To ask: do you have an inner-monologue?

[allthatgrace]

I don't have an inner-monologue and never realised that some people do. My thoughts are rapid, abstract and conceptual rather than verbal.

For example, if I am thinking that I'm hungry and want to start making dinner it takes the form of something like: concept of hunger+concept of dinner+concept of it being the evening/dinner time. After speaking to my family members they would have an inner-voice that actually says "I'm hungry, I think I'll go start dinner".

I have also always been confused about the idea of having an inner-critic that berates you. I've never heard an inner-voice say, for example, "nobody cares what you have to say, don't bother speaking, everything you say is stupid", instead I would just feel the sensation of shyness and wanting to stay quiet.

I can make myself have an inner-voice and I will use it occasionally, for example if I'm trying to remember a particular phrase or something but my default thinking is not an inner-monologue.

Which kind of thoughts do you have?

I don't have an inner monologue. For ages I thought the idea that some people did was just to make TV and books more interesting, I only realised relatively recently that many people genuinely experience the world like that. It's totally possible to daydream/imagine scenarios without one, I do it all the time.

I find this so interesting! Haven't read the full thread so sorry if this has been asked but if you don't have an internal monologue then what happens in your head when you are reading something? I have a constant internal monologue and when reading something it basically reads the words aloud in my head

OP are you an extrovert or introvert? I'm guessing more introverted people talk to themselves in their head, I know I do grin

I'm not the OP, and Ive remarked before on this thread that I'm definitely an introvert, yet I have no inner monologue. I have plenty going on in my head, positive and sometimes negative. But it's not monologue or narrative.

@girlmama If I'm reading English, I just look at the shapes of the words and understand the meaning. I don't "hear" them. If I'm reading in another language I have to sound out most of the words in my head to make any sense of it.

What an intriguing thread! I don’t think I have an inner monologue, like the OP, my thoughts just kind of float in and out.
But I do have a busy mind and I daydream a fair bit. My mind often wanders if I’m watching tv and when I realise my mind has wandered and refocus, I will then forget what I have been daydreaming about.
For those who asked what happens when you read, I don’t hear the story, I just kind of take it in.
The only time I do this inner talking business is when I am really anxious - kind of talking myself down, but I don’t enjoy it and it makes me feel more anxious.

However, since reading this thread I am now reading the words and saying my thoughts in my head, so maybe something has been switched on!!

@hugocat

OP are you an extrovert or introvert? I'm guessing more introverted people talk to themselves in their head, I know I do

I would have thought the opposite as introverts like peace and quiet!

@lazylinguist

But that's what those of us do who don't have the monologue: we think which is ideas, abstracts, concepts. What people have been describing is thinking "in words" which is really odd; so limiting in terms of the concepts accessible, bound by your own language and expressible concepts in it. And very slow and imprecise, like language, due to its nature. To think "in words" seems to be what people mean by a monologue and I'm so surprised and fascinated to discover this is how many people think, I had no idea. Rather than thinking then "translating" their thoughts into words as best they can when needed, within the limitations of the shared language of the person they are conversing with.

Language is incredibly varied and subtle, and can be vague or precise. There is evidence that the way people think and the way they see and interpret the world is at least partly shaped by the language they speak (presumably whether they have an inner monologue or not).

Thinking in words can't be that odd, since most people seem to do it. It is a bit odd for you to declare as 'limited' something that you apparently haven't experienced and didn't even know was a thing. As for your belief that language is merely for 'communicating as best we can', as though it's some blunt tool... think of the things expressed in literature. I think language gives experience and feelings more meaning and complexity, rather than being a poor interpretation of them.

If I have non-word-based thoughts, they tend to be immediate, primitive-type feelings, like if I stub my toe or feel hungry or tired. More complex emotions and thoughts come with language for me.

No need to be so defensive. I have said I find it hard to imagine hence being very interested in discussing it and hearing other people's experiences.

I love literature, I studied it for many years. It is still an approximation though, and interestingly different people have a very different emotional reaction to or understanding of different texts, which shows that it isn't a clear way to transfer thoughts or knowledge or emotions from one brain to another. Much is "lost in translation" to language and back to thought again in the other head. Obviously much of it is beautiful and rich and stimulating but I still maintain that the language we have at present can pnly communicate a small fraction of an experience or idea, a shadow or a mirage of it.

@RowanAlong

HalcyonSea Yes, agree if I was reading a book set in Italy I wouldn’t read/hear a character with an Italian ‘lilt’ but if there was something special about a characters speech I would hear it (I.e if they were whispering I would hear that lowered voice). I wonder, if you are recalling a conversation with someone, playing it back in your mind, as it were, how does that work if you don’t ‘hear’ the words? On top of that I hear my mum’s voice when I think of something she said last week, or I can recall my late Grandad’s laugh and jokes in his West Mids accent. Is this normal? I have no idea!

If I was recalling an actual conversation with someone I can replay the sound in my head, the same as I could with music. Or the sound of the sea. It's just that my thoughts aren't expressed in sound unless they specifically relate to a sound.

Another thing that's just occured to me: whenever I hear my voice on video, how it sounds to other people, I find it very odd as it's so different to how it sounds to me when I speak. For those with internal monologues, do you hear you voice as you hear it yourself when you talk, or how it actually sounds when recorded?

*your voice

@Bopahula

Yes yes yes. Constantly. It's so noisy.

And for visuals yes, when I read a book it's like being in a film. I get completely immersed. Not like on a screen watching it, but I'm watching from the middle of it. The characters have different voices/accents. It means anything scary is completely off limits though.

I also can have amazing daydreams. Although they're not as vivid as they were. Which I miss at night when trying to settle into a nice sleep.

I always find I’m really disappointed when I watch a film of a book I’ve read. It’s never as good as I’ve already seen it in my head.

Natsku, yes! I sometimes get a sentence stuck in my head that I repeat over and over again.

My eldest boy, aged 13, says he doesn’t hear a voice in his head when he thinks. Interestingly he never shuts up. If he’s playing a game or doing a chore or whatever he’s constantly talking about what he’s doing. Even if no one else is in the room and he knows he’s talking to himself he still does it. I presume this is because he can’t articulate these thoughts in his head so has to say them out loud constantly?

Natsku, yes! I sometimes get a sentence stuck in my head that I repeat over and over again.

It's even worse when it's just a fragment over and over. Just part of a sentence.

I usually tell myself it's just a phrase I'm going through.

I'll get my coat...

@Bluebutterfly36

This is such an interesting thread! I have never even considered that people have an internal monologue. It must be so exhausting. Thoughts just kind of float into my head. I can think about several things simultaneously because they are separate clouds of thoughts. When I read, I don’t read the words by saying then in my head, I just absorb the meaning. I can also read out loud a bedtime story to DS whilst thinking about something completely different - we get to the end of the book and I haven’t registered any of the words, just spoken them (whilst having a completely imaginary scenario about something else in my head). I also see people’s names in colours - I was only told a few months ago that there is a word for this (it’s synesthesia). So no inner monologue, but since having DCs I will swear in my head (a lot) so I don’t say it out loud in front of them!

I'm like this. Can read entire books to my kids whilst thinking about something completely different! I verbalise my thoughts alot because I DONT have an inner dialogue. I used to daydream vividly as a child but have almost switched this part of my brain off. I also have ADHD.

@babbaloushka

Yes, but I also have ADHD so an unfortunate amount of inner monologue also ends up as outer monologue...

I can relate!!

Yes and sometimes I start saying it under my breath without realising it until one of the family tells me

Re different languages: I have a constant internal monologue (often plus music), but also have some thoughts that are a feeling/something I know without hearing. I moved countries as an adult to somewhere I didn't speak the language at all. I learnt it pretty quickly from hearing people speak it around me all day and after around a year I began thinking and dreaming in the second language. Literally heard my thoughts/internal monologue in that language. Initially mixed with English but the amount of English decreased as time went on until it was completely in the second language. Sometimes if I was in a group where English was being spoken I would forget to swap and unconsciously talk in the second language without realising because it was my default for thinking.

Not sure if it's because of how I learnt it but I never really had the stage of having to translate from English into the other language in my head - at some point I just understood what different words meant, the only effortful thinking was to translate words I wasn't sure of when speaking.

Super interesting, and I definitely think the differences between languages impacts the way we think of things. Certainly I noticed a difference when I'm 'thinking' in another language.

I'm intrigued by those who say they can't visualise things - do you not have any visual memories? Trying to imagine this as I'm very visual, and can stop 'seeing' whatever I'm actually looking at when I'm daydreaming/imagining something.

This concept is so interesting and baffling at the same time.

I’m trying to work out if I have it or not: sometimes I might make a comment to myself “in my head”, but I have to consciously think about it when I do so, and I certainly don’t do it for every action I take.

Those of you who definitely know that you have an inner monologue: is it actually a voice that you hear all the time? Without thinking about creating that voice on a conscious level?

If that’s what it’s like, then I definitely don’t have it, but it’s so difficult trying to figure it out, as I can’t imagine what that’s like!

I haven't read all the thread.
I recently became aware of this actually being a thing, where people don't just randomly spout out of their head words and sentences.
I mean, it's my voice, all day long, in words but in my head.
I literally spaff words out my fingertips
Sometimes the only way to release it haha

I was always amazed when my DH said he had periods of not thinking.

See, I don't get that personally - what is there up there then?! Just blank space, or what lol?
Genuine question as now got a mental image of Homer and his monkey playing the drums/cymbals

I thought everyone did this!

What about when it turns into an outer-monologue? I was in M&S at lunch today talking to myself in my head about the samosas, then said outloud 'I can heat those up in the microwave at work', realised there was someone nearby who heard, must have thought I was slightly nuts!

@SachaStark
This concept is so interesting and baffling at the same time.

I’m trying to work out if I have it or not: sometimes I might make a comment to myself “in my head”, but I have to consciously think about it when I do so, and I certainly don’t do it for every action I take.
Those of you who definitely know that you have an inner monologue: is it actually a voice that you hear all the time? Without thinking about creating that voice on a conscious level?
If that’s what it’s like, then I definitely don’t have it, but it’s so difficult trying to figure it out, as I can’t imagine what that’s like!

Yes, it's my voice like I'd be talking if I was in RL.
It's there as an internal monologue just the same, thinking in words and knowing when not to verbalize lol

@user1471462634

What about when it turns into an outer-monologue? I was in M&S at lunch today talking to myself in my head about the samosas, then said outloud 'I can heat those up in the microwave at work', realised there was someone nearby who heard, must have thought I was slightly nuts!

Lol, cross posted, as I said need to know when to not verbalize, it's a fine line lol

Quaagars