[Methaphors and understanding of diseases]

In the recent two decades it has been argued that our language and sense of reality is radically structured by metaphors. Metaphors are not just figurative expressions of existing similarities, but can create such similarities. Certain metaphors (root metaphors) may convey new world views and thus underpin new theoretical formations. The article goes through a series of metaphorical descriptions of illness, and elaborates on the importance of metaphors for medical communication and language-use. The significance of the metaphors for communication between physician and patient is lined out, and it is described how the use and subsequent rendering of metaphors from two different structures of understanding may lead to serious misapprehension.