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Susan sontag illness metaphor essay
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Susan sontag illness as metaphor essay
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In Illness as Metaphor and AIDS and its Metaphors, Susan Sontag emphasizes the negative connotations associated with the uses of figurative language, specifically metaphoric terms, with diseases that have no known cause or multiple causes. Sontag constantly reminds her audience that her goal has always been “to calm the imagination, not to incite it… to persuade terrified people who were ill to consult doctors…who would give them proper case. To regard cancer as if it were just a disease…not a curse, not a punishment, not an embarrassment. Without ‘meaning’” (102). Those within the medical community, as well as those who are not, offer metaphors to provide a conceptual understanding of diseases to people who are unfamiliar with the causes or symptoms. However, when those who are not diagnosed with the illness use the metaphors, it causes those coping with it to feel embarrassed or guilty. Focusing on the significance or meaning of a disease draws both medical professionals and the publics’ eye away from the disease itself and the major health risks it poses. Sontag’s warning against the exaggerated use of metaphors is …show more content…
equally applicable to anorexia nervosa. Anorexia nervosa, a mental illness, typically begins as a weight-loss diet.
People with anorexia, who are usually adolescent, drop significantly below normal weight. Despite this fact, they feel fat, fear being fat, continue to obsess over losing weight and sometimes exercise excessively (Meyers). Anorexia nervosa can be associated with perfectionism, pleasing others, wanting attention, emotional insecurity, stressful situations, and many other underlying causes (Meyers). Anorexia is particularly threatening to physical health because so many patients are prone to relapse. Therefore, early identification and treatment of anorexia nervosa is essential to take advantage of patients’ chances for recovery (Meyers). In order for this identification to take place, the public must be properly informed about anorexia in a captivating, yet accurate
way. One of the main misconceptions surrounding anorexia nervosa is that it is self-induced and controllable. One cannot simply say: “Eat something,” and the anorexic mind will allow it. Many people view their anorexia nervosa as an essential aspect of their self-worth, but by drawing unnecessary attention to the people who are anorexic themselves rather than focusing on the illness and the health risks it poses, can lead to misunderstandings and confusion among public. The article “Addictions & Answers: Behind the Insidious ‘art’ of Anorexia” offers a metaphor relating anorexia nervosa to body art and getting a tattoo. It is a conversation-based article between two people, one being a licensed psychologist. The psychologist says: “Exactly: People like Isabelle Caro and Jeremy Gillitzer are addicted to view starvation as a kind of body image art,” (Moore & Manville). While the main point of the article is to promote awareness of anorexia, it does so in a negative way: bringing negative connotations with the metaphor used, especially by a medical professional. This metaphor is demeaning to those who are anorexic by making them feel embarrassed and guilty. Anorexia is neither beautiful nor controllable. There is no art in starvation, and there is no choice present like when choosing to get a tattoo. A person with anorexia watches their hair fall out, their skin turn a grayish yellow, and their kidneys stop functioning. None of that is considered art. Being terrified to eat and the consequences of eating is neither art nor a choice. It is an illness that kills thousands of people, but hardly anyone correctly understands it. This article also insinuates that someone with anorexia is perfectly sane, not like “meth-addicts, gamblers, or drunks” (Moore & Manville), despite the fact that it is a diagnosable mental illness. There is a difference between using a metaphor to describe something correctly and using something as a metaphor, with the latter being demeaning and insulting to those who are diagnosed with mental illnesses. In addition to the derogatory and misleading metaphor, the article compared anorexia to dieting (Moore and Manville). No eating disorder is an extreme diet or a diet gone wrong. A person who is dieting might say, “I shouldn’t eat this, I’ll regret it,” while an anorexic says, “I literally cannot put food into my mouth.” In the book, Wintergirls, the narrator explains anorexia accurately, “The only number that would ever be enough is 0. Zero pounds, zero life, size zero, double-zero, zero point. Zero in tennis is love. I finally get it,” (Anderson 278). There is never a goal weight with anorexia like there is during a diet. The scale never gives a number low enough to be satisfying. It is an anorexics best friend, yet worst enemy. With the media and American retail stores, negative attitudes towards food and body image are at an all time low. To a person coping with anorexia, the mental state of feeling fat is constant. Resisting food, losing weight and stepping on a scale become a daily routine that must be done multiple times throughout the day. Whenever even the tiniest bit of food is eaten, the person feels as if they have overeaten and soon enters crisis mode. The stomach is so used to being empty, that even the slightest sliver of food upsets it. In response to the rise of anorexia among both men and women, both the media and public health organizations have spoken out about the disorder, both positively and negatively. In an episode of a well-known show, One Tree Hill, one of the characters has a fashion line and will not let any anorexic looking girls on the cover of her magazine: “Anorexia is a disease, not a fashion statement,” (4 Years, 6 Months, 2 Days. CW). Because anorexia nervosa is a mental illness with multiple triggers and causes, confusion is common among the public. Due to this, many sources attempt to explain the complex disorder with figurative language, such as metaphors. As Sontag states: “Saying a thing is or is like something-it-is-not is a mental operation as old as philosophy and poetry and the spawning ground of most kinds of understanding” (Sontag 93). Anorexia can be caused by multiple things, not just the desire to reach a certain weight, or have a particular body type. Part of the cause of the misconceptions regarding anorexia is how the media publicizes and presents the information. Media references to anorexia, especially with celebrities’, can generate misunderstanding to the public eye. Mary-Kate Olsen’s anorexia was highly publicized and gave the disorder intensified media coverage, but not in the way one would hope. In People Weekly, a story about her disorder describes the red string bracelet that was worn on her wrist, which signifies “anorexia pride,” (Tauber). The material also shows her physical condition with a picture and connects it with Mary-Kate’s lifestyle. This can create an impression that anorexia is symbolic of a high-pressure lifestyle like that of being a celebrity (Tauber). By publicizing the metaphoric behavior the way People Weekly did, the article risks romanticizing the disorder by glamorizing it as prideful, a community, and commonly seen among celebrities. Even organizations attempting to raise awareness of anorexia can support the romanticized images of the illness. A public service announcement created by the National Eating Disorders Association relies heavily on emotional circumstances to raise awareness about eating disorders. While sad music plays in the background, the announcement, using children no older than eleven, is shown in black and white (Do You Think I’m Fat, NEDA). This public statement points to the insinuation that eating disorders are as simple as black and white, either a person is healthy or anorexic, or that it is easy to find the underlying cause. While the National Eating Disorder Association brings awareness to anorexia nervosa by saying, “Why do girls have to be skinny? Do I need a boob job? Do I need liposuction?” (Do You Think I’m Fat, NEDA), it points to the fact that it is purely associated with perfectionism. Within the three questions above, there is a significant point to be addressed: each of these revolves around the public’s opinion of women. This announcement gives off many misconceptions and generates confusion around the disorder, which is Sontag’s prime reasoning for wanting to diminish metaphor usage. While I believe Sontag has a point that most metaphoric language should be eliminated, she also falls short of a few instances when metaphor usage is needed and acceptable. Using metaphors is the most efficient way to explain how you are feeling when talking to a medical professional, or anyone who is outside of the person’s mind. As a person that has been in that situation, when describing how one feels, metaphors are usually a necessity. I have used many metaphors when describing how I feel to those who do not entirely understand. When it is the person who has the illness using the metaphors, no negative connotations can be associated. In a European study, researchers interviewed females diagnosed with anorexia and had them answer the following questions: the history of the eating disorder, ideas as to why there was a problem, important turning points, how the eating disorder affects their lives, and the interaction between emotions and cognitions to body shape (Skarderud 2007). Each of the participants used metaphors to describe how they felt and what they were going through. Most were about feeling empty, feeling heavy, purity, and sadness. Each case illustrates the immediate metaphorical connections between the physical act of starvation and one’s mind (Skarderud 2007). Those who are anorexic use metaphors to explain their emotions to those who do not understand the reason why, or those who do not understand why they feel the way they do. Sometimes, using metaphors is the easiest way to help a person understand. The metaphors used demonstrate that the drive for thinness in anorexia nervosa represents far more than just reducing weight: purity, spatiality, and solidity are other reasons as to why. When the anorexic themselves are using the figurative language, it is a depiction of the disease from the primary source, not just a person looking in and speculating. In most written work describing experiences with anorexia from the secondhand experience, metaphors tend to downplay the disorder. In Voices, seen in Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul III, the author brings the audience into the mind of an anorexic: “Voices…are saying If she eats she will gain and by way too fat to be loved,” (Twaddle 251). The internal voices suggest that the disorder is all in the person’s head and can be controlled. As Sontag says: “Victims suggest innocence. And innocence, by the inexorable logic that governs all relational terms, suggests guilt,” (Sontag 99). The poem portrays anorexia as a condition where patients are “guilty” of inducing or imagining their disorder. Anorexia nervosa is more than just “choosing” not to eat; it is the fear of eating due to the body image one has of their self. Whenever a person with anorexia looks into the mirror, their body image is distorted and inaccurate. They view themselves as overweight even when they are not. It is not simply a choice based on selfishness; it is a mental illness involving more than a simple choice between eating and not eating. Metaphors of anorexia that portray the disorder more realistically rather than romanticizing can actually help those address anorexia in an informative way. In I Just Want to Be Skinny, a writer reflected on her experience of having a friend with anorexia. The author mentions that her friend looked like “a twig that could be snapped with the wind,” (Bloor 253-254). Written works such as this, which use metaphoric language to offer a different perspective and also comment on anorexia’s health risks, provide more insight into the realities of the disorder, but there is an underlying problem with the language. While an outsider can easily see that there is a problem, the person who is anorexic does not. Their body image is still distorted, and they do not see themselves as the people around them do. The figurative language creates the misconception that anorexics can see themselves as “the twig that can snap,” (Bloor 253-254). Despite popular belief, anorexics do not see themselves as skinny and try to maintain their body image by starvation. They see themselves as fat and continue to reach the impossible goal set by their mentally ill mind. This is the problem with outside sources, they do not fully understand what they are trying to depict, which creates confusion and misinterpretation of anorexia nervosa. While fault should not lie entirely on editors, they should know the difference between articles and posts that focus primarily on anorexia’s harmful nature and those that romanticize it, offering no new insight about the condition, unless the post is written by the anorexic person directly.
“The Terrifying Normalcy of AIDS” is an essay written by Stephen Jay Gould, in which he talks about a dangerous disease that is spreading and becoming an issue to mankind, and that it is more of a mechanism than an irregular occurrence which I agree with. Stephen Jay Gould also shares his thoughts on our capabilities with the utilization of technology are boundless; especially when it comes to these types of ailments that threaten our kind, which is something I do not side with. Also, Stephen Jay Gould goes on to say that most people are misinformed about the disease and do not fully understand it.
(The Open University, 2015b). Looking at the language used in mental health and how this can change and shape people’s perspectives, for instance, the term ‘patient’ indicates that a person is ill. Once again this is taking on a biomedical approach, and the biomedical perspective are a result of physical or chemical malfunction in the brain (The Open University, 2015c) There are debates over the language used within mental health on how to refer to people, moving towards the terms ‘service user’ or ‘client’ which takes the focus away from an illness and more of a service being given and
This internal conflict is a result of the mistakes a physician makes, and the ability to move on from it is regarded as almost unreachable. For example, in the essay, “When Doctors Make Mistakes”, Gawande is standing over his patient Louise Williams, viewing her “lips blue, her throat swollen, bloody, and suddenly closed passage” (73). The imagery of the patient’s lifeless body gives a larger meaning to the doctor’s daily preoccupations. Gawande’s use of morbid language helps the reader identify that death is, unfortunately, a facet of a physician’s career. However, Gawande does not leave the reader to ponder of what emotions went through him after witnessing the loss of his patient. He writes, “Perhaps a backup suction device should always be at hand, and better light more easily available. Perhaps the institutions could have trained me better for such crises” (“When Doctors Make Mistakes” 73). The repetition of “perhaps” only epitomizes the inability to move on from making a mistake. However, this repetitive language also demonstrates the ends a doctor will meet to save a patient’s life (73). Therefore, it is not the doctor, but medicine itself that can be seen as the gateway from life to death or vice versa. Although the limitations of medicine can allow for the death of a patient to occur, a doctor will still experience emotional turmoil after losing someone he was trying to
Anorexia Nervosa may be described directly as an eating disease classified by a deficit in weight, not being able to maintain weight appropriate for one’s height. Anorexia means loss of appetite while Anorexia Nervosa means a lack of appetite from nervous causes. Before the 1970s, most people never heard of Anorexia Nervosa. It was identified and named in the 1870s, before then people lived with this mental illness, not knowing what it was, or that they were even sick. It is a mental disorder, which distorts an individual’s perception of how they look. Looking in the mirror, they may see someone overweight
Paul Monette in his autobiography, “Borrowed Time: An AIDS Memoir” wants to make the younger generation aware of all the mistakes, suffering and deaths his generation went through fighting with AIDS, as he is convinced that it might help the new generation survive. He wrote his life story in 1988, soon after he was diagnosed with HIV and two years after his partner and close friend Roger Horwitz died of AIDS.
Almost doctors and physicians in the world have worked at a hospital, so they must know many patients’ circumstances. They have to do many medical treatments when the patients come to the emergency room. It looks like horror films with many torture scenes, and the patients have to pay for their pains. The doctors have to give the decisions for every circumstance, so they are very stressful. They just want to die instead of suffering those medical treatments. In that time, the patients’ family just believes in the doctors and tells them to do whatever they can, but the doctors just do something that 's possible. Almost patients have died after that expensive medical treatments, but the doctors still do those medical procedures. That doctors did not have enough confidence to tell the truth to the patients’ families. Other doctors have more confidence, so they explain the health condition to the patients’ families. One time, the author could not save his patient, and the patient had found another doctor to help her. That doctor decided to cut her legs, but the patient still died in fourteen days
As defined by the National Eating Disorders Association, “Anorexia Nervosa is a serious, potentially life-threatening eating disorder characterized by self-starvation and excessive weight loss.” (NEDA). The term “Anorexia Nervosa” literally means “neurotic loss of appetite”, and could be more generally defined as the result of a prolonged self-starvation and an unhealthy relationship regarding food and self-image. It is characterized by “resistance to maintaining body weight at or above a minimally normal weight for age and height”, “intense fear of weight gain or being “fat”, even though underweight”, “disturbance in the experience of body weight or shape, undue influence of weight or shape on self-evaluation, or denial of the seriousness of low body weight”, and “loss of menstrual periods in girls and women post-puberty.”(NEDA) Among women on a range of 15 to 24 years old, AN has been proved to have 12 times the annual mortality rate of all death causes, and from premature deaths of anorexic patients, 1 in every 5 is caused by suicide, which gives a rise of 20% for suicide probability. (EDV)
Morace, Robert A. “Interpreter of Maladies: Stories.” Magill’s Literary Annual 2000 1999: 198. Literary Reference Center. Web. 6 Apr. 2010. .
Anorexia nervosa is a life threatening eating disorder defined by a refusal to maintain fifteen percent of a normal body weight through self-starvation (NAMI 1). Ninety-five percent of anorexics are women between the ages of twelve and eighteen, however, “…in the past twenty years, this disorder has become a growing threat to high school and college students”(Maloney and Kranz 60). Anorexia produces a multitude of symptoms, and if not treated, anorexia can lead to permanent physical damage or death.
Due to these unrealistic images and ideals during this impressionable developmental stage, it is not surprising that adolescent girls make up 95% of individuals who suffer from eating disorders (ANAD, 2013). Clearly, media images and messages greatly contribute to the development of eating disorders, such as anorexia nervosa (Edwards, 2008, Maclagan, 1998). Dokter describes an eating disorder as, “a reflection of a person’s degree of unhappiness with themselves” (1995, p.208). Mitchell adds that eating disorders are a “disturbance of delusional proportions in the body image and body concept” (Brooke,2008,p.15). Eating disorders include: anorexia nervosa, bulimia, binge eating, and other non-specified eating disorders. It is crucial for individuals with eating disorders to seek treatment due to the fact that it is life threatening. Of all mental disorders, eating disorders bear the highest mortality rates (ANAD,2013).
particularly in the Hamlet. In the play Hamlet, Shakespeare uses disease imagery to describe the leadership of Denmark, and how. corruption has infected the kingdom. Similarly, Shakespeare compares how an untreated infection can spread to the ones least expected to be. infected.
Today, America is plagued with eating disorders such as Anorexia Nervosa, Bulimia Nervosa, and Compulsive Eating Disorders. Each has its own characteristics that distinguish the illness yet there are some similarities that they also share. According to the National Eating Disorders Association, as with most mental illnesses, eating disorders are not caused by just one factor but by a combination of behavioral, biological, emotional, psychological, interpersonal and social factors. Shockingly, they also report that in the United States, there are as many as 10 million females and 1 million males that are battling with eating disorders such as anorexia or bulimia. Additionally, another 25 million are struggling with binge eating disorders (www.NationalEatingDisorders.org). Typically, psychological factors such as depression and low self-esteem contribute to eating disorders...
The h’orderves include a pleasant headache, followed by a main dish about fever heat, finished off with a nice plate of muscle fatigue for dessert; that’s illness in a nutshell. Illness is an inevitable occurrence in life, and in the excerpt of Susan Sontag’s book, Illness as Metaphor, she makes this very apparent. Oftentimes, people euphemize the concept of illness, and Sontag is completely against this. Throughout the excerpt, she establishes her perspective of illness through the application of metaphor and paradox.
Out of all mental illnesses found throughout the world, eating disorders have the highest mortality rate. Anorexia nervosa is one of the more common eating disorders found in society, along with bulimia nervosa. Despite having many definitions, anorexia nervosa is simply defined as the refusal to maintain a normal body weight (Michel, 2003). Anorexia nervosa is derived from two Latin words meaning “nervous inability to eat” (Frey, 2002). Although anorexics, those suffering from anorexia, have this “nervous inability to eat,” it does not mean that they do not have an appetite—anorexics literally starve themselves. They feel that they cannot trust or believe their perceptions of hunger and satiation (Abraham, 2008). Anorexics lose at least 15 percent of normal weight for height (Michel, 2003). This amount of weight loss is significant enough to cause malnutrition with impairment of normal bodily functions and rational thinking (Lucas, 2004). Anorexics have an unrealistic view of their bodies—they believe that they are overweight, even if the mirror and friends or family say otherwise. They often weigh themselves because they possess an irrational fear of gaining weight or becoming obese (Abraham, 2008). Many anorexics derive their own self-esteem and self-worth from body weight, size, and shape (“Body Image and Disordered Eating,” 2000). Obsession with becoming increasingly thinner and limiting food intake compromises the health of individuals suffering from anorexia. No matter the amount of weight they lose or how much their health is in jeopardy, anorexics will never be satisfied with their body and will continue to lose more weight.
As a whole, article one is rich with lexical items that belong to the medical lexical field, such as cold, flu, Panadol, tablets, sick, suffer, diseases, chicken pox, depression, doctor, coughs, headache etc. The extensive use of these terms throughout the article was a necessity since the main topic is about a medical condition.