Metaphor and therapeutic potential in cancer discourse

Abstract

Sickness does not involve just the human body but also has a psychological dimension, and a number of studies have identified the positive psychological potential of self-help books in relation to illness. This paper examines metaphorical mappings employed in describing cancer patients in self-help books, undertaking a comparison of an American and a Nigerian work and identifying new categorisations and highlighting their therapeutic potential. It seeks to answer the following questions: what new metaphorical categories can be identified in Nigerian and American self-help books?; what therapeutic potential do they have?; and what similarities/differences can be identified in these self-help books? The sample size is 102 self-help stories, of which 24 instances were considered relevant for close analysis. This study adopts the Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT) approach and employs the Metaphor Identification Procedure (MIP) and methodologies concerned with the comparison and categorisation of metaphoric membership. The findings focus on four metaphorical categories: military, journey, personification and sports. The difference between the Nigerian and American self-help books lies in the contextualised manner of metaphorical presentation. In particular, the findings highlight sports metaphors in the American books as possessing more therapeutic tendencies due to the presence of humour, trivialisation, self-deprecation and satire. This category reflects that humour can ease stress and anxiety/panic and aid relaxation.