This study examines the notion of “conceptual conflict”, defined by Prandi (2017), operating in metaphor origins. The approach is compared to Conceptual Metaphor Theory, defined by Lakoff & Johnson (1980), which proposes mainly physiological models in metaphor creation. The latter approach, according to Prandi’s proposals, take into account conventional models which tend to involve everyday language. Consequently, the creative range of “living metaphors”, defined by Ricoeur (1985), is absent. Furthermore, living metaphors involve a conceptual conflict which is missing in conventional models. The following study will analyse the difference between the two approaches with regard to literary discourse. The findings confirm that conceptual conflict does, in fact, play an important part in creative processes which are associated with links to language structures and extra-linguistic parameters.