Metaphors In A Medical Setting In Illness And Its Metaphors

Damage from Metaphors

Several literary works and advertisements employ metaphors to discuss health and illness. Many individuals think it's beneficial to refrain from using metaphors to convey health and illness because they can alter how people view illness. For instance, Susan Sontag describes the drawbacks of utilizing metaphors in a medical setting in Illness and its Metaphors. Sontag states, “My point is that illness is not a metaphor and that the most truthful way of regarding illness- and the healthiest way of being ill- is one most purified of, most resistant to, metaphoric thinking” (Sontag 1). The Public Service Announcement by the Ohio Department of Health, on the other hand, exemplifies how metaphors are used to influence customers to take charge of their health. The Ohio Department of Health Public Service Announcement and Illness and its Metaphors explores how metaphors of health and sickness might cause individuals to perceive illness as an invasion or a betrayal of their body if they don't take proactive steps to prevent it.

This is shown within the Public Service Announcement when the doctor states, “Now you each have a personal bodyguard against the flu” (Ohio Department of Health). Advertisers opted to portray flu shots as bodyguards rather than a medical image of the flu shot preventing the disease. Due to the way the advertisement depicts the flu as an invasion of the body and one's surroundings, causes people to be afraid of not being immunized. In this announcement, the flu is portrayed as an individual who is essentially infiltrating people's homes and regular places. Similarly, Sontag notes, “The controlling metaphors in descriptions of cancer are not, in fact, drawn from economics but the language of warfare” (Sontag 3). The flu invades a person's home like cancer cells invade a person’s