there’s been a lot of talk about internal monologues recently, what exactly does it mean? and how can i tell if i have one?
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did you ask yourself this question in your head before posting on reddit?
You literally catch yourself talking to yourself, but in your mind. You hear your voice. I don’t have an internal monologue.
Wait, you’re telling me that people *don’t* have an incessant, unrelenting internal monologue?
How does an internal monologue differ from just thinking?
I think i have an explanation that it happens to people who know more than 1 language. I know 2 langs and dont have internal monologue either.
You know words that have a meaning in 1 language but doesnt have an analog in the second langauge, and somehow you stop thinking in words, but in concepts instead. This maybe enables you to translate. Especially when translating idioms.
I learned english when i was a child and i dont remember if i had internal monologue before, but im sure i dont have now. I do definitely think, i just dont have a voice, unless i want to, but then im thinking about how to say the monologue more than thinking itself, so its distracting.
Sometimes though when thinking about a really tough problem, i can catch myself having some sort of monologue, but the thing is its *never* in my native langauge. And if i “say” something its often some kind of a key word because it emphasizes something important, its almost never a sentence.
And im not fluent in english so ig for people who are, the internal monologue just disappears entirely. Now imagine how a person who knows 10 langs thinks.
Idk thats my theory, but seems logical.
How do you think? Is it in words, sounds, pictures, or feelings.
Most people think in all four at different times, but tend to preference one or two of them.
Just… Don’t overthink this. A lot of people here have been self diagnosing themselves as not being able to think with an inner voice or not having a visual imagination because of poor communication. A lot of people use analogs to the senses and describe “seeing” images or “hearing” a voice and people who read that go “oh, I don’t hallucinate and all I hear is my tinnitus” and dismiss their otherwise perfectly standard imagination or inner voice because it doesn’t actually manifest itself in reality. It’s a thin, etheral feeling created in your mind. If you describe an apple to yourself in silence, how do you do it?
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