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In:Crises We Live By: A transdisciplinary study of crisis and its metaphors in their cultural context
Edited by Irene Leonardis
[Cognitive Linguistic Studies in Cultural Contexts 20] 2026
► pp. 68–89

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From trauma to reappraising life

Psychological crisis experiences and recovery in first-person accounts of life-changing injuries

 | Cardiff University
Published online: 5 February 2026
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https://doi.org/10.1075/clscc.20.03vil
Abstract
This chapter considers first-person narratives of life-changing injuries, which may lead to depression and identity crises before individuals can accept their condition. The study focuses on the metaphors used to describe the injury, recovery, and attitude towards life in a dataset of 67 extracts retrieved from healthtalk​.org. Metaphor use evidences that traumatic injuries are lived as ontological experiences, including loss, new dispositions on the world, and reappraisals of the self. Contradictory conceptualisations, both across different individuals and within the same individual, reflect individuals’ struggle with ordinary adversities and highlight the complexity of recovery.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Narratives of illness and recovery
  • 3.Metaphors and (mental) illness
  • 4.Materials and methods
    • 4.1Narratives of life changing injuries
    • 4.2Discourse dynamics approach to metaphor analysis and methodological considerations
  • 5.Metaphor use in narratives of life-changing injuries
    • 5.1General use of metaphors and nuances of conventionality
    • 5.2Possessions and losses
    • 5.3The spatiality of traumatic injuries and recovery
      • 5.3.1A journey with opposite destinations
    • 5.4Reappraisal of the self
  • 6.Final considerations
  • Notes
  • References
References (36)
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