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Between the subject and the self

Force dynamics and the divided-person metaphor in acceptance and commitment therapy

ORCiD logo with link | Fuji Women’s University
ORCiD logo with link | Universitat Jaume I & IULMA
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Available under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) 4.0 license.

For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at rights@benjamins.nl.

Open Access publication of this article was funded through a Transformative Agreement with Universitat Jaume I.

Published online: 20 January 2026
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https://doi.org/10.1075/rcl.00249.mue
Abstract
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) uses metaphor extensively in its exercises with clients ( (2012). Acceptance and commitment therapy: The process and practice of mindful change (2nd ed.). Guilford Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar). This paper analyzes a corpus of ACT defusion exercises to identify the patterns of construal they typically evoke. Findings show frequent use of the Divided-Person metaphor (. (1996). Sorry, I’m not myself today: The metaphor system for conceptualizing the self. In Fauconnier, Gilles & Eve E. Sweetser (Eds.), Spaces, worlds, and grammar (pp. 91–123). University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar), with the two aspects of the mind (the Self and Subject) operating within an actual or potential force dynamic (FD) configuration (Talmy, Leonard. (2000). Toward a cognitive semantics: Concept structuring systems (Vol. 11). MIT Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar). Two main types of configurations emerge. Deliteralization exercises show shifts in the balance of strength between the Subject and Self. Observation exercises draw a contrast between a steady-state FD configuration involving a coerced Agonist and a secondary steady-state FD pattern in which a potentially coercing force was no longer impinging on the Agonist. The results demonstrate how FD and the Divided-Person metaphor systematically combine to construe mental phenomenology and dispositions. The analysis thus sheds light on the conceptual structures underlying therapeutic discourse in ACT.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
    • 1.1Acceptance and commitment therapy
    • 1.2Defusion
    • 1.3The divided-person metaphor
    • 1.4Talmy’s theory of force dynamics
  • 2.Method
  • 3.Results and discussion
  • 4.Conclusions
  • Acknowledgements
  • References
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