Cultural poetics of illness and healing

Kirmayer, Laurence J.

doi:10.1177/13634615231205544

Cited by 5 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 151 publications

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“…Patients frequently invoke metaphors when discussing psychiatric symptoms, particularly in conversations outside the clinician's office such as in casual and online communication. These metaphorical expressions often reflect patients' cultures, and though some common metaphors cross many distinct cultures, others may be highly specific or subtle (66,67). Coll-Florit and associates reviewed blogs about mental illness and used qualitative analysis to categorize the posted metaphors (68).…”

Section: Metaphor and Evocative Intentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Languaging psychopathology: neurobiology and metaphor

Syed,

Jacob

2024

Front. Psychiatry

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Explanatory models of the mind inform our working assumptions about mental illness with direct implications for clinical practice. Neurobiological models assert that the mind can be understood in terms of genetics, chemistry, and neuronal circuits. Growing evidence suggests that clinical deployment of neurobiological models of illness may have unintended adverse effects on patient attitudes, public perception, provider empathy, and the effectiveness of psychiatric treatment. New approaches are needed to find a better language for describing (let alone explaining) the experience of mental illness. To address this gap, we draw upon interdisciplinary sources and semiotic theory to characterize the role of metaphor in the conceptualization and communication of psychopathology. We examine the metaphors recruited by contemporary neurobiological models and metaphor’s role in facilitating descriptive clarity or evocative creativity, depending on intention and context. These multiple roles reveal the implications of metaphorical reasoning in clinical practice, including cognitive flexibility, personalized communication, and uncertainty tolerance. With this analysis, we propose a clinical approach that embraces the meta-process of ongoing novel metaphor generation and co-elaboration, or languaging metaphors of psychopathology. Our goal is to bring attention to the value of employing ever-evolving, shapeable metaphorical depictions of psychiatric illness: metaphors that enable a capacity for change in individuals and society, reduce stigma, and nurture recovery.

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Section: Metaphor and Evocative Intentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Languaging psychopathology: neurobiology and metaphor

Syed,

Jacob

2024

Front. Psychiatry

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“… 9 In many cases, the self may be expressed through metaphors rather than more extended narratives, see, Kirmayer (2023) . …”

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confidence: 99%

Examination of self patterns: framing an alternative phenomenological interview for use in mental health research and clinical practice

Daly,

Ritunnano,

Gallagher

et al. 2024

Front. Psychol.

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Mental disorders are increasingly understood as involving complex alterations of self that emerge from dynamical interactions of constituent elements, including cognitive, bodily, affective, social, narrative, cultural and normative aspects and processes. An account of self that supports this view is the pattern theory of self (PTS). The PTS is a non-reductive account of the self, consistent with both embodied-enactive cognition and phenomenological psychopathology; it foregrounds the multi-dimensionality of subjects, stressing situated embodiment and intersubjective processes in the formation of the self-pattern. Indications in the literature already demonstrate the viability of the PTS for formulating an alternative methodology to better understand the lived experience of those suffering mental disorders and to guide mental health research more generally. This article develops a flexible methodological framework that front-loads the self-pattern into a minimally structured phenomenological interview. We call this framework ‘Examination of Self Patterns’ (ESP). The ESP is unconstrained by internalist or externalist assumptions about mind and is flexibly guided by person-specific interpretations rather than pre-determined diagnostic categories. We suggest this approach is advantageous for tackling the inherent complexity of mental health, the clinical protocols and the requirements of research.

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The place of the social in psychiatry: from structural determinants to the ecology of mind

Kirmayer

2024

Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol

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Cultural poetics of illness and healing

Cited by 5 publications

References 151 publications

Languaging psychopathology: neurobiology and metaphor

Languaging psychopathology: neurobiology and metaphor

Examination of self patterns: framing an alternative phenomenological interview for use in mental health research and clinical practice

The place of the social in psychiatry: from structural determinants to the ecology of mind

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