I think in ideas, not words.

[Silent_Rebel]

I do not think in words unless I am thinking about how I am thinking...(and on and on and on...) I catch myself thinking in words very rarely. Usually whenever I say or write something it is all "improvising" (I guess you could call it that). Recently I have noticed that this is effecting how I speak or how I describe things because I can not come up with the right word that will make the other person think what I am thinking. I was wondering if this was an INTP thing, or is it just a weird/unhealthy little thing that I do.​

​

 

[pjoa09]

I do not think in words unless I am thinking about how I am thinking...(and on and on and on...) I catch myself thinking in words very rarely. Usually whenever I say or write something it is all "improvising" (I guess you could call it that). Recently I have noticed that this is effecting how I speak or how I describe things because I can not come up with the right word that will make the other person think what I am thinking. I was wondering if this was an INTP thing, or is it just a weird/unhealthy little thing that I do.​

hrm maybe its just an INTP thing. It could never been harmful. I normally think in snapshots and mental maps until I am really thinking and I need some dialogue in it.

 

[Darby]

You are not alone, although I turn my ideas into pictures and mental maps(like pjoa said), but thats only because that's the easiest thing to translate most ideas into. What makes it more difficult, is after that, it's like that old saying "a picture is worth a thousand words" and most people only seem to want to hear a couple.

EDIT: Whether it is an INTP thing or not, I don't think so, I think many people are just better at it than we are

 

[Da Blob]

Hmmm, I was chained to the consciousness of words for most of my life. I found it very liberating, in fact, to finally be free of the internal dialogue/narrative of a constant stream of words. Not that I could not daydream in images, but even those had words in them...

 

[ashitaria]

That's funny though...
I always let my imagination go wild, but I always think of a dialogue or a description in words..
it seems so much more romantic that way.

And hell, if anyone can provide a better description than that- PM me.

But I do think of a picture before describing it in my head though, and most of the time I let the describing part be. But when I'm lying down in bed....

 

[Vatroslav]

I do not think in words unless I am thinking about how I am thinking...(and on and on and on...) I catch myself thinking in words very rarely. Usually whenever I say or write something it is all "improvising" (I guess you could call it that). Recently I have noticed that this is effecting how I speak or how I describe things because I can not come up with the right word that will make the other person think what I am thinking. I was wondering if this was an INTP thing, or is it just a weird/unhealthy little thing that I do.​

​

Yes, I do the same... nothing unhealthy about it. Verbal thoughts and visual thoughts are not the thoughts themselves, but thoughts made concrete. That, what still has to be verbalized, or visualized, that is the thought in its essence.

 

[Moocow]

Usually the verbal monologue in my head is just an echo of nonverbal thoughts. Maybe it's an automatic way to emphasize or reinforce the thoughts for being stored in memory? Maybe it's an automatic way of preparing them to be spoken, if need be.

 

[Dormouse]

I generally think in a stream of words, if not music or images. At least, when I'm aware that I'm thinking... Not too sure what goes on the rest of the time.
If I have an idea, I comprehend it immediatly and then struggle to constrain it with language.

 

[Mary]

I think in voices - it's kinda a combination of words and other stuff. So when I want to say something, I struggle to say it in the correct way, and I can't really think of the correct words all of the time. My thoughts are a modge podge of ideas and words and music and images and everything thrown together in a big mix.

 

[Darby]

I was thinking about this today because I'm having to train to become a cashier where I work. They are trying to get me to memorize produce codes, and I realized, that when they quiz me I do a weird thing, my thought process goes:

(word asked) Zucchini -> (picture) Zucchini -> (memory association) Zucchini-94067 -> (picture) 94067 -> (number) 94067

I think this is why I use other words to describe things that I'm actually thinking about. Because I use pictures to translate from thought to word, but if the picture I make is closer to one thing rather than another thing, then I describe it the best way I can, so if I didn't know the word for cucumber, I would picture it, then picture something similar, and then note the differences. Like a "smooth" zucchini, whether the association is particularly accurate or not. This may be why nobody ever understands what the hell I'm talking about, because I often do this as I'm not really invested in developing my vocabulary.

I apologize for all the veggie talk, but thats how this originated and I want to stay as close to what I realized as possible.

 

[pjoa09]

hrmm when i plan something its sort of like a game briefing. Like a counter terrorist game.
I have the location and what is necessary to complete it. Then I imagine proceeding with it. Sometimes imagining the victory.

 

[ohrtonz]

I will explain something to someone as an idea using examples, but they will focus on the example and say "but that won't work". I know it won't work but I was just saying. For example, the way someone is doing something isn't working because they aren't being successful in what they are trying to achieve. So I propose, "I think if we do it like this we can at least make it work how they are doing it now." The response I get is "But what they got isn't working." So basically the responder is ignoring that I can at least make it work how it is being done now, but because it isn't working for the other person they think it's not an option to do it that way.

 

[Silent_Rebel]

I have been trying to increase my vocabulary lately (for about a week). I have been reading many books that are new to me and taking little vocabulary test online at a number of different sites. I thought that this might help me to convey to others what I am imagining. Usually I just have to settle with them having a very vague (vague in my terms) discription of what I am trying to say.

 

[Chimera]

I hardly ever think in words. It's all abstract concepts in my head. They're too difficult to translate into words a lot--but I don't try to explain the most abstract ideas to other people, so it doesn't bother me.​

And really I find it's not the way my thoughts present themselves that's hard to deal with, but the speed. When I'm moderately focused, comprehension of multiple things will hit me at once, snap snap snap, and I'll jump from point A to point K without remembering anything inbetween. (Sucks on tests that require an explanation of how you got your answer--look, it was intuitive, can't I just leave it at that?)​

And then other times, my thoughts stall and I'm pretty much thinking of nothing. Drives people crazy. I'm spacing out looking at a brick in the wall, no, I'm not necessarily pondering the meaning of life, stop asking me what I'm thinking--I wouldn't tell you even if I was.​

Re-railing my post. . .​

I have a pretty small verbal vocabulary. That's not to say I don't understand when "harder" words are used, I just don't a: think to use them or b: feel like using them. (It's not worth the blank "huh?" look I'd get from most my friends, though I've heard that's fun to cause.)​

Really a lot of my communication relies on onomatopoeia and visual things (hand gestures, sketches). But for some reason, people usually get what I'm trying to say without a lot of hassle anyway. . .​

 

[Geminii]

Definitely a visualizer here. One reason that written communications are easier is that I can stop and think of the correct word, instead of running off at the mouth at 200wpm and then hitting a mental break where I have to flounder around for the right term.

 

[boradicus]

I hardly ever think in words. It's all abstract concepts in my head. They're too difficult to translate into words a lot--but I don't try to explain the most abstract ideas to other people, so it doesn't bother me.​

And really I find it's not the way my thoughts present themselves that's hard to deal with, but the speed. When I'm moderately focused, comprehension of multiple things will hit me at once, snap snap snap, and I'll jump from point A to point K without remembering anything inbetween. (Sucks on tests that require an explanation of how you got your answer--look, it was intuitive, can't I just leave it at that?)​

And then other times, my thoughts stall and I'm pretty much thinking of nothing. Drives people crazy. I'm spacing out looking at a brick in the wall, no, I'm not necessarily pondering the meaning of life, stop asking me what I'm thinking--I wouldn't tell you even if I was.​

Re-railing my post. . .​

I have a pretty small verbal vocabulary. That's not to say I don't understand when "harder" words are used, I just don't a: think to use them or b: feel like using them. (It's not worth the blank "huh?" look I'd get from most my friends, though I've heard that's fun to cause.)​

Really a lot of my communication relies on onomatopoeia and visual things (hand gestures, sketches). But for some reason, people usually get what I'm trying to say without a lot of hassle anyway. . .​

Yes - sensing types tend to think in terms of words as being the most abstract form of reasoning - but this just is not so. The natural predisposition of the brain is not necessarily dependent upon verbals structures. In fact, most of what I think I find, just as do you, difficult to place into words. It is a process of translation that takes place while I am communicating the abstract concepts that occur to me. In this sense, words are the concretes and not the other was around.

Additionally, I have noticed that my thinking structure is more akin to a juxtaposition of vectors as opposed to a static or atomically incremental structure. Concepts have force, direction, and scope; with regard to scope, thinking for me is a continual differentiation between various sets of universals, and in this manner a need for descriptive vocabulary begins to arise..

 

[Latro]

I think almost exclusively in words. However, assuming a 13 year old mental diagnosis to be correct, there is a neurological reason for this in my case.

A plus side of this, I suspect, is that I absorb foreign languages more easily than others, as far as I can see.

 

[Alice?]

Wow, I thought I was the only one. I've always had a hard time verbalizing my thoughts as most of them tend to be in picture/video/diagram etc. form. Especially when I'm learning something new, I like to translate what's being said or what I'm reading into something I can see... for some reason, it helps me remember it.
I've tried explaining this to a couple people, but they just give me weird looks.

 

[Eclipse]

I do the same thing. The only time I think in words is when I'm wondering about the best way to say something. It's very fast though, which I think is why I'm so clever in my speech. I don't always know the best word to describe something, but I always know the best way to say it. The order of the words, structure of the sentence. That may just be the writer in me speaking, though.

 

[Madoness]

Maybe it has got something to do with INTP's thinking in overall pictures but not really in details. Therefore, in snapshots or ideas rather than thinking in words.

 

[bovinity]

I do this too. You can understand an idea intuitively and be able to apply it to other ideas without the need for putting anything in your head into words.

It's when it comes to explaining it that you'll run into problems if you haven't decided how to put the idea into words beforehand, since you're probably going to struggle with it if it's something complicated you're trying to explain on the spot.

 

[Marbas]

This has always been the case for me. What seems likely to me is that that way of thinking is simply Gardner's* idea of a "Logical/Mathematical" intelligence. Because you are simply working the logical heart of the concept and its inherent properties, and aren't bothering with any of it's representations. And that people like me/you who do that are people who primarily utilize said logical intelligence. As opposed to say Verbal or Visual intelligence.

*Assuming you buy Gardner's idea. Still not sure whether or not to myself.