Spektrum Iran

The body politic under the knife: A critical evaluation of medical–political metaphors in Iranian political discourse

Document Type : Original Research Paper

Author

Mohsen Karami

Assistant Professor, Faculty of Religion and Media, IRIB University, Tehran, Iran

10.22034/spektrum.2026.574837.1062
Abstrakt
Political metaphors are not merely rhetorical embellishments but cognitive instruments that shape perception, structure judgment, and guide collective action. This article offers a philosophical examination of the epistemic, ethical, and socio-political implications of medical–political metaphors in political discourse. Drawing upon Conceptual Metaphor Theory, Critical Discourse Analysis, discourse ethics, and theories of epistemic injustice, the study argues that medicalized political language functions not simply as a descriptive device but as a mechanism that reorganizes political understanding through biologically derived schemas. The analysis proceeds in three stages. First, it reconstructs the conceptual architecture of five recurrent medical–political metaphors, demonstrating how political actors, institutions, and conflicts are mapped onto medical categories such as pathology, infection, surgery, and cancer. Second, it examines the epistemic consequences of these mappings, arguing that they simplify complex political phenomena, generate category mistakes, obscure agency and structural causality, narrow interpretive possibilities, encourage affective shortcuts in reasoning, and transfer the authority of scientific discourse into domains characterized by normative disagreement and political contingency. Third, it investigates their ethical and political consequences, showing how such metaphors can facilitate dehumanization, undermine mutual recognition, contribute to epistemic injustice, legitimize exclusionary practices, and normalize antagonistic identities and exceptional forms of governance. The article concludes that medical–political metaphors are not neutral instruments of political communication. By transforming political disagreement into pathology, they alter the epistemic and moral conditions underlying democratic judgment, public deliberation, and political pluralism. A critical examination of these metaphors is therefore indispensable for understanding the relationship between language, power, and democratic life.

Keywords

medical&ndash
political metaphors, conceptual metaphor theory, epistemic injustice, discourse ethics, political language, critical discourse analysis
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Spektrum Iran
Volume 39, Issue 1
January 2026
Pages 9-41

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