Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Metaphor in Health Discourse and Communication

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
Palgrave Encyclopedia of the Health Humanities

  • 40 Accesses

Synonyms

Health communication; Health discourse; Medical communication; Mental health discourse; Metaphors of illness

Definition

Conceptual metaphor theory claims that a large part of our thought – in particular concerning abstract concepts and complex situations – is metaphorical. This theory proposes that our unconscious and automatic use of metaphors may reflect or reveal ideas, attitudes, and emotions, and that their deliberate or unwitting use can have a significant effect on communication. In this entry, we review how this theory has been applied to both physical and mental health. This analysis includes patient discourses, communications between patients and professionals, and public health communication.

Introduction

Analysis of the conceptual metaphors found in health-related discourses has proved useful for various purposes, including better understanding of affected persons’ experiences, public health communications that are more efficient and respectful, and improved...

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Alvarez, I., Selva, L., Medina, J. L., & Sáez, S. (2017). Using root metaphors to analyse communication between nurses and patients: A qualitative study. BMC Medical Education, 17, 216.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Arroliga, A. C., Newman, S., Longworth, D. L., & Stoller, J. K. (2002). Metaphorical medicine: Using metaphors to enhance communication with patients who have pulmonary disease. Annals of Internal Medicine, 137(5 part 1), 376–379.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Atanasova, D. (2018). “Keep moving forward. LEFT RIGHT LEFT”: A critical metaphor analysis and addressivity analysis of personal and professional obesity blogs. Discourse, Context and Media, 25, 5–12.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Atanasova, D., & Koteyko, N. (2020). Fighting obesity, sustaining stigma: How can critical metaphor analysis help uncover subtle stigma in media discourse on obesity. In Z. Demjén (Ed.), Applying linguistics in illness and healthcare contexts (pp. 221–241). Bloomsbury Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Barcelona, A. (1986). On the concept of depression in American English: A cognitive approach. Revista canaria de estudios ingleses, 12, 7–34.

    Google Scholar 

  • Boroditsky, L. (2000). Metaphoric structuring: Understanding time through spatial metaphors. Cognition, 75, 1–28.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Boylstein, C., Rittman, M., & Hinojosa, R. (2007). Metaphor shifts in stroke recovery. Health Communication, 21(3), 279–287.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cameron, L., Maslen, R., Todd, Z., Maule, J., Stratton, P., & Stanley, N. (2009). The discourse dynamics approach to metaphor and metaphor-led discourse analysis. Metaphor and Symbol, 24(2), 63–89.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Casarett, D., Pickard, A., Fishman, J. M., Alexander, S. C., Arnold, R. M., Pollak, K. I., & Tulsky, J. A. (2010). Can metaphors and analogies improve communication with seriously ill patients? Journal of Palliative Medicine, 13(3), 255–260.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Castaño, E. (2020). Discourse analysis as a tool for uncovering the lived experience of dementia: Metaphor framing and well-being in early-onset dementia narratives. Discourse & Communication, 14(2), 115–132.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Charteris-Black, J. (2004). Corpus approaches to critical metaphor analysis. Palgrave Macmillan.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Charteris-Black, J. (2012). Shattering the bell jar: Metaphor, gender, and depression. Metaphor and Symbol, 27(3), 199–216.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chiang, W. Y., & Duann, R. F. (2017). Conceptual metaphors for SARS: ‘war’ between whom? Discourse and Society, 18(5), 579–602.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Coll-Florit, M., Miranda, X., & Climent, S. (2019). Metáforas de la esquizofrenia: Un estudio sobre el discurso de afectados y profesionales [Metaphors of schizophrenia. Discourse analysis of sufferers and professionals]. Revista Española de Lingüística Aplicada/Spanish Journal of Applied Linguistics, 32(1), 1–31.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Coll-Florit, M., Climent, S., Sanfilippo, M., & Hernández, E. (2021a). Metaphors of depression. Studying first person accounts of life with depression published in blogs. Metaphor and Symbol, 36(1), 1–19.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Coll-Florit, M., Oliver, A., & Climent, S. (2021b). Metaphors of mental illness: A corpus-based approach analysing first-person accounts of patients and mental health professionals. Culture, Language and Representation, XXV, 85–104.

    Google Scholar 

  • Demjén, Z. (2011). Motion and conflicted self metaphors in Sylvia Plath’s ‘smith journal’. Metaphor and the Social World, 1(1), 7–25.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Demjén, Z., Marszalek, A., Semino, E., & Varese, F. (2019). Metaphor framing and distress in lived-experience accounts of voice-hearing. Psychosis, 11(1), 16–27.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • El Refaie, E. (2019). Visual metaphor and embodiment in graphic illness narratives. Oxford University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Fahlenbrach, K. (2017). Audiovisual metaphors and metonymies of emotions and depression in moving images. In F. Ervás, E. Gola, & M. G. Rossi (Eds.), Metaphor in communication, science and education (pp. 95–117). De Gruyter Mouton.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Ferrara, K. W. (1994). Therapeutic ways with words: Oxford studies in sociolinguistics. Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Figueras, C. (2015). “I am a waste of breath, of space, of time”: Metaphors of self in a pro-anorexia group. Qualitative Health Research, 25(2), 189–204.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Forceville, C., & Paling, S. (2018). The metaphorical representation of DEPRESSION in short, wordless animation films. Visual Communication, 20(1), 100–120.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gibbs, R. (1994). The poetics of mind. Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gibbs, R., & Franks, H. (2002). Embodied metaphor in women narratives about cancer. Health Communication, 14(2), 139–165.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Goering, E. M. (2015). Metaphors as mirrors into what it means to be diabetic. In M. Antón & E. M. Goering (Eds.), Understanding patients’ voices. A multi-method approach to health discourse (pp. 71–86). John Benjamins.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kalandadze, T., et al. (2019). A systematic review and meta-analysis of studies on metaphor comprehension in individuals with autism spectrum disorder: Do task properties matter? Applied PsychoLinguistics, 40(6), 1421–1454.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Knapton, O., & Rundblad, G. (2018). Metaphor, discourse dynamics and register: Applications to written descriptions of mental health problems. Text and Talk, 38(3), 389–410.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kövecses, Z. (2002). Metaphor: A practical introduction. Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lakoff, G. (1993). The contemporary theory of metaphor. In A. Ortony (Ed.), Metaphor and thought (2nd. ed., pp. 202–251). Cambridge University Press.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Lakoff, G., & Johnson, M. (1980). Metaphors we live by. Chicago University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lakoff, G., & Johnson, M. (1999). Philosophy in the flesh. Basic Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lakoff, G., & Turner, M. (1989). More than cool reason: A field guide to poetic metaphor. The University of Chicago Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Landau, M. J., Arndt, J., & Cameron, L. D. (2018). Do metaphors in health messages work? Exploring emotional and cognitive factors. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 74, 135–149.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Levitt, H., Korman, Y., & Angus, L. (2000). A metaphor analysis in treatments of depression: Metaphor as a marker of change. Counselling Psychology Quarterly, 13(1), 23–35.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Macagno, F., & Rossi, M. G. (2019). Metaphors and problematic understanding in chronic care communication. Journal of Pragmatics, 151, 103–117.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McMullen, L. M. (2008). Putting it in context: Metaphor and psychotherapy. In R. W. Gibbs (Ed.), The Cambridge handbook of metaphor and thought (pp. 397–411). Cambridge University Press.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • McMullen, L. M., & Conway, J. B. (2002). Conventional metaphors for depression. In S. R. Fussell (Ed.), The verbal communication of emotions (pp. 167–181). Erlbaum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mould, T. J., Oades, L. G., & Crowe, T. P. (2010). The use of metaphor for understanding and managing psychotic experiences: A systematic review. Journal of Mental Health, 19(3), 282–293.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mussolf, A. (2012). The study of metaphor as part of critical discourse analysis. Critical Discourse Studies, 9(3), 301–310.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Reali, F., Soriano, T., & Rodríguez, D. (2016). How we think about depression: The role of linguistic framing. Revista Latinoamericana de Psicología, 48(2), 127–136.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rossetti, I., Brambilla, P., & Papagno, C. (2018). Metaphor comprehension in schizophrenic patients. Frontiers in Psychology, 9, 670.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schoeneman, T. J., Schoeneman, K. A., & Stallings, S. (2004). “The black struggle”: Metaphors of depression in Styron’s darkness visible. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 23(3), 325–346.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Semino, E. (2008). Metaphor in discourse. Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Semino, E., Demjén, Z., & Demmen, J. (2018a). An integrated approach to metaphor and framing in cognition, discourse, and practice, with an application to metaphors for cancer. Applied Linguistics, 39(5), 625–645.

    Google Scholar 

  • Semino, E., Demjen, Z., Hardie, A., Payne, S. A., & Rayson, P. E. (2018b). Metaphor, cancer and the end of life: A corpus-based study. Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sontag, S. (1978). Illness as metaphor. Allen Lane.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sontag, S. (1989). AIDS and its metaphors. Penguin.

    Google Scholar 

  • Talley, J. (2011). Metaphor, narrative and the promotion of public health. Genre: forms of Discourse and Culture, 44(3), 405–423.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tay, D. (2016). Using metaphor in healthcare: Mental health. In Z. Demjén & E. Semino (Eds.), The Routledge handbook of metaphor and language (pp. 371–385). Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Thibodeau, P. H., & Boroditsky, L. (2011). Metaphors we think with: the role of metaphor in reasoning. PLoS ONE, 6(2), e16782.

    Google Scholar 

  • Youngson, A., Cole, F., Wilby, H., & Cox, D. (2015). The lived experience of diabetes: Conceptualisation using a metaphor. The British Journal of Occupational Therapy, 78(1), 24–32.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Arts and Humanities, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain

    Salvador Climent & Marta Coll-Florit

Authors
  1. Salvador Climent
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Marta Coll-Florit
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Salvador Climent or Marta Coll-Florit .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Health Sciences, The University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK

    Paul Crawford

  2. Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh, UK

    Paul Kadetz

Section Editor information

  1. Graduate School of Nursing Science, St. Luke's International University, Tokyo, Japan

    Jeffrey Huffman

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2023 The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this entry

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this entry

Climent, S., Coll-Florit, M. (2023). Metaphor in Health Discourse and Communication. In: Crawford, P., Kadetz, P. (eds) Palgrave Encyclopedia of the Health Humanities. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-26825-1_16-1

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-26825-1_16-1

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-26825-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-26825-1

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Literature, Cultural and Media StudiesReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Humanities

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation