Imagine that outside the window you hear the annoying screams of hooligans or the scream of a cat in March, or the roar of a car. You will experience a lot of negative emotions, but think briefly: “cat”, “car”, “hooligans”. Although, if you say your thoughts out loud, they will sound differently. For example, like this: “Again this vile punks with their screams and alcohol, which are already in my throat.” This is how the inner and outer speech of a person works. The inner voice is short, it does not express emotions, from which they remain inside the person and continue to put pressure on him. But this is far from all that you need to know about inner speech.
Inner speech: what is
Each person is endowed with an inner voice, only in psychology it is called inner speech. It arises in the process of thinking, helps to carry out thought operations in the mind. Remember how you count or read something, listen to someone or remember something. I am now writing this article, and every letter from the text, every word sounds in my head. This is how inner speech works.
What is inner speech for:
- logical processing of sensory data;
- awareness and understanding of the received or reproduced information;
- instruction in the process of activity;
- self-esteem and introspection of actions, actions, experiences;
- selection, analysis, generalization, memorization of information;
- better focus on the problem, task.
Inner speech is the preparatory stage. Internal assessment allows you to understand whether it is worth translating internal speech into written or spoken. Surely you have had similar “rehearsals” of speech. Before you say something, you say it, and sometimes you play different answers of your opponent.
Inner speech develops gradually. So, it is difficult for preschoolers and younger students to read “to themselves” (not aloud). They move on to internal speech gradually, and at first they read in a voice or in a half whisper. Inner speech begins to develop towards the end of the first year of a child’s life. It comes out of the self-centered speech that children experience while playing.
Thinking out loud
Inner speech differs from oral or written speech. It is more abstract, endowed with images, associations, representations, but at the same time concepts and definitions. The more difficult the mental task, the louder the inner voice sounds. Studies have confirmed that when talking internally, the same muscles tighten as when speaking, the tongue, larynx, and lips work. Sometimes the inner voice even turns into a whisper, loud speech or scream.
This is necessary to better represent the problem and task. Full-fledged monologues and dialogues with oneself help to comprehensively analyze objects, catch thoughts, control words and actions.
From this we can conclude that in a difficult life situation or in a moment of stress, stressful conditions, conversations with oneself help a person find a solution to the problem. This is not a pathology, but a completely normal phenomenon – thoughts, reasoning aloud.
Have you ever had such words, as if by themselves, suddenly burst out (“I said it out loud?”)? I have yes. This is a consequence of fatigue and overwork, or a signal of an overly difficult thought process. What else determines the severity of inner speech:
- the difficulty and novelty of the task (remember how you learn new instructions or responsibilities at work, for sure at first you pronounce your actions aloud);
- emotional excitement;
- the degree of automation of thought processes (depends on mental development, the level of intelligence);
- inclusion of images and associations;
- individual psychological characteristics of memory and thinking;
- an overabundance of memories, thoughts, experiences, ideas, questions, suspicions (you need to isolate one thought from the “swarm” of others, focus on it).
Inner speech is a person’s speech to himself. External speech is speech for others. Sometimes the border between them is erased (“what he thinks, he says,” “accidentally blurted out,” “I didn’t mean to say that”). This is fine. It is explained by the overwork of a person and the involvement of the subconscious. However, there are times when conversations with oneself develop into pathology.
Self-talk as a pathology
Internal speech is undeveloped in autists, which makes it difficult for them to control their actions, organize activities. And also problems with internal dialogue arise when the linguistic region of the brain is damaged (trauma and illness, for example, a stroke). Such people cannot talk to themselves, from which their self-awareness suffers. In other pathologies, on the contrary, internal dialogues are over-expressed.
A person’s dialogue with himself can be a symptom of several mental pathologies, but this is more common in schizophrenia. However, one symptom does not signal the disease, the disorder is diagnosed when at least several of the other signs are present simultaneously:
- auditory, visual, bodily hallucinations;
- excruciating feeling of deja vu;
- persecution mania;
- obsessions;
- apathy;
- a feeling of unreality of what is happening;
- causeless fear, anxiety, panic.
This is a serious condition that requires an urgent visit to a psychotherapist. In addition to schizophrenia, internal dialogues arise with dissociative personality disorder and with intrapersonal conflict. Then a person can even hear someone else’s voice, but these are just mind games. This is how the brain protects the psyche. Someone else’s voice sounds those thoughts that a person does not accept, denies, considers vicious, bad. But in fact, this is the speech of his subconscious, suppressed emotions, desires, experiences. This is said by that part of the personality that he does not accept in himself.
However, dialogues with oneself can also arise with other psychological problems: neuroses, PTSD, an approaching nervous breakdown, distress. Memories of psychotrauma may sound in someone else’s voice. It can be the voice of a friend, mother, father, or another person. Or the orders of the parents may sound, which force the person to live according to the imposed scenario. All this is a signal that the subconscious mind wants to get rid of trauma, but cannot. These conditions require the intervention of a psychologist.
The benefits and harms of talking to yourself
In addition to those functions that are associated with the processing of information and the search for solutions, a person’s dialogue with himself has another meaning. It is used for self-hypnosis and motivation. Remember any auto-training, its basis is a conversation with oneself, pronouncing a phrase, a person’s appeal to himself. We can force ourselves to do something, ask for something, or give thanks and encouragement.
Have you ever wondered why giving advice to other people, solving other people’s problems is easier? Again, the inner voice is to blame. Internal speech sounds many times faster than oral speech. In addition, there are no full sentences in it, but there are many isolations, unfinished words. Internal dialogue seems to be understandable to a person, but the brain does not perceive it as a full-fledged conversation. But speaking out loud helps to delve deeper into the problem, to better understand it. So in this regard, conversations with oneself and using the pronoun “you” are very useful. And, of course, one cannot fail to mention that they save from loneliness.
Self-talk is helpful for memory impairment or intrusive thoughts. For example, building a logical chain of actions out loud will allow you to quickly find the missing keys. And speaking the actions (turned off the gas? Turned off. Closed the water? Closed.) Will reduce anxiety, reduce manifestations of obsessive-compulsive disorder. Pronouncing emotions, feelings, thoughts always helps a person to understand himself, reduces internal tension.
So, the benefits of internal conversations include:
- motivating function (“Take it and do it! Get it together!”);
- psychotherapeutic function;
- getting rid of fears, anxieties, phobias;
- increased self-esteem;
- improved mood;
- increasing self-control and self-organization of the individual.
But negative conversations with oneself such as accusations, self-flagellation have a destructive effect. They reduce the self-esteem of the individual and disorient.
