Do you have an inner voice?

In My Humble Opinion
1

I’m sure this has been done before. I’ve read this in the past: some people do not have an inner monologue.

I came across it again today, based on a social media question about reading silently to yourself. This person was claiming that he didn’t hear the words in his head: he just visualized the story.

Others were baffled. They would explain that they would read the words, hearing them in their head. Dialogue would have inflection or an accent. And if a passage didn’t sound right in their head, they might re-read it.

I’m in this latter group. I have a running monologue in my head, not just when I read.

Sometimes it’s playing a song. Sometimes it’s rehashing some picayune conversation I had decades ago. Or imagining a conversation (usually work related) yet to come. Or maybe play acting some fantastical role.

If I’m really focused, it’s talking about what I’m doing. But if I’m doing something mundane, like taking a shower or driving a car, it’s amazing where it goes.

So, how about you? Do you have an inner voice?

If not, how do you think? It baffles me to conceive of (although it would be so much relaxing). When you read, do you hear the words?

And if you do have an inner voice, do you have control over it? What do you do when it wanders, or randomly decides to remind you of some embarrassment from years before?

Bruce Lee talked about not disparaging yourself, even when you are joking. Any tips on training the ole’ melon to be more Bruce Lee-like?

2

Bunch of them. These days I’m not sure who’s running the show in my head.

3

I spoke with a guy a couple of months ago who claimed almost the opposite - that he could not form mental images. After our somewhat lengthy talk I came up with multiple questions I’ll ask the next time I see him.

4

Feynman wrote about this after he discovered that people even count to ten (or whatever) differently: inner voice, “visualizing” it, whatever.

As for mental training to control how your mind works, I’m by no means an expert, but serious training in meditation is probably the way to go.

5

Yeah, I hear the dialog and even the accents, if it’s a British speaker. I wonder if people who don’t have that ‘voice’ are less able to learn a foreign language.

6

I sure do and I am astonished that many people do not. I can’t imagine living without that inner monologue talking to you.

I’d be willing to bet Donald Trump has no inner monologue. I can’t imagine how someone could be who he is if he had one.

7

I am not sure what an inner voice is, so I guess I don’t have one. I sometimes have earworms, but I guess that does not count, does it? I can read much faster than I can speak, and I don’t have to say the words aloud in my mind to read and understand and remember what I have read.
I sometimes answer aloud to the ideas that silently cross my mind. That way lies tourette, I guess. Still far to go, I hope.
And then there is this disturbing peeeeeep! sound that only I can hear. I would gladly get rid of it if I could.

If I am in that camp the answer is no.

8

Definitely I think in words, not images. I have real difficulty visualising anything: not quite aphantasia, perhaps, but certainly on the spectrum.

Am also good with languages, but was having just this conversation with a friend who thinks only in images, who is also good at languages, and she is better than I with accents.

I dramatically prefer reading to watching videos: I wonder if that is related?

9

It’s you “talking” to yourself inside your own head. Like when you go to sleep and you think, “Does Chris like me? I am not sure. Maybe I should ask but then if I do maybe that will screw things up!”

An inner monologue.

10

I would enjoy the peace and quiet.

11

Amen to that.

I think I need it though and would miss it when all is said and done.

12

Oh dear. I have been living with inner voices all my life.
They vary in intensity and frequency depending on current circumstances.

I am always narrating or interpreting my space in the universe. For better or worse.

Right now I am battling the “catastrophic future” inner voice which is frequently usurped by OCD inner voice which is begging me to cut the strings off the towels.

13

Yes, I do. I sometimes tell my inner voice to shut the fuck up. It drives me bananas.

I seem to often think “we” instead of “I” when I’m thinking about what to have for dinner, ie: “What should we have for dinner tonight?” I will then laugh at myself and think who the hell is we?

14

Applicable t-shirt

15

I am never very sure whether people describing an inner monologue are all talking about the same thing - some of them sound like they have a voice talking to them in their head, dictating their thoughts to them; others sound like they have full control over what the inner voice says.

I can think in words in my head (like I might talk through a problem out loud, but just not out loud) - I can do this to the extent that I can practice a vocal performance (for example if I want to put on an accent or if I want to say something in a specific way). I can sing in my head if I need to.
I do also have thought processes that are not beholden to a narrative mechanism and consist of pictures, concepts, etc or just thoughts that fit together in their own way.

I recently spoke to a person who is very much more accomplished at imitation of accents than I am, but who says he does not have an inner monologue - he apparently has to practice accents out loud before he gets anywhere close.

16

Yeah, I have an inner voice. It doesn’t wander that much but whenever I think of smth embarrasing, I just process it and move on. I’m not the type of person who doesn’t cares a lot about what others think of me so I don’t dwell that much on what I could’ve said or done. I care somewhat when it comes to family but I feel like that’s just a given.

17

My first inclination was to say no, and I don’t even understand what the OP is talking about. But in fact, on further reflection, in the broader interpretation of “is there sometimes a dialogue going on in my head”, the answer is yes. It generally occurs when there’s a conflict or a decision to be made.

In that decision-making situation, there are a couple of virtual homunculuses arguing inside my head, in plain, comprehensible arguments that could be verbally articulated.

There’s an old episode of I Love Lucy where Ricky Ricardo is asked how he made some fateful decision, and he replies “Easy! I just think about it in Spanish, and translate it into English!”. That was supposed to be a joke but is actually unintentionally insightful. Some of us do conceptualize in language (I think I mostly do) while the mental processes of others may focus more on imagery or other senses.

18

I am just talking to myself (not speaking, it’s in my head). I think if you have an outside voice (but in your head that only you can “hear”) talking to you that suggests schizophrenia. (IANAD)

19

No, that’s the wife.
And she is right, of course.

20

I had that problem once. :wink: