definitions

Johnson: (1987 xiv) An image schema is a recurring, dynamic pattern of our perceptual interactions and motor 
programs that gives coherence and structure to our experience.
Johnson: "structure indefinitely many perceptions, images, and events"
Johnson: (1987) emerge as meaningful structures for us chieﬂy at the level of our bodily movements through space, our manipulations of objects, and our perceptual interaction

Lakoff and Turner, 1989: 97 thus when we understand a scene, we naturally structure it in terms of such elementary image-schemas"
Lakoff and Turner, 1980, Ch 9, 15-17 : image schema allow metaphors to cohere and be structured. 
Metaphors may cohere if their source domains are special cases of a more general one. 
specialized forms of  Metaphor/LIFE AS CYCLE

Life is a frequent target domain of metaphors. According to the relevant literature, 24 possible metaphorical source domains of life can be found (e.g.

specialized forms of Metaphor/LIFE AS WAXING AND WANING CYCLE OF HEAT AND LIGHT

Oakley: (2006)...a condensed re-description of perceptual experience for the purpose of mapping spatial structure onto conceptual structure.

Hampe [2005], is that image schemas are “...directly meaningful (“experiential”/“embodied”), pre-conceptual structures, which arise from or are grounded in human recurrent bodily movements through space, perceptual interactions and ways of manipulating objects”. Further, she points out that it follows that they are highly schematic  Image_Schema/Gestalts that capture the structural contours of sensory-motor experience, integrating information from multiple modalities and exist as continuous and analogue patterns beneath conscious awareness, prior to and independently of other concepts; and are both internally structured and highly ﬂexible.
Image schemas are integrally tied to perception and motor function, but serve as the bridge to higher-level cognition.

Michael Sinding Image schemas are simple, skeletal spatial relations concepts with a small number of parts and relations

Problems

Definitions don't provide individuation criteria

Structure Problem : difficult to identify what constructs qualify to be defined by an image schema as similar structures are under the same image schema
Categorisation Problem : difficult to determine which image schema a particular construct belongs to.
Bennett and Cialone eight kinds of static Image_Schema/Containment not including Image_Schema/In and Image_Schema/Out

Image_Schema/Static Image Schema Categories

In general, Image_Schema/Static Image Schemas ( Image_Schema/Static) fall into one of these categories: Image_Schema/Orientational, Image_Schema/Topological, and Image_Schema/Forcedynamic.

Image_Schema/Orientational

it specifies an orientation in space relative to the gravitational pull one feels on one’s body. Usually a human orientation

Image_Schema/Topological

there are a number of topological schemas :

a Image_Schema/Topological schema of Image_Schema/Contact indicates an absence of a gap.

Image_Schema/Forcedynamic

there are several schemas that are forcedynamic in nature; it indicates the direction and nature of a  Image_Schema/Force

in the Image_Schema/Support Image_Schema/support Force Image_Schema/Balance to allow the Image_Schema/Supportee to stay on the Image_Schema/Surface of the Image_Schema/Supporter.

Image_Schema/Dynamic Image Schema Categories

shaped by culture and context (Hampe et al. 2005)

from Gibbs and Steen (1999) and Hampe (2005)

Image_Schema/Concrete Concept  Image_Schema/Abstract Concept  Image_Schema/Image Schema  Image_Schema/Metaphor  Image_Schema/Event  Image_Schema/Word  Image_Schema/Story

from Michael Sinding 2011 pp 239-257

from Don Freeman (1999) Image_Schema/Dynamic Image Schema amalgam of Image_Schema/Container and Image_Schema/Links and Image_Schema/Path provide a three stage progression in Antony and Cleopatra over figurative language imagery, plot, stage, offstage, business, and character.