Today I Learned That Not Everyone Has An Internal Monologue And It Has Ruined My Day.
And now I need to know who these psychopaths are and how they get through life and it's many decisions.
Forums:
DISCLAIMER: Forum topics may not have been written or edited by The Key Play staff.
Comments
I have conversations all the time in my head. Sometime I move my mouth as if I'm conversing with an imaginary friend. It helps me to think and solve problem.
Scared?
As you become older you'll notice that that conversation is said out loud with greater frequency
When I saw this topic, that's what I thought the discussion was going to be about. I was hoping for some good stories, or youtube videos of crazy folks talking to themselves in public. I'm quite disappointed.
I picked this up from my dad pretty early in life....I'm 26 and have daily conversations about where my keys are and how dumb it was to kick the coffee table with my dog/myself. My dad refers to himself in the 3rd person when he does this....haven't made it that far yet.
How does one kick a coffee table with their dog?
I couldn't have written that sentence much worse.
What will make it funnier is the fact I am deaf, and I can talk fairly well. Sometime, I get questions like, "Can you hear in your dream? Do you sign or speak in your dream?"
My answer is yes to both questions.
Oh shit, that's bad, I already think out loud way too much.
Sometimes that's the only way to have an intelligent conversation.
It's OK to talk to yourself as long as you don't argue....and it's ok to argue with yourself as long as you don't LOSE! At least that's what the voices in my head always told me.(or was that my mom?)
I literally talk out loud (whisper) to myself all day...uh oh
The voice inside my head told me not to click on this.
I should listen more to that guy. He get's it.
That is the Leonardest of Leonard's comments. Well done.
Most of my engineer friends at Tech talked to their computers - is that the same thing?
Hated this movie as a kid
One of my favorite ST movies as an adult
Never noticed in the movie, but in this picture it looks like DeForest Kelley is trying not to laugh.
Underrated scene.
A keyboard, how quaint
I love how they're trying to be funny with how quickly he's able to type to show how absurd it must be, but damn if that isn't actually slow by today's standards.
NEW KLEE YOUR WESSELS
TIL not everyone has a computer monologue.
For the record I have convos in my head, and sometimes I end speaking to myself lol.
Honestly, if I didn't have an inner monologue I think I might be better off lol.
I'm confused, so some people hear their own voice when they are reading or thinking? Or can the monologue be just the part where you hear the words you are typing/writing out?
I never hear anything in my voice except for the last word I said to someone that made me cringe. currently it is "okie dokie" to my coworker about 2 hours ago.
I hear my own voice when I think, type, etc. When I am weighing the odds in my head, feel like I did something stupid, etc.
You don't hear your own voice when you are thinking?
No, there is no real voice there, just my brain putting things together with no sounds.
This is hard for me to explain. But it's definitely not my voice.
yeah i don't actually HEAR anything. but i definitely think and i definitely have a running internal monologue.
Yep, okay. Same here. Thank you for putting that into words for my silent brain
This, and at times I wonder if I have said something out loud or just thought about saying something and never got around to it
This happens to me a decent bit. Especially I can't tell if my internal monologue has turned into me talking out loud to myself...
when I think verbally, I "hear" my own voice (as I hear it when I speak, not as it actually sounds to others). When I recall something someone else said to me, I "hear" their voice. If I don't know the voice, I "hear" it as my own or assign other voices I know depending on context.
But I don't think exclusively verbally. Pretty much only when it has to do with language or syntax of some kind. When I paint or draw, I just see what I'm trying to get to (sometimes). Other times I use sentences or parts of sentences and my brain fills in visual bits.
example: "So, if I want to" [cloud image] "then I've got to" [arm movement].
This usually isn't out loud though.
This blows my mind. I've asked a few coworkers if they have one or not. They all have said they have one. Glad to know I'm not working with psychopathic serial killers.
My work group just
wastedspent 20 minutes on this topic.I'll say you guys had a productive discussion.
I only hear the echoing sobs of my haters
Sounds like something a professional wrestler would say....Or a Patriots fan.
that last part hurts, brother
According to the voices I hear in my head, this definitely falls into the category of "Off Topic".
I "hear" things in my brain, but I don't "see" anything. Blew my mind a few years back when I figured out that "picturing something in your head" wasn't just a fancy turn of phrase...
Constant monologue that digresses occasionally into a dialogue. Usually to myself, but as noted above, increasingly out loud as I age. When the yakking stops, the music takes over and never stops until the yakking begins again. I get pretty tired of the music thing, but have learned to live with it after the many decades of trying to trick/erase/eradicate, etc. I literally have no silent moments in my brain unless I'm asleep, and who the hell knows what's going on then?
is this really a revelation?
Hasn't it been well established that some people are abstract thinkers and others are linguistic thinkers? Although, I do remember dumbfounding a friend of mine when I told him I am abstract thinker and often can't think of the words to describes my thoughts. Idk, maybe abstract thinkers know this but linguistic thinkers do not.
Edit (Add on):
Also wondering for those who didn't know some people are abstract thinkers. How do you think autism presents itself? Did you think people on the spectrum have no thoughts in their head? Or just never considered that their thoughts are abstract and simply unable to convey them linguistically?
yes yes YES. so many times i find myself saying "i'm not really sure if that's the right way to describe what i'm thinking... maybe (rephrase?)"
but usually i do alright when i write because i have time to self-edit and make sure what's coming out does a good job of what's going on in my mind
Edited in some parentheses because it didn't like the arrow brackets
But abstract thinkers still have words floating around in their heads, don't they?
I think everyone has times when they can't think of the correct word to express what they're thinking, particularly in a way that someone else will easily understand.
Yea. I would think most do. Its different skillsets and may be a little difficult to use both at the same time. Probably depends on the person.
I would think it's a balance and one can dominate the other.
I used to be more abstract thinker and less linguistic (with very infrequent inner voice), but now I'm probably at least 50/50 (inner voice is frequent). I am a scientist that then became a lawyer and had to build up and improve my linguistic skills (they were absolute crap when I matriculated into law school). I do think my abstract thinking has suffered as a consequence, as I hardly ever get a chance to practice it.
So, I now think things through more with an inner voice than I used to.
I think I'm the type that has the inner voice, but sometimes I hit this same problem. I never chalked it up to thinking abstractly because I've usually been able to sift through the thought process to find a way to describe it. If it's an abstract thought, I can usually pull an analogy out of somewhere.
But I've also hit scenarios where I just have to throw up my hands and say, 'It just feels right/wrong'. I always credited the way I felt about something comes from the amygdala, which is a primitive part of the brain but has no capability of determining how to say it. If I can think it consciously, the prefrontal cortex is involved somehow and that guy can definitely tell me how to say it, even if he does fuck it up pretty regularly.
Me right now
The voice in my head is pretty profane while commuting in traffic to work.
FTFY
If you can manage to keep that voice internal and silent you are either a model of self control or a potential postal worker.
Not sure which.
I can say that most people seem to use hand signals and screamed profanities. Well, except for those who are busy cutting everyone else off.
My PC just told me to abandon thread.
Don't you hate it when the voices in your basement tell you to stop listening to the voices in your head?
...
Nobody?
Ha ha, yeah umm, me neither.
Buzz Lightyear and Woody would like to have a word.
These people must have much more delightful meditation sessions than I do
This has kind of been alluded to in this thread, but I think most of this ambiguity results from people being unable to relate to how other people describe what goes on in their head.
Had the exact same conversations with people last year when that article came out about people being able to "See" mental images.
Does anyone feel like they might have a little bit of both? It seems like most of my thoughts are in plain english, but it also seems like I occasionally run into a situation where I know what I think about something but the thoughts don't translate to words (this especially sucks when trying to convey to someone else).
Sometimes in my head I'll associate things with colors or just certain kinds of feelings. Usually it's how my head categorizes years.
On a related note, my wife is unable to form images in her head. It's called aphantasia. She can remember sounds and feelings, but she has no visual memory of things.
as an introvert who pretty much lives in his head, I can't even imagine my life without an internal monologue. Maybe I would actually talk to people more........