ABSTRACT
The second part of the symposium offered a systematic account of new thinking in the field of metaphors in medicine. Metaphors are best appreciated through other metaphors. Metaphors are on a spectrum, from the sublime and imaginative, to the benign (on the way out, as overused), to the downright misleading or malign – generally seen as ‘good to think with’, metaphors can also be ‘bad to think with’ if not employed reflexively. The reflexive use of metaphors is a sophisticated aspect of doctors’ communication that is entirely overlooked in medical education.
Master metaphors that have shaped medicine historically need not be replaced by new dominant metaphors, but by a multiplicity of metaphors fit for purpose, or context specific. However, a new master metaphor that may be emerging in medicine is ‘transparency’, signifying a ‘new deal’ in medicine that honours the patient’s perspective, whereby the person has the right to perform his or her symptoms in a way that he or she sees fit. Celebrating the ‘sick body’ and utilizing sickness as a medium for artistic and political expression offer a challenge to medical orthodoxy.
