Though advocated by clinicians as a means of bypassing defensive structures, there has been no empirical investigation of the efficacy of metaphoric language (ML) as a means of eliciting unconscious affect. This study sought to validate the utility of ML as a mode for eliciting emotion related to a specific evocative event. It was hypothesized that the elicited emotion would manifest in the verbalization of affect. Pilot studies were conducted to develop an emotionally evocative video stimulus and a protocol of metaphoric language relevant to its affective themes. The sample consisted of 41 female undergraduates. An experimental method was employed within a setting analogous to a psychotherapeutic dyad. Subjects were exposed to the video stimulus after which their subjective emotional arousal was measured using a self report instrument (The Emotional Assessment Scale). The researcher then interacted with the subject using the developed protocol of metaphors, inquiry, and clarification (experimental group) or through inquiry and clarification alone (control group). A post interaction measure of subjective emotional arousal was taken. Verbal data was gathered on audio cassettes which were transcribed, coded, and computer processed to yield scores for the Gottschalk-Gleser affect scales. Statistical analyses revealed that ML significantly decreased the verbalization of affect. Additional analyses found that ML significantly increased the subjective arousal of emotions related to the themes of the stimulus. The results indicate that ML simultaneously inhibits the verbalization of affect while increasing the subjective sense of emotional arousal. The clinical and theoretical implications of these findings as well as the inverse relationship between these variables are discussed.