Al'perovich V.D. Metaphors of Enemy and Friend in Connection with Personal Metaphors about the Subject of Personal Life Path

Abstract: The pilot empirical research in this article is about the relationship between the metaphors of Enemy and Friend and metaphors about the subject of life path at the stages of emerging and middle adulthood. Cognitive predictors of the 'discrimination' and 'hate speech' phenomena presented in personal representations of Enemy, its metaphorical and narrative bases are our research problem. Pilot research goal was to determine features of the metaphors of Enemy and Friend demonstrated by persons with different metaphors about the subject of the life path. Metaphors of Enemy and Friend and metaphors about the subject of the life path at the stages of emerging and middle adulthood  were the pilot research subject. The author has applied the qualitative method (category analysis of metaphors used by A. Bochaver in 2010). The results of the study prove that: within the framework of this research, adults have had different metaphors about the subject of life path. The researcher has discovered that different metaphors represent different attitude of a person to his subjective role in life and ability to make his own life. For the first time in the academic literature the researcher discovers that metaphors demonstrated by people who firmly believe that they make their own life relate to polar attitudes to Enemy and Friend, intensified positive features of the image of Friend and reinforced negative features of the image of Enemy. Metaphors with less prominant borders between the subject and his social surroundings relate to ambivalent images of Enemy and Friend and attribution of both positive and negative features to Friend or Enemy. The results of the research support the hypothesis that people with different metaphors about the subject of personal life path have different metaphors of Enemy and Friend. The results of the pilot research can be applied to solving problems in psychology of conflicts, psychology of personal safety and psychology of antiterroristic activity.

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