ReviewThe American journal of bioethics : AJOB2016
Healing Without Waging War: Beyond Military Metaphors in Medicine and HIV Cure Research.
Review in The American journal of bioethics : AJOB, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 33 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
33 citing papers in PubMed.
- Motivating people living with HIV to initiate antiretroviral treatment outside national guidelines in three clinics in the HPTN 071 (PopART) trial, South Africa.African journal of AIDS research : AJAR · 2021Trial
- Article
- 'It is scary to pause treatment': perspectives on HIV cure-related research and analytical treatment interruptions from women diagnosed during acute HIV in Durban, South Africa.HIV research & clinical practice · 2025Article
- "A creature inside me": perceptions and representations of HIV among adolescents living with HIV in Malawi.AIDS research and therapy · 2025Article
- "My Mom Is a Fighter": A Qualitative Analysis of the Use of Combat Metaphors in ICU Clinician Notes.Chest · 2024Article
- The Traces of Cancer: A Metaphorical Understanding of the Experiences of Women Living Beyond Breast Cancer.Qualitative health research · 2024Article
- The Lived Experience of Informal Caregivers of People Who Have Severe Mental Illness and Coexisting Long-Term Conditions: A Qualitative Study.Health expectations : an international journal of public participation in health care and health policy · 2024Article
- Vulnerability in Biomedical Research: A Historical Reflection and Practical Implications for HIV Cure-Related Research.AIDS research and human retroviruses · 2024Article
- Who works on the 'frontline'? comparing constructions of 'frontline' work before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.Applied Corpus Linguistics · 2023Article
- Harnessing the Power of Words to Address the COVID-19 Crisis.Administration & society · 2023Article
- Perspectives on the insidious nature of pain metaphor: we literally need to change our metaphors.Frontiers in pain research (Lausanne, Switzerland) · 2023Review
- Social representations of cancer in patients from Medellín, Colombia: a qualitative study.Frontiers in sociology · 2023Article
- Exploring pandemic metaphors in educational contexts: a survey on the language of teachers and educators in Reggio Emilia, Italy.Frontiers in psychology · 2023Article
- "More than conquerors": a qualitative analysis of war metaphors for patients with cancer.Supportive care in cancer : official journal of the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer · 2022Article
- Cancer Prevention Sense Making and Metaphors in Young Women's Invented Stories.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
- Medical Metaphors: Increasing Clarity but at What Cost?The archives of bone and joint surgery · 2022Article
- A Critical Discourse Analysis of an Australian Incarcerated Trans Woman's Letters of Complaint and Self-Advocacy.Ethos (Berkeley, Calif.) · 2022Article
- "It's a war! It's a battle! It's a fight!": Do militaristic metaphors increase people's threat perceptions and support for COVID-19 policies?International journal of psychology : Journal international de psychologie · 2022Article
- Illustrating HIV Cure Research Strategies for the Next Generation of Research Participants: A Research-Community Collaboration.AIDS research and human retroviruses · 2022Article
- The incurable metastatic breast cancer experience through metaphors: the fight and the unveiling.International journal of qualitative studies on health and well-being · 2021Article
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Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Military metaphors are pervasive in biomedicine, including HIV research. Rooted in the mind set that regards pathogens as enemies to be defeated, terms such as "shock and kill" have become widely accepted idioms within HIV cure research. Such language and symbolism must be critically examined as they may be especially problematic when used to express scientific ideas within emerging health-related fields. In this article, philosophical analysis and an interdisciplinary literature review utilizing key texts from sociology, anthropology, history, and Chinese and African studies were conducted to investigate the current proliferation of military metaphors. We found the use of these metaphors to be ironic, unfortunate, and unnecessary. To overcome military metaphors we propose to (1) give them less aggressive meanings, and/or (2) replace them with more peaceful metaphors. Building on previous authors' work, we argue for the increased use of "journey" (and related) metaphors as meaningful, cross-culturally appropriate alternatives to military metaphors.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.