The Mind Without an Inner-Monologue
Researchers are calling it anendophasia
You have an inner monologue if you hear these words spoken in your head as you read them. This inner voice is also known as your self-talk or inner speech. If you have one (or many), you’re probably like me and most other people who assumed everybody does.
Yet research suggests our inner voices vary widely. Some people hear a near-constant chatter, while others’ inner voices are practically absent; some people have one voice, and others have many. This revelation is so new that researchers haven’t cemented a term for it, though some call it anendophasia.
What is Inner Speech?
We all know thoughts are unique to each individual, but so is how we experience them. The internal experience of many people, myself included, contains a verbal quality that can best be described as an inner voice or inner monologue — it’s a verbal language that doesn’t require the mouth to “speak” and is “heard” only in the mind, not with the ears.
Children typically develop an inner monologue around the age of 2 or 3, around the time they develop expressive language, including verbal and nonverbal communication.
This inner speech is private and not audible to anyone else. Not only are we the only ones…
