Metaphors of the body help us understand abstract concepts, emotions, and social relations through concrete experience. Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT) in particular, which dominates the field of contemporary metaphor studies, is centered on this claim. According to this theory, correlations in the way the world is perceived in early childhood persist in our conceptual system, influencing our thoughts throughout life at a mostly unconscious level.

What happens, though, when ordinary embodied experience is disrupted by illness? In this book, Elisabeth El Refaie explores how metaphors change according to our body's alteration due to disease. She analyzes visual metaphor in thirty-five narratives, re-examining embodiment in traditional CMT and proposing the notion of "dynamic embodiment." Building on recent strands of research within CMT and engaging relevant concepts from phenomenology, psychology, semiotics, and media studies, El Refaie demonstrates how the experience of our own bodies is constantly adjusting to changes in our individual states of health, socio-cultural practices, and activities such as the modes and media by which we communicate. This fundamentally interdisciplinary work proposes a novel classification system of visual metaphor, based on a three-way distinction between pictorial, spatial, and stylistic metaphors. This approach will enable readers to advance knowledge and understanding of phenomena involved in shaping our everyday thoughts, interactions, and behavior.