From trauma to reappraising life. Psychological crisis experiences and recovery in first-person accounts of life-changing injuries

Vilar Lluch, Sara 2026. From trauma to reappraising life. Psychological crisis experiences and recovery in first-person accounts of life-changing injuries. Leonardis, Irene, ed. Crises We Live By. A transdisciplinary study of crisis and its metaphors in their cultural context, Vol. 20. Cognitive Linguistic Studies in Cultural Contexts, John Benjamins, pp. 68-89. (10.1075/clscc.20.03vil) Item availability restricted.

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Abstract

This chapter considers first-person narratives of life-changing injuries, which may lead to depression and identity crises before individuals can accept their condition. The study focuses on the metaphors used to describe the injury, recovery, and attitude towards life in a dataset of 67 extracts retrieved from healthtalk.org. Metaphor use evidences that traumatic injuries are lived as ontological experiences, including loss, new dispositions on the world, and reappraisals of the self. Contradictory conceptualisations, both across different individuals and within the same individual, reflect individuals’ struggle with ordinary adversities and highlight the complexity of recovery.

Item Type:	Book Section
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Schools > English, Communication and Philosophy
Subjects:	P Language and Literature > P Philology. Linguistics P Language and Literature > PE English
Publisher:	John Benjamins
ISBN:	9789027232199
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	5 February 2026
Last Modified:	06 Feb 2026 09:15
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/184472

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