The Art of Medicine in Metaphor - a Collection of Poems and Narratives


Book Description

Poetry and stories about illness address more than just the symptoms of disease. Narratives and poems are the pathways for people to make sense of and discover meaning in life's difficult events. This anthology connects the world of medicine with patients' experience. The lyrical power of patients' voices and the metaphors they use offer insight, empathy, and compassion into the heart of the medical conversation.




Thinking with Metaphors in Medicine


Book Description

While medical language is soaked in metaphor, medicine – that is, medical culture, clinical practice, and medical education – outwardly rejects metaphor for objective, literal scientific language. Arguing that this is a misstep, this book critically considers what embracing the use of metaphors, similes and aphorisms might mean for shaping medical culture, and especially the doctor-patient relationship, in a healthy way. It demonstrates how the landscape of medicine may be reshaped through metaphor shift and is an important work for all those interested in the use of language in medicine.




Metaphors in medical texts


Book Description

This book claims that metaphors must be seen as indispensable cognitive and communicative instruments in medical science. Analysis of texts taken from recently published medical handbooks reveals what kind of metaphors are used to structure certain medical concepts and what the functions are of the metaphorical expressions in the texts. Special attention is drawn to the idea that scientific facts do not originate from passive observation of reality. Imaginative thinking and the use of metaphors are required to make the unknown accessible to us. Yet, although metaphors are often a sine qua non for the genesis of a scientific fact, they may also inhibit the development of alternative views. This is due to the fact that metaphors always highlight certain aspects of a phenomenon while other aspects remain obscured. Analysis of the metaphors used in medical texts may reveal exactly which aspects are highlighted and which remain hidden and may thus help to find alternative metaphors (and possibly therapies) when current metaphors are no longer adequate. This book should be of interest not only to linguists, translators and researchers working in the field of intercultural communication, but also to doctors and medical scientists, and those interested in the philosophy of science.




Rainbow Inspirations in Art


Book Description

Rainbow Inspirations in Art, written collectively by a group of four expert researchers, focuses on a most intriguing subject: the function of color metaphors in the arts. This book includes conclusive discussions with regards to color metaphors in three domains: poetry, visual art and music. Conclusions are based on theoretical and empirical inquiry in the respective disciplines. Innovative areas of research are included in the book, such as the function of color in children's poetry and color-hearing metaphors (chromaesthesia) among listeners who encounter classical music. This book consists of a prologue, seven chapters, and an epilogue. The prologue explains color metaphor as a cross-disciplinary phenomenon. The chapters are divided into two broad sections: Section A (Chapters One through Four) contains four theoretical studies; Section B (Chapters Five through Seven) presents three empirical studies. The epilogue offers a novel viewpoint of counter-color metaphors (abbreviated CoCoM). Color metaphors are laden with symbolism, signs and cultural connotations that artists use in imaginative ways. In this book, the authors explore color metaphors as they contribute to our understanding of the arts. This book includes a comprehensive, updated literature review, which provides background information and new insights into the meaning of color metaphors in the arts. Academic readers and researchers may find valuable information in this book through the study of color metaphors, bridging the arts.




Illness as Metaphor


Book Description

"In this penetrating analysis of the social attitudes toward various major illnesses - chiefly tuberculosis, the scourge of the 19th century, and cancer, the terror of our own - Susan Sontag demonstrates that "illness is not a metaphor" and shows why "the healthiest way of being ill is one purified of metaphoric thinking." Once tuberculosis was identified as a bacterial infection, it ceased to be a symbol of a romantic fading away or of a sensitive or artistic temperament, and it could be treated and cured. Similarly, we must today cease to think of cancer as a mark of doom, a punishment or a sign of a repressed personality, and recognize it for what it is: one disease among many and often receptive to treatment." -- from back cover.







Metaphors of Mental Illness in Graphic Medicine


Book Description

"This book investigates how graphic medicine enables sufferers of mental illness to visualize the intricacies of their internal mindscape through visual metaphors and reclaim their voice amidst stereotyped and prejudiced assumptions of mental illness as a disease of deviance and violence"--




Metaphor and Meaning in Psychotherapy


Book Description

When therapists hear patients talk of feeling "imprisoned," "burning with rage," "trapped," or "unequipped," they are witnessing manifestations of the symbolic attitude, the hallmark of all depth psychology. Most clinicians naturally respond to and use metaphors, but they often fail to understand the full potential of metaphoric images. This volume, in addressing the transforming power of metaphor, demonstrates how clinicians can deepen the therapeutic encounter.




Body Criticism


Book Description

In this erudite and profusely illustrated history of perception, Barbara Stafford explores a remarkable set of body metaphors deriving from both aesthetic and medical practices that were developed during the enlightenment for making visible the unseeable aspects of the world. While she focuses on these metaphors as a reflection of the changing attitudes toward the human body during the period of birth of the modern world, she also presents a strong argument for our need to recognize the occurrence of a profound revolution—a radical shift from a textbased to a visually centered culture. Stafford agues, in fact, that modern societies need to develop innovative, nonlinguistic paradigms and to train a broad public in visual aptitude.