Maybe I just misunderstand what an inner monologue is, but how can people claim not to have one? Are their heads empty and they’re just reacting to stimuli?
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Most of the thinking everyone does happens without an internal monologue.
For example, have you ever forgotten a word or been unable to express yourself verbally? Surely that wouldn’t be possible if the only way you could form thoughts was to have them spoken inside your mind. Have you ever recognized someone but forgotten their name? How could you do that if your thoughts were based on an internal monologue?
Even in practice an internal monologue is far from complete. You might think “I need to make dinner,” but understand a myriad of underlying steps and concepts without internally verbalizing them. You could understand the concept of needing to prepare dinner just the same way, without the internal monologue.
After all, what motivates the internal monologue if you didn’t understand something prior to that point?
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