“Neuronal ideology”: grammatical metaphor and the naturalisation of neoliberal subjectivities in neurobiological research papers

Abstract This paper analyses the potential neoliberal biases found in one of the most influential theories of consciousness in contemporary neuroscience, the Global Neuronal Workspace hypothesis (GNW). Philosopher Catherine Malabou argues that there is a mirroring between managerial discourse and that of contemporary neurobiology. Surprisingly, there is scant linguistic work on the ideological form of neurobiological discourse. In response, I empirically evaluate a specific aspect of Malabou’s claim by using Michael Halliday’s concept of grammatical metaphor to interrogate the particular form of subjectivity implied by the rhetorical and lexicogrammatical construction of the GNW as a concept. This analysis shows that a particular form of grammatical metaphor, dubbed “circumstantial grammatical metaphor” is key to the construction of the GNW and blurs the distinction between the model and the materiality it models. These grammatical metaphors also appear to be involved in the production of broader conceptual metaphors. The results indicate there is evidence for correlations with what Luc Boltanski and Eve Chiapello call “the new spirit of capitalism” helping naturalise a reduced form of subjectivity.