Using Analogies as Provocative Devices

Choosing an analogy

It might be thought that the method would only be of use if a particularly apt analogy were chosen. This is not so. The analogy does not have to fit all along. Sometimes it is better when it does not fit for then there is an effort to relate it to the problem and from this effort can arise new ways of looking at the problem. The analogy is a provocative device which is used to force a new way of looking at the situation.

In general the analogies should deal with very concrete situations and very familiar ones. There should be a lot going on. And what is going on must be definite. The analogy does not have to be rich in processes or functions or relationships for these can be generated out of any sort of analogy by the way it is looked at.

The analogy does not even have to be a real life situation. It can be a story provided the development of that story is definite.

As an analogy for the problem of vertical thinking one might use the story of how monkeys are supposedly caught by burying a narrow mouthed jar of nuts in the ground. A monkey comes along, puts his paw into the jar and grabs a handful of nuts. But the mouth of the jar is of such a size that it will only admit an empty paw but not a clenched paw full of nuts. The monkey is unwilling to let go of the nuts and so he is trapped.

With vertical thinking one grasps the obvious way of looking at a situation because it has proved useful in the past. Once one has grasped it one is trapped because one is very reluctant to let go. What should the monkey do? Should he refuse to explore the jar? This would be a refusal to explore new situations. Should he deny that the nuts were attractive? It would be silly to deny the usefulness of something for fear of being harmed by it on some occasion. Would it be better if the monkey had not noticed the jar? To be protected by chance is a very poor form of protection. Presumably the best thing would be for the monkey to see the nuts, perhaps even grab them, then to realize that the nuts were trapping it, to let go of them, and to find another way of getting at the nuts — perhaps by digging up the jar and emptying it out. So the major danger in vertical thinking is not that of being trapped by the obvious but of failing to realize that one may be trapped by the obvious. It is not a matter of avoiding vertical thinking but of using it and at the same time being aware that it might be necessary to escape from a particular way of looking at a situation.