AI Article Synopsis
- The study aims to compare how patients with cancer and health professionals use Violence and Journey metaphors in their online writings, particularly in the context of cancer.
- Using a mix of quantitative and qualitative analysis on two large data sets, the research highlights that patients use these metaphors more frequently than health professionals.
- The findings suggest that while Violence metaphors can express negative emotions, they can also empower patients, and Journey metaphors, while often seen as positive, can sometimes be disempowering; thus, a nuanced understanding of these metaphors is essential for effective communication about cancer experiences.
Article Abstract
Objective: To compare the frequencies with which patients with cancer and health professionals use Violence and Journey metaphors when writing online; and to investigate the use of these metaphors by patients with cancer, in view of critiques of war-related metaphors for cancer and the adoption of the notion of the 'cancer journey' in UK policy documents.
Design: Computer-assisted quantitative and qualitative study of two data sets totalling 753 302 words.
Setting: A UK-based online forum for patients with cancer (500 134 words) and a UK-based website for health professionals (253 168 words).
Participants: 56 patients with cancer writing online between 2007 and 2012; and 307 health professionals writing online between 2008 and 2013.
Results: Patients with cancer use both Violence metaphors and Journey metaphors approximately 1.5 times per 1000 words to describe their illness experience. In similar online writing, health professionals use each type of metaphor significantly less frequently. Patients' Violence metaphors can express and reinforce negative feelings, but they can also be used in empowering ways. Journey metaphors can express and reinforce positive feelings, but can also be used in disempowering ways.
Conclusions: Violence metaphors are not by default negative and Journey metaphors are not by default a positive means of conceptualising cancer. A blanket rejection of Violence metaphors and an uncritical promotion of Journey metaphors would deprive patients of the positive functions of the former and ignore the potential pitfalls of the latter. Instead, greater awareness of the function (empowering or disempowering) of patients' metaphor use can lead to more effective communication about the experience of cancer.
Download full-text PDF |
Source |
|---|---|
| http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5339544 | PMC |
| http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjspcare-2014-000785 | DOI Listing |
Publication Analysis
Top Keywords
Similar Publications
Want AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?
Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!