PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - Phil Barker TI - Working with the metaphor of life and death AID - 10.1136/mh.26.2.97 DP - 2000 Dec 01 TA - Medical Humanities PG - 97--102 VI - 26 IP - 2 4099 - http://mh.bmj.com/content/26/2/97.short 4100 - http://mh.bmj.com/content/26/2/97.full SO - J Med Humanit2000 Dec 01; 26 AB - The experience of being human is intangible. As a result, descriptions of human experience rely heavily on metaphor to convey something of that whole lived experience. By contrast, contemporary scientific narratives of the mind emphasise the form of human thought and emotion, over the content of people's experience, where constructive attempts are made to explain the experience of self, through metaphorical allusion. This paper considers the importance of metaphor as a vehicle for expressing and exploring selfhood. Examples from the psychiatric literature, as well as from the visual and literary arts, are used to reflect on the importance of metaphor in clarifying the meanings of the constructs of health and illness.