Tuesday, May 29, 2018

Do Not Literalize Metaphors

There is no such thing as mental illness, except in a metaphorical sense. The same is true for mental health. It does not literally exist.

The literal ideas of mental health and mental illness are literalized metaphors. Literalizing metaphors has undesirable unintended consequences.

Thinking in terms of subjective emotional well being and subjective emotional distress is much more linguistically accurate and useful.