Internal monologue?

[TylerRDA]

Over at INTJf, the prevailing consensus is that we all have a constant internal dialogue/monologue, imagined conversations, etc. I was wondering if this is characteristic of our perceiving brethren?

 

[Bird]

That sounds like some insanity bullshit.

"imagined conversations"

 

[Bird]

Also, I was expecting this to be
a long monologue, I was slightly
disappointed, but perhaps I
just have unreasonable expectations.

 

[Cogwulf]

Short answer: yes and no

long answer: I need more detail about what your internal monologue is like

 

[TylerRDA]

Sorry to disappoint you.

And no, it's not insanity bullcrap. Read this thread, it will help explain what I mean.
http://intjforum.com/showthread.php?t=49980

 

[Bird]

I was just teasing :P


I recently made a mistake.

 

[Sosekopp]

I don't have an internal monologue. I have an internal musical.

 

[Cogwulf]

I generally have an internal dialogue, but in recent years I sometimes have a bit of a monologue in the background.
I also think in pictures sometimes

Something of interest is that the INTJs seem to be going over things in their heads and changing details, whereas mine is usually mostly about new possibilities. This is probably the Ni/Ti at work.

 

[EyeSeeCold]

I have periodic monologues to sort out my thoughts. I need perspective.

 

[Jennywocky]

I don't have an internal monologue. I have an internal musical.

Lol... thanks for the laugh!
So is it Cats, Assassins, or Rocky Horror Picture Show?

I've always had the internal monologue. Always. The person I've most talked to in my life seems to be... me. There's always a running commentary on external events and scrutiny of my inner world.

 

[WittyUsername]

You mean Holden Caulfield?

 

[lafmeche]

Yeah, I definitely have an internal monologue going. I comment on things, ask myself questions, debate with myself, and run through entire conversations with other people in my head.

It's one way in which I organize my thoughts and plan things out. It's also a big help when trying to sort out how I feel about things.

 

[shoeless]

personally i find external monologues to be more helpful, but then again, i'm probably an extravert.

 

[Dr. Freeman]

That happens for me too.
Sometimes it's in a useful form, and sometimes it's in the form of a megalomaniacal rant. Either way, it's fun to be me.

 

[lafmeche]

personally i find external monologues to be more helpful, but then again, i'm probably an extravert.

Does that mean you're vocalizing your internal monologue, or are you talking about something different?

When I'm alone, my internal monologue starts sneaking out. I have to be careful to cram it back into my brain when other people are around.

 

[shoeless]

(literally) talking to myself, mostly.
or ranting to another person.
either way.

 

[lafmeche]

Ah. Sounds pretty much like what I do, then. I just rarely rant to other people because I don't trust them to take things in the proper context (ie. everyone's crazy but me )

 

[cheese]

I've got an external monologue too. It's very difficult to relate to the internal model. There really isn't much going on in my head at all.

 

[EyeSeeCold]

I've got an external monologue too. It's very difficult to relate to the internal model. There really isn't much going on in my head at all.

I think you're talking about the same thing:

personally i find external monologues to be more helpful, but then again, i'm probably an extravert.

Does that mean you're vocalizing your internal monologue, or are you talking about something different?

When I'm alone, my internal monologue starts sneaking out. I have to be careful to cram it back into my brain when other people are around.

 

[cheese]

Yeah, I know. It's just odd that if I'm not speaking, stuff usually isn't going on inside. Or at least that's what my memory says.

 

[Words]

personally i find external monologues...

Heh. was going to mention the same idea.

I do external monologues.

Does that mean you're vocalizing your internal monologue, or are you talking about something different?

When I'm alone, my internal monologue starts sneaking out. I have to be careful to cram it back into my brain when other people are around.

Partly. But often the engine initiates externally. It does not "spill", it is already spilling.

----

On second thought, I have more external dialogues of me and me.

 

[Anchorite]

I have near constant internal dialogue. It sucks. It seems like every main thought I have I have to mentally vocalize which is annoying because I know most people don't do that.
I once saw a guy in the cafeteria and wanted to say "hi". When I walked by, I said it, but not with my mouth, Only in my head. That was odd.

 

[Jesse]

I don't have that problem. Yay for me I guess. #pointlesspostaboutsomethingpointless

 

[lafmeche]

Heh. was going to mention the same idea.

I do external monologues.



Partly. But often the engine initiates externally. It does not "spill", it is already spilling.

----

On second thought, I have more external dialogues of me and me.

That's my point, really. It seems to me that's it's all pretty much the same thing, just some of us might vocalize more than others.

 

[Nocturne]

I don't have an internal monologue. I have an internal musical.

Mmmm... I seem to have both at times.

 

[zanyarch]

I'm new here so I'm not sure if it's horrific forum etiquette to respond to a 2-months-dead forum... but I saw this and felt so strongly that I actually registered just to comment on this.

Yes!! I've always described it as an inner monologue as well, and the few people I tell about it definitely don't understand. I consider it an inner monologue as opposed to just "thinking" because it often feels extremely verbal. I sometimes think so intensely that someone will walk by me as I'm thinking and I'm afraid they've heard me talking to myself and I then realize that I was just thinking...

They can be random observations about my surroundings or a current situation of mine and I definitely have inner dialogues with people I know (mostly speculating about conversations that never actually happen). When I was in high school I realized that a personal indicator that I "liked" someone was if they were the person I told everything in my head to. ----> Ok, that sounds kind of crazy, but it's not nearly as theatrical as it sounds here.

It seems like every main thought I have I have to mentally vocalize which is annoying because I know most people don't do that.
I once saw a guy in the cafeteria and wanted to say "hi". When I walked by, I said it, but not with my mouth, Only in my head. That was odd.

That definitely happens to me. Also, my mind occasionally has the annoying instinct of repeating in my head what I just said or a conversation that just happened. When I was little my parents would notice me subconsciously repeating things to myself. Although that's probably just me being strange and slightly OCD...

 

[Darby]

That definitely happens to me. Also, my mind occasionally has the annoying instinct of repeating in my head what I just said or a conversation that just happened. When I was little my parents would notice me subconsciously repeating things to myself. Although that's probably just me being strange and slightly OCD...

I have an INTJ friend who does this, the repetition, I guess when he was younger he did it out loud, so he would say things twice.

I on the other hand have a dialogue/monologue/musical(more like a symphony)

I almost always have a song playing in my head or at the very least out of my head, when it's outside it lets me focus on other things but I use it to give my life rhythm, otherwise I'm a completely scatterbrained mess.

As far as dialogue goes I keep the voices of the people I remember in my head, like my bestest friends from the past, the first girl who gave me a compliment, the person who stole my pokemon cards in first grade, various people who made an impact on my developing form, etc. I keep them to remind me of who I am and why I do what I do(or don't do). Most of them tend to keep in the background, but come out in the winter when I'm no longer very good at keeping my nervousness and mild paranoia at bay.

I'm currently holding a conversation with an old friend who I managed to hurt and various mutual friends trying to figure out the best way to mend things.

EDIT: Don't feel bad about opening old threads, I don't think they would keep them around if we weren't aloud to bring them up again

 

[zanyarch]

Hmm, interesting how yours seems a lot more auditory than mine, Darby, which is obviously really verbal. I never actually think of my head-conversation-partner's voice, just what they might say in my voice.

Most of them tend to keep in the background, but come out in the winter when I'm no longer very good at keeping my nervousness and mild paranoia at bay.
n

Yeah, a lot of my internal monologue (or at least my hourlong sit-and-think sessions) happen when I'm alone and feeling mildly nervous/paranoid. Nothing actually ever gets sorted out when I sit and think about people/situations for that long though. A lot of time just passes.

 

[Zmaster]

I take regular walks with my cat ( no leash ) and for a period of about 4 months there were about 7 other stray cats in the neighborhood that we would sometimes meet on the way. I named them initially Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, Theta, PI, and Omega. But even that got boring after a while so I started imagining that they were people that were trying to contact me spiritually. Oh the drama that developed. If I had a mind for writting I'm sure there is a story that could be published. Monologues are sometimes healthy because they help us go edge of insanity so that we know not to drive off the cliff.

 

[EyeSeeCold]

As far as dialogue goes I keep the voices of the people I remember in my head, like my bestest friends from the past, the first girl who gave me a compliment, the person who stole my pokemon cards in first grade, various people who made an impact on my developing form, etc. I keep them to remind me of who I am and why I do what I do(or don't do).

Is this similar to remembering your influences and sources of items?

Occasionally I ponder something I have - a self-contained object(e.g. even music), and reflect on how I came upon it. It always leads me back to a scene with a friend or whoever else it was or however else I obtained it. I also go through scenes in which the object was a subject.

Regardless, the voices thing goes for me too.

 

[Darby]

If I understand what your saying, I think so.

I have a pretty bad memory as far as short term goes, so I do my best to hold on to every little bit I possibly can from my life. Objects I generally fail at tracing all the way back to their origins.

I can usually keep people up in my head pretty well, specifically people I learned something from. So Whenever I ask myself why I'm doing something I not only have the emotion that says why I should(or shouldn't), but I have the source for it, the event, and the person I learned it from. I use the person in my head that relates to the specific problem to analyze how I came to the conclusion in the first place(as the actual event often gets lost, somewhat like the character in Mr. Brooks, who remembers far more than the main character even though he is a part of himself), and how to handle the current situation.

 

[xbox]

I too have very engaging conversations with the voices inside my head, which are usually a lot more interesting than conversations with people around me

 

[Darby]

Since mine are based on real people, I always have the tendency to feel thatmy voices are lacking a level of depth that a real person has. and end up utterly disappointed in a majority of my conversations with myself. Somehow I haven't figured out how to turn them off though

 

[Sad Lions]

I actually had a related idea the other idea, slightly different: what does people inner voice sound like, is he loud, explicit, soft, does he do voices, how much is the inner voice reflected externally, what would the relationship look like, and to what extent does it matter?

Mine tends to talk really fast, and mumble. (just like me )

I also tend to get a lot of concepts visually.

 

[SkyWalker]

Talking in your self????
Is it just because you guys are on the internet maybe??
Maybe its forum related?? Not INTP related??

Not that I am above this: I caught myself a few times thinking out loud and then all of a sudden there was somebody behind me! oops.

yes i do this too sometimes, is it going on all the time in my head maybe? hmm dont know?? maybe?? so this is not normal?? hehe

 

[Darby]

Talking in your self????
Is it just because you guys are on the internet maybe??
Maybe its forum related?? Not INTP related??

Not that I am above this: I caught myself a few times thinking out loud and then all of a sudden there was somebody behind me! oops.

yes i do this too sometimes, is it going on all the time in my head maybe? hmm dont know?? maybe?? so this is not normal?? hehe

Oh, mine aren't out loud, although I would say they are as close to auditory hallucinations as I can think of while still being able to tell they're in my head. I also give them faces when I can, so as to better tell they aren't real because I don't hallucinate visually

 

[P.H.]

I once saw a guy in the cafeteria and wanted to say "hi". When I walked by, I said it, but not with my mouth, Only in my head. That was odd.

Yes!

I am not always aware of my internal monologue (and most of the time it isn't in words, but I still like to call it monologue 'cause it's basically the same, just without the words)

And. It keeps me from falling asleep at nights.

 

[crippli]

I have a voice in my head. It's mine(there is no schizophrenia that I know off), and I converse with it about all sort of stuff. Just yesterday at a store I heard a person saying loud, "YES, WE ARE WATCHING WHERE WE ARE GOING". But I registered first 7 seconds later, when I was 8m past him and his companion, wondering if he had been talking to me, at that time I also remember I almost stumbled into someone 8 seconds prior. Still don't know if he was talking to me. I presume he was, and I consider it rude to not acknowledge him. But it would have looked odd to turn around this late, even though I could have done it at that point and made an apology for what it was he was upset about. When I am into my mind like that, I consider the chance the problem lies with me to be substantial. People don't tend to be at two places at the same time like I tend to be. But I'm not really here either, just registering what is going on I presume for the most part. It takes a lot for me to step out and interact. I'm working on this, connect with the planet more and it's habitants. I think this would be healthy.

 

[Haiduc]

Quoted from intjforum:

"I always imagine future conversations and even re-imagine past ones. I even envision speeches I would give in front of said person. It never happens as I imagine it would happen, though..."

This is more what it's like for me. It often surfaces when I'm trying to get to sleep.

Although, I was walking home from work the other day, and some kid made a wisecrack about my hair looking like Jesus's. I ignored it, but I had valid grounds for a comeback - a) it doesn't look like Jesus's, and b) the kid's hair was a bushy mess. In any case, I spent the rest of the walk home re-imagining potential conversations that could've ensued.

I'm quite an auditory person, so I just assumed that's how my brain prefers to articulate things. In fact, it's pretty shit being introverted and auditory. Put bluntly, I like to talk out ideas, but I don't like to talk to people! This tends to lead to a lot of internal dialoguing/monologuing.

 

[Sijov]

There is always a monologue (mostly internal, sometimes external if I'm alone), unless there's something I need to concentrate on, and then I guess that I am using the extra brainpower that went into monologuing.

It gets really hard if I'm doing something simple boring for a long period of time. I get so sick of myself.

 

[Roran]

I have multiple (imagined?) inner voices, but I don't have a constant inner monologue. I do, however, have constant internal alt rock lyrics....