Dhruv Khullar’s “The Trouble with Medicine’s Metaphors” is about how metaphors relating to diseases and illnesses can be construed in different ways, either positively or negatively. The words and metaphors that we choose to use to describe these diseases and illnesses can be extremely powerful in influencing how the person stricken with the disease or illness reacts toward their ailment. When patients look at their illness by using a certain metaphor, like an “enemy” for an example, they tend to have a negative look at their illness. However, patients that look at the metaphor with a more positive connotation tend to have a more positive vibe. Almost any metaphor can be used to describe an illness, but military metaphors are the most common. Although they are commonly used in the medical community, metaphors can be good and bad.
I believe that Khullar has the notion that metaphors can have both positive and negative effects for a patient on the receiving end of a metaphor that was created to attempt to create hope and give the patient a sense of fighting. A metaphor that is given to try to create this feeling can be extremely powerful, and with something this powerful, someone must be strong enough to say this and mean it. Think about a doctor talking to you in his office, if he or she told you something you will be bound to believe what they say because they are a doctor and they have the power to say so. This specific kind of metaphor is very important and I believe only someone who understands what it means should have the power to speak something that powerful. I have this belief because a metaphor that holds that much power and meaning can completely change how someone feels about themselves or the future.
A quote from “The Trouble With Medicine’s Metaphors”, by Dhruv Khullar, that I like is, “Metaphors are a fundamental mechanism through which our minds conceptualize the world around us, especially in the face of complexity. But evidence suggests they do more that explain similarities, they can invent them where they don’t exist, and blur the lines between the literal and figurative”. I like quote because I just think it is a very good definition of what a metaphor really is and how it can influence and person’s understanding of a certain concept. A quote from “See through Words”, by Michael Erard, that I like is, “My metaphors close the gap in people’s ability to grasp something, or speed up what they’re already on track to see”. I like this because it is just another way of explaining what a metaphor is and how powerful it can be. A quote from “Metaphorically Speaking”, by James Geary, that stuck out to me is, “Metaphor shakes things up, giving us everything from Shakespeare to scientific discovery in the process. The mind is a plastic snow dome, the most beautiful, most interesting, and most itself, when, as Elvis put it, it’s all shook up. And metaphor keeps the mind shaking, rattling and rolling, long after Elvis has left the building”. These few sentences stuck out to me because, like in the other two essays, this gives a definition of what a metaphor is and the effect it can have on people. All three authors have three slightly different trains of thought and different backgrounds when it comes to metaphors, but they can all agree on one thing, that metaphor can control everything and that metaphor is everywhere.
One thought on “Blog 3”
Fantastic work! Your summary is off to a great start, and it’s a pleasure to read your evolving ideas/opinions.
You write: All three authors have three slightly different trains of thought and different backgrounds when it comes to metaphors, but they can all agree on one thing, that metaphor can control everything and that metaphor is everywhere.
I encourage you to explore other verbs to replace the “control” above. Revisit Geary and Erard. What do they have to say about what metaphor can actually DO?
Fantastic work! Your summary is off to a great start, and it’s a pleasure to read your evolving ideas/opinions.
You write: All three authors have three slightly different trains of thought and different backgrounds when it comes to metaphors, but they can all agree on one thing, that metaphor can control everything and that metaphor is everywhere.
I encourage you to explore other verbs to replace the “control” above. Revisit Geary and Erard. What do they have to say about what metaphor can actually DO?
Keep up the good work!