Love is an Illness

1. Identify or choose a concept, which we understand through metaphor: Love is an illness.

2. List all the phrases/expressions that reflect this metaphor:

a. Love is killing me

b. Falling in love

c. Love sick

d. Love is blind

e. Crazy in love

3. Explain the way this particular metaphor structures our perceptions understanding: People refer to love as an illness because they can become so attached to the person to the extend where its like a disease. It can cause extreme behavior and make people do things that they would not usually do. As a result, people could be putting their lives at risk. Love is also thought of as an illness because at times it could cause deep sadness.

In fact, in the past being ‘love struck’ was used to describe medical and physical symptoms related to ‘falling in love’. “Love-struck. It means to be hit by love...you are hit in your heart by the emotion of love.” In history, being ‘love struck’ is referred to as a short-lived mental illness cause by strong changes related to love.

4. Imagine a different way of conceptualizing this topic-or identify the similarities and differences in another language. How would that change our understanding/perception?

I think that the concept of life is universal. Even in other cultures love is thought of in the same way: Two people who have deep feelings towards each other and express them in ways that they wouldn’t with others. Also, in Arabic the term ‘falling in love’ is pretty much the same and it has the same meaning.

· Love is war

o Love is a battlefield

· Love is a drug

· Love struck

· Love game

o You win her heart