Having No Inner Monologue or Images
The video on this page was made by a young woman who has neither an inner monologue nor inner images. It will give you a perspective on what that means.
Aphantasia
Being able to visualize images in the Mind’s eye is a common ability, but not common to all people. People have a cognitive style of mental processing on a continuum from being a visualizer to being a verbalizer. A visualizer spends more time visualizing and is able to bring visual images into Awareness. A strong visualizer can experience colored, detailed images. A verbalizer processes verbal information and experiences indistinct images in the Mind. Most people are somewhere on a continuum between the two extremes of the cognitive styles, seeing various degrees of distinct, indistinct, and gray images.
People with aphantasia have no experiences of mental images at all. You will be somewhere on the continuum of visualizer to verbalizer style and may have aphantasia. When the explanations refer to images, if you are a verbalizer or have aphantasia, interpret the explanation to refer to the impressions you have about an experience.
People Without an Inner Monologue
You may be a person without an inner monologue. You will have lists and impressions that don’t involve a dialogue of words. Dr. Russell Hurlburt, psychology professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, suggests that inner speech is not as common as people believe it to be, and having no inner monologue is common.
If you have little inner monologue, substitute references to voicing words in conscious Awareness with visual imagery or impressions you have in your conscious Awareness.
Quiet Mind Inside
What It’s Like Having No Inner Monologue and Phantasia, February 9, 2020
www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tQ2KcOhHiU
