A qualitative study of endometriosis-related pain

Giorgia Andreolli
In: Metaphor and the Social World · 2023 · vol. 14(1) , pp. 1–21 · doi:10.1075/msw.22021.and · W4385583915
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This qualitative study analyzed metaphorical source domains in online endometriosis pain descriptions, finding violent metaphors are used to elicit empathy but may have detrimental effects.

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Abstract

Abstract This paper examines the conceptualizations of endometriosis-related pain by combining Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT) with a corpus-based approach. Endometriosis is a complex and multi-faceted condition, affecting one in ten people assigned female at birth and bearing serious consequences on one’s physical, social and psychological wellbeing. Especially in cases when the pain is invisible, communication resorts to violent metaphors implying harm, physical damage, or fight. These metaphors are thought to increase the likelihood of eliciting an empathetic response in the interlocutor. However, such narratives may be detrimental at the individual level (e.g., increasing pain catastrophizing) and at the community level (e.g., overshadowing the capacity of communities to construct and use metaphors in alternative ways). Therefore, this study presents an initial exploratory analysis of metaphorical source domains in descriptions of endometriosis-related pain written in online, freely accessible blogs. Metaphorical expressions were manually annotated in a sample of KWICs basing on the MIPVU procedure and thematically categorized. The adoption of a bottom-up and top-down approach within a qualitative framework allowed an empirically grounded analysis of candidate source domains, which calls for further quantitative testing.

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Condition tags

endometriosis

Citation neighborhood

Papers in the corpus that this work cites (lower rings, blue) and that cite this one (upper rings, green). Dot size scales with the paper's in-corpus citation count — bigger dot = more influential within the endo/adeno field. Click a dot to open that paper. [ expand to 2 hops ] — adds papers reached through this work's immediate citers/citees. Heavier; up to 60 extra dots.

References (37)

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