When you’re at the doctors, do you understand what he’s telling you about your diagnosis? It’s most likely because they use metaphors in about two thirds of their conversations with their patients. When it comes to health, I want to know and understand what’s going on. Doctors use metaphors to explain more complex things to their patients. Metaphors help us in everyday life with understanding more complex things, and giving us a new perspective. Micheal Errard first made the connection that metaphors can help give a better understanding and that people have only been looking at only one side. He used the example of a US philosopher, Donald Schon, who was trying to develop a new paint brush and used the metaphor, “A paint brush is a kind of pump”, (Errard, 2).  Dhruv Khullar made the connection from medicine and serious illnesses to the use of military language in the hospital. He explains that many refer to themselves as a fighter and the patients really choose for themselves if they think it’s a battle they’re winning or making them think it’s an endless war. The idea that metaphors can play a role in mental and physical health is something that should be discussed and explored.

“One study, from 2010, found that physicians use metaphors in almost two-thirds of their conversations with patients who have serious illnesses. Physicians who used more metaphors were seen as better communicators. Patients reported less trouble understanding them, and felt as though their doctor made sure they understood their conditions,” (Khullar, 2).

I support this quote, due to the fact that what it’s saying is true. There have been quite a few times where doctors have used metaphors or analogies to help me understand my condition. It is important as a patient to understand what you are being treated for and what the medication that you are being given does. You wouldn’t bring your car to the shop to be fixed and pay for it without knowing what you’re paying them to do. The metaphors that doctors use are helpful and necessary, especially when dealing with patients with serious illnesses.

“I’ve long wondered whether that word -fighter – and the other military language used to help her conceptualize her disease did more harm than good,” (Khullar, 1).

I know a lot of people who, when dealing with a serious condition or disease, have used military terms to help them either come to terms with how it will end, or help them pull through just fine. When using military terms with diagnosis’s, it is truly up to the patient how they perceive it. They can think of their journey as a fight or a battle, rather than an enemy that must be defeated.

“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 than explain similarities- they can invent them where they don’t exist, and blur the lines between the literal and the figurative,” (Khullar, 2).

Sometimes blurring the lines is needed when discussing a persons mental or physical health. Metaphors are there to help expand and broaden a persons mental capabilities when discussing issues involving mental health. I feel that blurring the lines for someone with anxiety or depression would be beneficial so that they can look at their decisions and issues from other angles.

“They’re meant to make someone realize that they’ve only been looking at one side of a thing,” (Erard, 2).

I feel that this quote shows the other ways that metaphors can contribute to mental health. When someone’s struggling with anxiety or depression they only see one side of things. They get stuck on minute details, and never look at the big picture. Using metaphors can help some to see either the big picture or another way to look at whatever is bothering them.

“But whenever we give a thing a name that belongs to something else, we give it a whole network of analogies too…. And metaphor gives us a much more vivid understanding of Juliet than if Shakespeare had literally described what she looks like,” (Geary, 2).

When I read this quote, I knew what it meant. It gave me that distinct understanding that, hopefully, can be passed on into my paper. When it says that there is a whole network of analogies, it means that it can help people make their own understanding of the metaphor. For mental health, it can help people understand their own meanings of things. It can help people with social disabilities understand what people mean when they talk to them in a figurative way, or a metaphorical way.

When reading the article for a second time, I found that my views didn’t change. I still looked at the windows and doors to be thought of as a perspective change. I still feel that metaphors are meant to help people learn and understand. I can’t help but wonder if the changes that one could witness with the same text comes from the way it is presented. For example, the TED Talk that I wrote about for blog one. After listening and reading it, I got two different things out of it. compared to this assignment, I only noticed certain things, and nothing new the second time I read it. I still believe with what I wrote about. The emotions that metaphors spark are quite powerful, and the use of metaphors for better understanding is quite noticeable throughout the piece.

When reading this piece I noticed that the word apt was being used a lot. Apt means appropriate or suitable in the circumstances. This helped me understand the part of the article where he talks about how people interpret metaphors differently, and that when there is a comparison between two different things it helps direct the understanding of the metaphor to what the writer wants them to see.

When the article started talking about the battle among scholars about whether a “metaphor as category” or “metaphor as mapping”, I ran across ‘inconsequential‘. The article goes into explanation on how the argument is trying to figure out which way to go for metaphorical invention. The argument was then described as inconsequential, which means unimportant or insignificant. this helped me understand if the argument was an intellectual one or one for just bickering sake. The article points out that both are sources for metaphorical invention.

Windows and doors. Very simple things we have in every day life. But when we create a metaphor with them, they become more than just windows and doors. They become a frame of view, showing different perspectives. See Through Words by Micheal Erard talks about windows and doors compared to metaphors. The way he talks about the doors and windows showing different perspectives makes me think about the fact that metaphors can change the perspective of the reader or be interpreted differently. With metaphors you sometimes have to ‘help’ the reader see what you want them too. To do this you have to spell things out for the reader, giving them more context.

The way emotions get involved in metaphors, especially for the reader, is amazing to read about. The example that Erard gave was the dandelion and orchid metaphor. He spoke that the metaphor was supposed to show the difference between children who did well under a narrow set of circumstances and children who did well under a range of circumstances. The metaphor didn’t go over well because parents never want to think of their child as a sturdy weed that people are trying to get rid of. Erard made the point of, “When people won’t use a term to describe their own kids, thats a give away that the metaphor won’t work”. This point made sense because parents are always protective of their kids, so when looking at either comparing them to a beautiful flower, or a weed, they’ll pick the flower each time.

When listening to the TED Talk, I was able to understand the references better than when reading the transcript. Listening and watching him talk made me understand the impact of metaphors in our everyday life better. When reading the transcript, I was able to clarify the use of synesthesia in metaphors. It is interesting to think people who experience synesthesia are rare, but everyone referencing it in metaphors is so common.

I had a text to self connections while reading and watching the TED Talk. One of the tests that Geary talked about, the Stroop Test. There are names of colors on a sheet of paper, but the ink that they’re printed in is different from the name. I have done the experiment before and not many people were able to complete it without messing up at least once. When he explains the test at the end saying, “The test shows we cannot ignore the literal meaning of words even when the literal meaning gives the wrong answer”, this resonates with me because it shows the human condition. The idea that even when we are instructed that something is wrong, we cannot break from what we were originally taught. 

When Geary talks about metaphors creating expectations, I started to think about all of the expectations that could be thought of with the metaphor, “My life is the dark tunnel leading to the light”. The expectations of this metaphor can be that there has to be dark times to have a good time. People may think that there has to be a light coming soon, but in reality the light can come as fast or as slow as you want it to. There are many perspectives to metaphors, so when writing in them you cannot know how someone would perceive them.