shrug I do both. Depending on the context, I might think about some subjects verbally and about some subjects non-verbally. If I am thinking about something social, having to do with people interactions, I will generally verbalize things in my head, replay or imagine dialogues, etc. If I am trying to understand something I just learned, I will often try to explain it to myself in words. But if I am solving a logic puzzle or trying to work out an algorithm or look at something beautiful like a painting or statue or a flower, I don't verbalize my thoughts. I can still feel myself thinking, I get the results of the thinking process, but I only start verbalizing again when the non-verbal part is done.
Not everyone has an internal monologue
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Re: Not everyone has an internal monologue
#282Unfathomable to me. My mind is constantly racing, playing out different conversations, interviewing myself in a variety of roles to navigate my thoughts on things (one day I'm the president of the US talking about foreign policy, another day I'm a big tech CEO navigating the diversity questions). I constantly have something in my ears to tune myself out, podcasts or music. After being diagnosed w/ ADHD I realize I'm…
Also ADHD and experience the world in a similar but slightly different way. All my narratives are about potential immediate futures and how they might tweak the longer term outcomes. It's interesting but insanely draining and often depressing. Since I've noticed this about my self I've been intentionally trying to take steps to slow my thoughts and be in the moment, but when I do I'm constituently thinking about how…
Another thing that happens is that when someone else is talking a lot of the time I've already thought through what they are saying to the point that they don't even need to say it for our conversation to continue and keep track. This makes me extremely annoyed by people I deem long winded. I used to try and hurry the conversation along, but it turns out people don't like that and it definitely makes me look like an ass hole. Also, sometimes I'm wrong and I not only look like an ass hole I definitely feel like an ass hole. As I've matured I've gotten better at listening and not looking annoyed, but my mind wonders as soon as I know where the convo is going. Haven't quite figured that one out yet
Re: Not everyone has an internal monologue
#283I took mushrooms once and only about a month after the trip did I realize I hadn’t been using an internal dialogue since the trip. It started up again and hasn’t really stopped since.
It was unnerving.
Re: Not everyone has an internal monologue
#284I saw this viral tweet and I hoped that was more scientific information to read, because I'm a little confused. I don't see enough information here to even determine which type of person I am. Of course I've always heard of "internal monologue" and of course I think about things using language. But I also don't "hear" anything, and definitely not something that literally sounds like my voice speaking. But if I were t…
> of course I think about things using language. "of course", no most of my thoughts are not expressible in any language. Why would they? Thoughts are so much richer than any language can possibly express. How to solve this physics problem? If I had to do it via a monologue it would take forever. Same with programming. Instead I just think the thoughts directly and just solve the problem without verbalizing anything.…
> Thoughts are so much richer than any language can possibly express.
I'm not sure about that. Couldn't it just be that we sometimes don't understand our own thoughts? If you can't describe one of your thoughts with language, I would say that you must not understand that thought. And of course we sometimes have thoughts which we don't understand.
I think that understanding our own thoughts is something that needs to be worked on, both individually (we certainly should be better at is as adults than as children) and collectively (science and philosophy should allow us to keep improving our understanding of our own thoughts).
Re: Not everyone has an internal monologue
#285Yup. "Do you think in English or in Russian?" -- "huh?.. neither". I can force myself to think "in words". However, most of the time it is something that could be described as colors being kind of physically stretched into shapes or even complete pictures. Converting those in words is a laborious process.
Unlike for author I am fascinated by it, because as I remember my whole life I am thinking in words. Maybe because I was reading since quite young age. I can imagine pictures as well, like people who have songs in their minds, I can imagine Rihanna singing "Umbrela" while imagining pictures from music video. I can imagine a lot of concrete things or songs but I cannot draw those or make such music. Only thing I can imagine and create is what I write.
But thinking in abstract shapes that is something I imagine I would get after taking some psyhodelic drugs, where sounds, and words would become shapes.
Is there something you grew up you could point to the way you are thinking maybe?
Re: Not everyone has an internal monologue
#286For those who do inner monologue - I worry about telling you about this. It might make you wish you didn't ever realize it. So.. spoiler in the next sentence. When you start talking in your head, pay attention to your vocal cords and the area around them... Notice anything? They're probably moving like they would if you were actually talking out loud. Have you ever noticed how you tried to talk really fast in your he…
I definitely have an inner monologue but my vocal cords don't move when I'm thinking or reading (this is called subvocalization [0]). There is a significant population of people that don't do it much/at all and you can be taught to suppress it.
My internal monologue doesn't seem to be constrained by my speaking speed, which aligns with your experience of being able to think very quickly when suppressing subvocalization.
Regarding your worries about people being able to tell: most of the time, the muscle movements involved in subvocalization are so small that they're not possible to see without the aid of machines [1] (though the speaker can often feel them, as you report).
Re: Not everyone has an internal monologue
#287Hmm actually now i'm not certain which one of these I have. I'm a software developer and I have kind of like two different "address spaces". There is the normal visual + auditory address space. And there is the "intuition space" which is similar to the first one (e.g. I can imagine a 3D object and rotate my viewpoint around it, simulate conversations, etc), but it's with limited detail, more like black and white unle…
Visualizing code is a pretty useful tool. I can't do it as easily for problems that I have yet to solve, but I can do it for problems that I understand well.
Interestingly enough, however, it's the playing around with the 3D structure in my head that makes it fun for me to solve problems. It's a pleasurable activity to noodle on problems that way.
Re: Not everyone has an internal monologue
#288[deleted]
Re: Not everyone has an internal monologue
#289Interesting topic (and comments). 1. I do inner monologue. And I have to say, sometimes I get scared from what I "hear". I don't mean sometjing like "I hear voices telling me to kill everyone", but nasty, brutally cynical, sometimes outright violent thoughts. They feel alien to me, because on general level I consider myself "the good guy", but one the other hand they don't feel like someone else whispering me evil th…
Intrusive thoughts are normal. I get that too, stuff I'd never say out loud (and that I'd not agree with). I think it's just a natural way for our brain to bring up alternatives and test our assumptions.
On your second point I think that thinking in words actually slows down my thoughts too. I've read about it and try not to, but sometimes it doesn't feel right until I spell it out to myself like I'm explaining to a child.
Re: Not everyone has an internal monologue
#290"Dialog" is a narrow minded way to describe the metabolic processes that take raw input and make something out of it.