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Not everyone has an internal monologue

ryanandrewlangdon.wordpress.com

11–20 of 904 posts

Re: Not everyone has an internal monologue

#11
Similarly, not everyone can visualize things in their mind. Pixar's founder Ed Catmull did a survey of Pixar employees and, interestingly, there wasn't that big of a skew of artists who are able to mentally visualize.

https://www.bbc.com/news/health-47830256

I wonder if there's an intersection of people who do not have an internal monologue nor a "mind's eye?"

Re: Not everyone has an internal monologue

#14

I've never heard my voice in my head. When I hear folks talk about it, I assume something like this scene from a game where the character Jaina is blaming herself for numerous failures. Though perhaps the 1984 version of Dune would be closer? [2] [1] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDj2aaxixxo [ WoW Spoiler: Realm of Torment] [2] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A54yfyi00dI Dune: Fear and Pain

Can you not "sound out" words in your head while reading? Is that the same thing or something else entirely?

Re: Not everyone has an internal monologue

#15
post #3

There are also people who code-switch. I sometimes monologue and sometimes think abstractly.

This is interesting, because this is close to how I'd describe my thoughts. Occasionally I can go fully abstract with good focus, but most of the time I'm monologuing. Do you ever find yourself struggling to switch over to abstract thought because the monologue is just a duplication of effort?

Re: Not everyone has an internal monologue

#16
post #3

There are also people who code-switch. I sometimes monologue and sometimes think abstractly.

Me too. Sometimes I notice my internal monologue is slowing me down, so I turn it off and let the thoughts flow without converting them into words. Other times, I feel like the abstract thoughts are coming too quickly, so I'm like "woah, slow down there!" and work my way through the same thought process again in words, to assure myself that I'm not skipping steps and jumping to conclusions.

Re: Not everyone has an internal monologue

#17
I've been fascinated by this concept ever since I studied American Sign Language in university. When I spent enough time signing, I stopped thinking in words.

My thoughts became more abstract, quieter. It was actually kind of nice, peaceful. I don't know that I was any smarter or able, but it was a notably different experience in a minor way.

But then I graduated, moved, and stopped spending 1-2 nights per week at the campus pub signing with other students. And it all slowly went back to a loud internal monologue instead.

Re: Not everyone has an internal monologue

#18

> I would tell them that I could look at myself in the mirror and have a full blown telepathic conversation with myself without opening my mouth and they responded as if I had schizophrenia. One person even mentioned that when they do voice overs in movies of people’s thoughts, they “wished that it was real.” I think this author has an inaccurate understanding of people who do not have an "auditory" inner monologue.…

My interpretation is that the author isn't referring to people who suppress vocalization by choice but rather to people who can't enable vocalization in the first place.

Re: Not everyone has an internal monologue

#19

Interesting. I've been actively suppressing verbalization whenever it comes up as far as I can remember -- it is annoying af, as annoying as those silly tunes that get stuck in your head. Not sure if that actually affected amount of internal monologue I do have, but I definitely don't have it on all the time. Mostly when rehearsing an actual past or expected conversation.

Do you have any tricks on suppressing verbalization? I've found that it feels really wasteful when I realize that half my thoughts are just acting as a translator for the abstract side, instead of keeping it abstract until I get to something I need to verbalize.

Re: Not everyone has an internal monologue

#20
I wonder if this is related to (forgive the term) grammar-nazi-ism. I'm pretty sure I don't have any inner-monologue, at least the concept of it sounds weird to me. I'm also super picky about grammar: if someone writes "its cold out today" I have to re-read the sentence to try to understand it. I don't "hear" "it's cold" in my head, I parse "its (posessive) cold" which doesn't make any sense, and I have to go back and re-read it to fix the writer's error.
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