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Why do we have an internal monologue?
(lemmy.world)
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this post was submitted on 02 Jan 2024
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Ok, I have a question for you guys.
I consider myself to have an internal monologue, but it doesn't just run all the time. Like, sometimes my thoughts have words, and sometimes they don't. Is it like that for the rest of you who have an IM? I always assumed it would be, but considering some people don't have one at all, it wouldn't surprise me that much if some people had one constantly.
I really tried to word this in a way that makes sense.. sorry if it doesn't lol.
One of the "constantly" group here. It's a bit more like having someone to talk to all the time who is also me. I can turn it off, but it has to be a concentrated effort and as soon as I'm not concentrated on keeping it silent it comes back.
I've spent many years wondering at the nature of the little voice, especially after I learned that not everyone has it. It's not controlling or contradictory, it's a bit more like a narrator for my feelings and a driving point for logic.
I've come to the conclusion that what it actually is is my subconscious manifesting as a conversational partner. Kind of like an avatar that represents the part of me that isn't the literal point of consciousness inside my head. Make of that what you will.
Don't get me wrong, I still think in pictures and non-verbal inclinations. That doesn't really go away either. But it's like having a narrator alongside it that also speaks in the first person.
You don't consciously control yours? Mine is conversational with myself, but it's a single entity. Like if it's critical, it's me being critical of myself, not one part of me blaming another part. It's not a two-way conversation; it's a monologue that I have full and conscious control of. I can cut it off but still know what it was going to say.
There is a voice I consciously control, and there is one that I don't. They kind of intermingle into a single monologue, but I can still hear the one I don't control when I consciously turn off my monologue. It's still a quiet presence almost in the back of my mind.
One way I've rationalized it, it's like when you meditate and your thoughts still flow over you. You don't actively control those thoughts, that's kind of the point. I'm finding that those thoughts have a coherent voice for me. They speak through my monologue, but they are still there when I shut my monologue off. Under the surface, quieter, with the rest of the thoughts I don't control.
My experience is the same as yours. I have an inner monologue, but it is not constant. My thoughts do not always come in the form of words.
In fact, I would say that wordless thoughts are my default and the IM comes when I am trying to figure something out.
Wow I'm like the complete opposite of you. Inner monolog is default and if I'm trying to figure something out it's like pictures or a 3d model in my brain or, if in deeper thought, I'm not even here but in like, a different plane solving the issue in my head space.
Same. It’s like a different part of my brain works for spatial reasoning, which I guess is true? Lol but yeah when truly focused you leave your plane to view something else. It isn’t only visual though it’s almost all encompassing in some ways. And generally is the “flow” state for me.
Hm, interesting.
I can also have images when trying to figure certain things. For example, if I'm moving then I will have images of where to place boxes and furniture in the truck or in the apartment, but these images are typically combined with words like "if I put this here, then..." Or if I'm trying to remember where I put something then it's memory combined with "after I got home I..."
In fact, the easier a problem is, the fewer words I use. But when something is really stumping me, the words are more prevalent. And angrier. More like "This doesn't make sense! If the positive and negative are both connected then power should flow through. Maybe this f*cking thing is broken"
Exactly, I can be so completely gone, I don't sense anything around me.
Same. Kind of both. When I'm doing like a Jimmy neutron brain blast, it's all pictures and like.. 3d models in my brain.
it never off, annoying af
it may be many voices speaking simultaneously at different levels of consciousness. you don't know how noisy it is until you do some zen cock garbage and temporarily experience inner quiet.