A MULTIPLE CASE STUDY of the LEAKY CONDO CRISIS by Martin
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A METAPHOR FOR DISASTER: A MULTIPLE CASE STUDY OF THE LEAKY CONDO CRISIS by Martin Robert Hayter B.A., University of Victoria, 1984 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES Department of Counselling Psychology We accept this thesis as conforming to the required standard: THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA September, 2000 © Martin Robert Hayter, 2000 In presenting this thesis in partial fulfilment of the requirements for an advanced degree at the University of British Columbia, I agree that the Library shall make it freely available for reference and study. I further agree that permission for extensive copying of this thesis for scholarly purposes may be granted by the head of my department or by his or her representatives. It is understood that copying or publication of this thesis for financial gain shall not be allowed without my written permission. Department The University of British Columbia Vancouver, Canada DE-6 (2/88) A Metaphor for Disaster ii ABSTRACT This study investigated the effects of a process of metaphor creation on the meaningful understanding of a significant past experience - that of owning and living in a condominium that had been damaged because of excessive rain and poor building practises and/or materials. This natural disaster has affected the Lower Mainland of British Columbia predominantly, and the media have called it "The Leaky Condo Crisis." Theory states that metaphors can be helpful in changing how people feel toward, think about, and deal with their experiences. In this way metaphors can help people toward a more meaningful understanding of those experiences. In order to explore these ideas, a structured intervention was developed and called the MetaForm. It involves the creation of metaphors for an experience in order to explore the similarities and differences between the metaphor and the experience to derive meaning from or add meaning to the experience. To this end, each of four co-researchers was interviewed twice. The Intervention Interview introduced the MetaForm. The participants related their condominium stories, then they created metaphors for various parts of those stories. These parts were named after the elements of drama: setting, mood, props, cast, plot and theme. When a co- researcher suggested a metaphor, it was elaborated into a full story or drama by that co- researcher and myself. The Inquiry Interview explored the MetaForm for evidence of meaningful understanding. Participants reported that the MetaForm intervention helped them, to varying degrees and in different ways, to develop a more meaningful understanding of their experiences of owning and living in water-damaged condominiums. A Metaphor for Disaster iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract ii Table of Contents iii Acknowledgements iv Chapter 1: Introduction 1 Chapter 2: Literature Review 5 Chapter 3: Methodology 20 Chapter 4: Case Studies and Analyses 26 Sherry's Case 27 Metaphor 1: The Land of Milk and Honey 30 Metaphor 2: The Boyfriend in Africa 34 Metaphor 3: Sleeping Beauty 38 Cross-Metaphor Analysis 44 Rita's Case 54 Metaphor 1: The War 57 Metaphor 2: The Refugee 63 Metaphor 3: Husband's Death 68 Cross-Metaphor Analysis 73 Donald's Case 83 Metaphor 1: The Titanic 87 Metaphor 2: The Rugby Game 91 Metaphor 3: The Third Man 100 Cross-Metaphor Analysis 107 Nathan's Case 116 Metaphor 1: Upstart Politicians 122 Metaphor 2: Death Row Prisoner 126 Metaphor 3: Leaving Uganda 132 Cross-Metaphor Analysis 142 Chapter 5: Cross-Case Analysis 152 Content Analysis and Implications for Theory 152 Process Analysis and Implications for Practise 169 Limitations and Suggestions for Further Research 173 References 177 Appendices 182 Appendix A - Advertisement 182 Appendix B - Participant Consent Form 183 Appendix C - Questions to Guide Reflections 185 Appendix D - Member Check Letter 186 Appendix E - Participants' Possible Metaphors 187 Appendix F - Metaphor Chart 189 A Metaphor for Disaster iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS CO-RESEARCHERS - I would like, first of all, to thank you very much for your participation in this study. Through your metaphors, you trusted me with much more of your life stories than just your condominium experiences. I dedicate this study to you. DR. LARRY COCHRAN -1 would like to thank you for the suggestion that I look at the leaky condo crisis for this study, for your support in developing my proposal, and for your work in the area of narrative that partly inspired this research. DR. MARVIN WESTWOOD -1 would like to thank you for your personal support throughout my degree, again on this thesis, and for allowing me the privilege of working on projects with you. DR. NORM AMUNDSON -1 would like to thank you for your interest in my ideas, your supervision of this thesis, your valuable ideas on metaphor, and your support and advice. DR. CARL LEGGO -1 would like to thank you for serving on my thesis committee and for your enthusiastic support of my ideas. JANET BEDDOES - Thank you for your thoughtful work as the Independent Judge of the case study results and the time you put into it. As a final note, I will mention some authors who deserve credit for partially inspiring the idea of the MetaForm intervention through their books. Campbell's The Hero with a Thousand Faces, Feinstein and Krippner's Personal Mythology, and Lakoff and Johnson's Metaphors We Live By. A Metaphor for Disaster 1 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION Metaphors have been considered important aesthetic devices in literature since the time of Aristotle. They have been used to structure and create meaning in domains of knowledge in the arts and sciences. Among others, Lakoff and Johnson (1980) assert that they are foundational to all cultures. Metaphors are becoming increasingly important in the realm of counselling psychology where 'life as story' has become a dominant metaphor in theory and practice. Many of the metaphors used by English authors over the centuries are direct references to Greco-Roman mythology. These metaphors can give us the impression that there is another story, perhaps a hidden or unconscious story, running parallel and alluding to the literal story. This metaphorical story is separate yet often thematically connected to the literal story the authors are telling. There is the conscious literal world and the unconscious metaphorical world, as Lacan conceptualised metaphor. He believed that the unconscious was structured like a language (Joel, 1997). Jung (1978) asserted that we all live according to dominant unconscious archetypes, inherited patterns, forms and images we bring to what we experience and use to deal with that experience. In turn, archetypes have been described as "metaphorical prototypes" (Mills & Crowley, 1986, cited in Muran & DiGiuseppe, 1990). Myths can be viewed as metaphors for our lived experience as many scholars, including those in the field of psychology, have noted (e.g. Campbell, 1993). They can act as a form of bibliotherapy in that they can enhance meaning and suggest alternative ways of thinking, feeling and behaving for people today, as they did for people in the A Metaphor for Disaster 2 past. Related to this, Feinstein and Krippner (1988) suggested ways we could change the myths we live by and find other more appropriate ones. Lakoff and Johnson (1980) detailed a theory of conceptual metaphors. They asserted that we live under the constraints of the unconscious cultural metaphors that inform our schemas or networks of associated ideas. "In therapy.. .much of self- understanding involves consciously recognising previously unconscious metaphors and how we live by them" (p.233). A connection clearly exists between mythic patterns, archetypes and schemas: all these concepts assume psychological structures that bring order and meaning to our experience, set up cultural parameters to our range of choices, and essentially guide how we live. If meaning, the structural patterns that help us make sense of our experience, is somehow compromised by our experiences, we naturally try to put meaning back into our lives any way we can. Just such a problem with meaning can result from experiencing a natural disaster, and metaphors can help guide us in reorganising or re-patterning our understanding of experiences like disasters to restore a sense of meaningfulness to them. To this end, I created and explored an intervention that developed and extended metaphors which my co-researchers or study participants used in talking about a significant past experience, so they could enhance, discover and/or create new or different meanings for that experience. I thought the metaphors might help them to think and feel differently about their experiences now and perhaps act differently if faced with a similar experience in the future. This would in essence help them to change dysfunctional myths around their experience to more functional and meaningful ones. A Metaphor for Disaster 3 The metaphor that suggested itself as a conceptualisation for the intervention was "experience as story". This conceptualisation would include the structural components of setting, character, mood, plot, and theme, but it would not include things like tools, machines and other devices or materials that might be essential to the story. An equally obvious metaphor suggested itself, "experience as drama". This would allow the idea of "props", which includes tools, etc. Using this metaphor I developed the MetaForm, an intervention that mapped out experience in terms of its dramatic elements, sought out metaphors for a given element, then applied that metaphor by analogy to other elements of the drama. In this way a metaphorical drama or story was elaborated. I invited owners of water-damaged condos to be co-researchers or participants in my study because it is well known that disaster victims can experience a sense of meaninglessness and/or a loss of meaning as a result of their experiences.