Life is a rollercoaster. There’s no doubt that you have heard this metaphor at some point in your life, but how you perceive that phrase is a different question. Metaphors exist all around us, so much so, that sometimes we don’t recognize the line between a metaphor and it’s literal meaning. They serve to help us familiarize ourselves with what we don’t understand. They can be powerful in the sense that they change how the listener perceives what the metaphor speaks about. In hospitals, we often hear “you’re a fighter”, or “this is a battle you’ll win”. But how does that affect the patient? Medical professionals have begun to think that this military-based language is doing more harm than good on the patient’s wellbeing, whether it’s physical or mental. This language serves as a barrier, preventing the patient from dealing with their true emotions about their condition, as discussed in Dhruv Khullar’s “The Trouble with Medicine’s Metaphors”. This is just one example of how powerful language really is. James Geary and Michael Erard also dive into the complications of metaphors and how they control or change the way we see things. There are various processes for creating metaphors and how to use them to create expectations. With that in mind, can they be good or bad, and how much power do they actually hold? All three of the authors mentioned afore discuss how language and metaphors, a type of language, can hold more power than one may think.

New intro: Humans are nearly the only species that uses language to communicate with each other. Language is the universal way of communicating, and metaphors, more specifically, can help us conceptualize complex ideas. Metaphors are meant to help one understand the unfamiliar, such as when a doctor is trying to explain a patient’s condition to said patient. They may use metaphors such as “this is a battle, but you can win it” to help them understand the severity while still being optimistic about it. However, how much power do these words hold, and how important is it for medical professionals to understand how language affects their patients’ wellbeing? Authors James Geary, Michael Erard, and Dhruv Khullar explain how powerful metaphors can be, and how they can control or change the way we see things. Geary defines metaphors as a language that creates expectations. They can lay down the pathway to perceive an idea in a certain way. Erard similarly explains how metaphors are designed tools to help us see things in a different light. Khullar uses similar preconceptions to show how metaphors can shed a negative light on a medical condition when medical professionals use military-based language in a hospital setting, such as “you’re a fighter”. These words can create an emotional barrier on the patient where it suppresses their true feelings about this sickness. Military language in reference to illness can encourage unhealthy coping mechanisms for dealing with those chronic or terminal illnesses, and medical professionals should be aware of this to perhaps change their use of this language to encourage more healthy coping mechanisms.