Jak rozmawiać z dzieckiem o raku?
How to talk to a child about cancer?

Cancer, biomedical knowledge and metaphor in the book "Co to ten rak?"

Author(s): Marta Chojnacka-Kuraś
Subject(s): Media studies, Communication studies, Theory of Communication, ICT Information and Communications Technologies
Published by: Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego
Keywords: disease; cancer; metaphor; medical communication; child
Summary/Abstract: The chapter presents the ways of describing cancer in the book "Co to ten rak?", written by a specialist in the field of biomedicine, intended for children and their relatives. The book reflects contemporary knowledge concerning the mechanisms of cancer cells formation and development as well as the methods of its treatment. This knowledge is presented in an understandable language, using more or less conventional metaphors and comparisons (e.g. showing the body as a machine, presenting cancer cells as weeds in the garden). Particularly noteworthy is the strategy of describing the cancer cell with the adjective chory (‘ill, sick’) implemented in the book. According to the author of the book, when talking to a child, it is better to avoid the term komórki złośliwe (‘malignant cells’), which can evoke the image of cells as dangerous creatures that intentionally harm humans. Methodologically the analysis presented in this chapter is anchored in the cognitive linguistics (the conceptual metaphor theory by Lakoff and Johnson was used), and its context is communication with a young patient in pediatric care.

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