The Social Constructions of Disease

The metaphors and social constructions surrounding disease can objectify patients, oversimplify their condition, and give people a false sense of familiarity with the situation. Access to bad information and medical discourse can lead to inadequate help for patients. The social constructions about an illness become an inescapable part of having that disease. Advances in science have changed the mythology surrounding diseases like tuberculosis, but the tendency to use metaphors to describe things we don't understand still persists. Susan Sontag's experience with breast cancer highlighted how patients were thought about in the 1970s and how the metaphors used to explain cancer often reflected inaccurate beliefs about the causes of the disease. These metaphors could lead to conflicting and mutually exclusive treatment options, based on shaky beliefs about the psychological causes of cancer.