Full Idea
Once we can identify our experiences as entities or substances, we can refer to them, categorize them, group them, and quantify them - and, by this means, reason about them.
Gist of Idea
Seeing experiences as entities facilitates reference, categorising, quantifying and reasoning
Source
G Lakoff / M Johnson (Metaphors We Live By [1980], 06)
A Reaction
I've finally found authors who endorse this important point. However, they see objectification as an aspect of much wider metaphorical thought, where I prefer to see it in terms of a specific 'philosophical' faculty. Inflation is their example.
Book Reference
Lakoff,G/Johnson,M: 'Metaphors We Live By' [Chicago 2003], p.25