Gem Wink

Why is the inner voice — not the uttered one — the reference?

Where does that everyone's well-known little voice come from?

Indeed, what is it?

No doubt: it is indubitably the subject who speaks and does so to itself. But why talk to oneself? Could there be two specialised characters inside each individual: one who speaks and another who listens?

Three discourses (orationes) are identified and indexed: written, oral and “mental” (Cf. C. Panaccio, The Inner Discourse. From Plato to Guillaume d’Ockham, Seuil, 1999).

From James Joyce to David Lodge, the little voice has translated all the humans' intimate thoughts, the little personal cogitations that we have ruminated in silence, from morning to night. The secret thoughts left unsaid because they cannot be confessed, or are too furtive, too banal or too vague. Thoughts that can quickly become intrusive as it is soon realized that they are not controllable. Whatever convolutions one might undergo to get away from them, always, at some point, they come back, treacherous as they are.

The perplexing thing is that these thoughts are "verbalized". In the head, a voice, "ours" comes to speak especially during the nights of insomnia as it takes advantage of the calm and the ambient silence to give way to the most diverse thoughts. For instance, it can produce a list of things that are wrong, or a list of cool things that happened, inventories à la Prévert of sorts.

This voice is both ours and no one's. In fact, it is synthesized by the brain and has accompanied us since childhood. It is responsible for the syndrome of non-recognition of our “real voice” (the verbalized one) when we can hear it recorded, for example. The inner voice has in fact become the standard.

What about this voice which, if it can sing, does not know how to imitate? That knows, can repeat words, intonations, but remains the same. It does not know how to take someone else's timbre, and if one were to try, it would instantly silence itself. It is then that the cognitive side kicks in to play sotto voce the piece stored somewhere, the original.

While the inner speech most probably comes from the auditory cortex, does it come with a switch? Actually, that is the same part of the brain used to analyze the speech that we hear that is also processing the talk to ourselves. On the other hand, neither the part that manages speech nor the auditory canal are activated when the voice is on. This, to save the brain work, what the researchers call "the corollary discharge" a technique used also to maintain a conversation as we interact with someone, the inner voice not being silenced or paused, as it continues to activate and when it becomes necessary to intervene, the corollary discharge intervenes and cuts the internal sound.

The Star, by Viv Tanner & Eli Baum, from Sefirot Tarot

If we cannot silence this voice, we can, on the other hand, understand it, analyze it, no longer be perplexed by it and in the end no longer leave it this invasive place when sleep does not come or when we meditate. Ahead of the corollary discharge, there is a range that extends between the "Star XVII" between the time one pours out from one vessel unto the other, the lower one. That fluid, gem instant is the perfect time to take the first step out and leave the old habit behind. Or, alternatively, not giving the 0.01 per cent the full stage by refusing to surrender to — and indulge in — the old habits.

The inner voice is not preliminary, nor a third party, it is not an adviser, just an interior comforting verbalization. (Cf. Alexa M. Tullett, and Michaiel, Inzlichet, 2010. The voice of self-control: Blocking the inner voice increases impulsive responding, Acta Psychologica).