Metaphors of mental illness: a corpus-based approach analysing first-person accounts of patients and mental health professionals

Abstract

In this paper we describe the building, manual annotation and analysis of a balanced corpus to assess conceptual metaphors on mental illness as used in Spanish blogger writing by patients and mental health professionals. The corpus was structured as eight subgroups: four patient subgroups (composed of persons who declared having been diagnosed with major depression, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, or obsessive-compulsive disorder) and four mental health professional subgroups (psychiatrists, psychologists, social educators, nurses). The quantitative analysis identified similarities and differences between groups regarding the volume of metaphors produced and the topics linguistically expressed through metaphors. The most frequent metaphors used by each major group, patients and professionals, were qualitatively analysed, with the principal findings showing a set of source domains used to conceptualize all four severe mental disorders, thus pointing to a common conceptualization of mental suffering irrespective of the specific diagnosis, and two major types of metaphors, WAR and JOURNEY, used by all subgroups of patients and professionals to talk about their first-hand experiences.

Nursing students’ metaphors of first clinical experiences of encountering patients with mental disorders

“…In the fourth category, under the title of “ nurse is similar to the prison guard ”, students named the nurses working in the psychiatric ward as dry, soulless, and afraid of patients. In the study conducted by Coll-Florit et al (2021), metaphors for the mental health care professional team were named in three domains under the headings Journey, War, and Power [ 2 ]. In the study by Heydari et al (2019), the sub-theme of “cold-hearted white collars” showed the mistreatment and inhuman behavior of hospital staff towards patients who ignore the rights of clients [ 56 ].…”

“…In addition, nursing educators can guide students in redesigning the curriculum to develop methods that can facilitate competence and confidence to reduce students’ prejudice, fear, and stress in clinical practice [ 61 ]. However, academic training in this area should be designed to help change attitudes, which includes greater use of educational strategies that challenge beliefs and assumptions and promote a commitment to providing comprehensive care for people with mental illness [ 2 ].…”

“…Psychiatric disorders are one of the main and important public health issues around the world. These disorders are associated with a huge personal, social, and economic burden and affect different areas of a person’s life [ 1 – 2 ]. Negative perceptions, attitudes, and beliefs about mental illness not only affect people with these illnesses but also make those who are tasked with helping and caring for them avoid doing so for fear of being harmed.…”