This is due to the fact that the model of thinking and the value system of people are different.
The proverbial interpretation technique has long been used in practical psychology, but it is also used in pathopsychology.
Method B. Zeigarnik
The Soviet pathopsychologist Bluma Zeigarnik created her own methodology for working with proverbs. The researcher must choose from the list of proposed proverbs a definition corresponding to each saying, a list of which is also given.
This method determines the pathological characteristics of thinking inherent in people prone to schizoid disorder and schizophrenia.
The technique allows you to establish the following properties of thinking: unproductive, unfocused, scattered thoughts, slippage. All these properties of thinking are present simultaneously with schizophrenia.
Interpretation of metaphors and proverbs as a method of analysis of mental deviations. Rubinstein test
To interpret possible deviations in the psyche, the test of the pathopsychological technique S.Ya. is also used. Rubinstein.
Factors that are considered in the analysis are as follows:
- the ability of a person to clearly state thoughts in words;
- the detail with which a person interprets the picture formed in his brain;
- the ability to control your thoughts, that is, to keep the mind within the scope of the task and not to jump from concept to concept;
- proverb analysis speed.
For example, a proverb is given:
Play yes don't play up
What does the person think about this? Does a person put his obsessive neurotic thoughts into interpretation? Says: "This is about me, I have problems"? Or does he make sound and reasoned arguments, do not get hung up on selfish thoughts?
The same is with metaphor analysis. For example, the metaphor of "deep night." A person with deep and creative thinking will be able to create a whole story from this phrase, come up with a lot of details to the main image. A human logician with purely technical thinking will put it briefly: "It's when it's dark."
Too detailed description, getting stuck on one mental image and ignoring others is not a good sign. Jamming also indicates some underlying mental disorders.
Work with teens. Analysis of their thinking
Teenagers can not always speak to adults. And this is important for them.
The heroine of Miguel de Unamuno uttered the following phrase:
It is better to live an hour and talk than to live two hours and be silent.
They must pronounce all the feelings accumulated in themselves so as not to “explode”. When they have problems, and the reasons become incomprehensible, the psychologist or parent can offer them to interpret a proverb and give an explanation through the image of their own behavior.
The method of interpretation of proverbs for a teenager presents the opportunity to "get to the bottom" of the essence of his personality problems. Since, having felt that they are listening to him, he can "open the door" inward to help him.
Many proverbs make a person think. By asking to analyze a philosophical proverb, you can see how developed the intellectual abilities of a teenager.
Not the hut is red with corners, but red with pies.
What does a young man understand by “pies” - material or moral values? Why should a person care more about the internal than about the external?
Word game. Metaphors and images
Many metaphors bring psychologists to their patients, but it is much better when the patient himself brings the metaphor that comes to his mind. This language of images will open to the psychologist a huge layer of internal problems of the patient.
A psychologist of Iranian origin Nosstrat Peseshkian said that the image of a metaphor is able to "say" much more than a couple of words that make up the metaphor. Therefore, the method of interpretation of proverbs, interpretation of metaphors is an excellent way to quickly get to the core of the problem, without wandering in the tangled corridors of the patient’s thoughts, his painful rationalizations.