Healing the War Metaphor: Common Medicinal Plants and the Human Immune Function

Abstract

Metaphors of war are common in medical discourse, reflecting a violent paradigm that influences our thoughts and behavior. Diseases are perceived as a threat that we must kill. Examples in herbal medicine are examined as a way to understand how our immune system works on a more complex level in order to soften the battle paradigm. Unconscious reliance on metaphors of war may prevent us from identifying cognitive obstacles that inhibit understanding of our bodies, systems of medical treatment and our relationship to the larger environment as well.