Blog #3

In the article, The Trouble With Medicine’s Metaphors, by Dhruv Khullar, Khullar beings to introduce an idea that metaphors based on the image of war, do more harm to a patients outlook than they do good. Throughout the article Khullar uses anecdotes, study findings, and even other metaphors to strengthen and to try to make his point. Khullar ends his article stating that metaphors effectiveness is dependent on the person receiving them.

Whilst reading this article, I found it hard to believe anything that Khullar had said. This was mostly based off the circumstantial evidence he provided. Sure, he used a lot of good metaphors and anecdotes, but it was his cited studies that worried me. His evidence in the studies had no additional information, the people studied could have all been from different cultural backgrounds with different views on the metaphors tested. I feel like this is just an opinion piece, I found nothing persuading about it. I maintain my view that metaphor is subjective, thus I agree with Khullar’s final statement.

“Metaphor is a way of thought before it is a way of words”, James Geary. This quote speaks to how malleable a metaphor is. Before it is spoken, it must go through many layers of thought before it is given meaning.

“The windows and doors of the metaphor room are supposed to provide another way of looking at reality”, Michael Erard. everyone has their own unique view on interpreting metaphor.

“Metaphors are a fundamental mechanism through which our minds conceptualize the world around us, especially in the face of complexity”, Dhruv Khullar. Metaphor is conceived in the face of complexity. When something is too complex to understand, we form a simpler explanation.