ABSTRACT
The metaphors or “image schemas” or “cognitive models” occupy a special place among codes and canons. The metaphors and schemas grow from bodily realities, but they are, ultimately, canons. In the idea that a signifier is full of meaning or an empty form, Barthes is adapting the conduit metaphor into a full-fledged theory of language. The metaphors combine and interact to create still other metaphors. Sometimes a group of such metaphors are subsets of one larger, less articulated metaphor. From the attitudes the metaphors express proceed some of the most useful assumptions of psychological research. Psychologists accept the limitations in hopes of creating a “scientific” psychology, and today’s psychologist has indeed achieved remarkable rigor.
