Tag: Metaphor
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Ladies in red: Medical and metaphorical reflections on La Traviata
Milad Matta Gregory Rutecki Lyndhurst, Ohio, United States Illustration by Jason Malmberg. “. . . phthisic beauty[’s] . . . most famous operatic embodiment was Violetta Valery . . .This physical type became not only fashionable but sexy . . . When a society does not understand—and cannot control—a disease, ground seems to open up…
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Two tales of talipes equinovarus
Christopher Walker Bielsko-Biala, Poland Operations for club-foot. Wellcome Collection. Public domain. Congenital talipes equinovarus, better known as clubfoot, is a poorly understood but surprisingly common medical condition. According to Ansar et al, it affects about one in one thousand newborns, though this figure varies by country.1 There is a roughly fifty-fifty split between those…
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Experiencing metaphor: a medieval headache
Jamie McKinstry Durham University, United Kingdom Metaphors have been used extensively in medicine to describe patients, illustrate diseases, and educate students.1 By comparing unlike things that have something in common, they enhance communication in education, science, and clinical medicine.2 Not restricted to the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, their use dates back to areas such…