Metaphor and Epistemic Injustice in Mental IllnessThe project investigates epistemic injustice in metaphorical communication in the case of mental illness
Piano Nazionale di Ripresa e Resilienza – Missione 4 “Istruzione e Ricerca” – Componente 2 “Dalla Ricerca all’Impresa” Investimento 1.1 “Fondo per il Programma Nazionale di Ricerca e Progetti di Rilevante Interesse Nazionale (PRIN)”
The project in brief
The project investigates epistemic injustice in metaphorical communication in the case of mental illness.
Focusing on schizophrenia, the project analyzes the cognitive and bodily mechanisms at the roots of the failure to attribute credibility (testimonial injustice) and interpretive capacities (hermeneutical injustice) to people with mental illness, when they communicate their illness to other people via metaphors vs. their literal counterparts.
Metaphor is proposed as a valuable resource to foster a better attunement between the speaker with schizophrenia and the interpreter and to possibly prevent or overcome epistemic injustice in illness communication.
Metaphor is indeed a necessary tool for people with schizophrenia to express their illness and themselves in relationship with the illness, but also for the relevant others (families, friends, doctors, healthcare professionals, people in their social life, etc.) to have access to what the speaker feels as meaningful to articulate of their experience of illness.