Do most of you talk in metaphors? | Page 2 | INFJ Forum

Do most of you talk in metaphors?

I use metaphor a great deal. I'm only sometimes aware I'm doing it. When I'm struggling to communicate what I'm thinking or experiencing, sometimes metaphor seems the only language that will suffice.

I have noticed on occasion, though, that when I finally land on language sufficient to express some difficult thought and it paints the language picture as I imagined it, the person I've communicated with is blank and confused. I then realize I have to revisit and re-frame in some more trite way that feels insufficient. However, it is often after doing this that I see their light bulb of understanding go off.

Once an acquaintance told to me they believed in a type of intelligence described as metaphorical intelligence. It involved an intuitive seeing and understanding expressed in a Shakespearean way. I valued their vision.
 
I speak in cryptanalytic paradoxical broken reality.
Then throw out the occasional metaphor just to flex my poetess.
 
i agree

I love metaphors, they help me communicate things I would otherwise struggle with.


i agree. if i'm telling my friend a story about something that happened to me in band, and she doesn't seem to understand why it's so important (cause she's not in band) i apply it to something in her life then she understands.
 
I'm always just trying to sound smart. Duhhhh!

I think it works too. Ever since Black Swan mentioned that you and I think so much alike that if one of us posts, the other needn't bother, I have come to realize how smart you really are and how smart Black Swan - because we all know that any and every Black Swan actually really is intelligence personified - must be. Therefore, it is simple logic to think that if someone as deeply and insightfully erudite and indominantly articulate as Black Swan recognizes our combined and utterly awsome awesomenacity (yes is WAS quite necessary to make up a work just to be able to describe our combined Brilliance, although of course we are painfully aware that it cannot be described by mere words on a poor computer monitor), that you must be almost as smart as I. *runs away quickly into the shadows of the night - ducking* - what? I told you I was smart.. OUCH! That,,, ouch! You are really a lot tougher than you look... :shocked:
 
I think it works too. Ever since Black Swan mentioned that you and I think so much alike that if one of us posts, the other needn't bother, I have come to realize how smart you really are and how smart Black Swan - because we all know that any and every Black Swan actually really is intelligence personified - must be. Therefore, it is simple logic to think that if someone as deeply and insightfully erudite and indominantly articulate as Black Swan recognizes our combined and utterly awsome awesomenacity (yes is WAS quite necessary to make up a work just to be able to describe our combined Brilliance, although of course we are painfully aware that it cannot be described by mere words on a poor computer monitor), that you must be almost as smart as I. *runs away quickly into the shadows of the night - ducking* - what? I told you I was smart.. OUCH! That,,, ouch! You are really a lot tougher than you look... :shocked:

Heh. Yeah I got a kick out that when Black Swan said it. We are awesome-city.
And for saying that you are smarter than I, I won't beat you. I'll just hug the heck out of you. Heck. hee hee.
 
I definitely use metaphorical language a lot and tend to think in pictures and symbols.
 
when im with my INFJ friend we only communicate in metaphores
it is sooo funny- usualy we end up crying laughing at each other language
 
I love metaphors, they help me communicate things I would otherwise struggle with.

Me too, metaphors are a fun way of expressing a whole message without a lot of talk. That's the creative side of us at work.
 
Does a tree talk to wind with it's branches and leaves?
 
Yeah, I talk in metaphores. I can't help it.
 
I value clear communication and will adapt somewhat to the person to whom I am talking. I personally enjoy using metaphor because it can be a more focused way of getting a point across. This is especially true if the other person would not be able to relate to my experience. I find a metaphor, a symbol, that is already part of both people's experience. It can serve as a connecting link and an external point of reference. I also write poetry and love all the creative arts which are by their nature often metaphorical. Metaphor and symbol can make it more possible to communicate a personal, subjective experience.
 
or is it just a stereotype? I, myself, am more inclined to talk in more of a concrete manner.

I'm rather verbose and articulate by nature. My mind is always zooming along a couple hundred miles per minute, and I usually say what and how it comes to mind. I don't sit down and purposely contrive some way to express myself; if it comes out as a metaphor, it comes out as a metaphor because that's the way I've thought about it. I don't discriminate by who I'm talking to either. Generally, I like to think of the general population as literate and intelligent enough to piece together and understand what I'm saying, even if they don't speak or express themselves the same way I do. I don't think I'm using very many expressions or images that are unclear or obscure.
 
Yes I do and it drives even ME nuts.! And also, when explaining or answering someone, I dont finish one whole thought (often, not always) before I add another, that although connected to the whole, still must be confusing as hell to the listener!
 
One of the last times I was on the phone with a friend... he just wasn't getting the point of what I was trying to communicate. I resorted to using metaphors... too many metaphors.. I think after the 3rd one he started getting pissed.