It is only metaphor

I love me a good metaphor, I really do. Metaphors are a writer and a reader's nourishment and delight. Yet all good tools take judgment, and we can't lose sight of the fact that externalizing the illness is only metaphor.

Externalizing the illness, used in the Family-Based Maudsley Treatment , Narrative Therapy , and most notably by Jenni Schaefer to improve the lives of countless people is best employed to enhance but not replace our understanding of the illness itself. The best explorations of the benefits - and risks - has long been Vitousek's Alienating patients from the "Anorexic Self" . We need this tool in the toolbox, used wisely!