Our inner voicesOur inner voices
All In The Mind
We all hear voices. For some people the inner conversation brings reason, memory, self-encouragement or rebuke. For others, the voices seem to come from outside—and they might be friendly or deeply malicious. This week All in the Mind explores the workings of our inner voices and how they link to our development and creativity.
28:50•19 Jun 2016
Our Inner Voices: Self-Talk, Creativity and the Chorus in Our Heads
Episode Overview
- Inner speech is a common, flexible tool for planning, calming emotions, remembering and evaluating oneself.
- Children’s out-loud private speech gradually becomes adult inner speech, keeping a conversational, dialogic structure.
- Scientific methods like descriptive experience sampling and dual-task experiments can show when people rely on inner speech.
- Fiction writers often report hearing their characters as if in conversation, linking self-talk to creative processes.
- Distressing external voice hearing may involve inner speech that isn’t recognised as self-generated or traumatic memories breaking into awareness.
“We are not just one unitary self. We’re a chorus.”
What emotional and inspiring tales of recovery are out there? This instalment of **All In The Mind** turns that question inward, asking what happens when the "voices" you hear are actually your own thoughts talking back. Host Lynne Malcolm teams up with UK psychologist and author Charles Fernieho to unpack inner speech – the constant chatter many people have in their heads.
Starting with a cheeky comedy bit from Carl Barron about talking to frying oil and muttering to yourself in public, the episode quickly shifts to how self-talk shapes behaviour, emotions and identity. Fernieho explains how children’s out-loud self-talk grows into the silent inner voice adults use to plan, calm down, remember things and sometimes criticise themselves.
Drawing on Vygotsky’s ideas, he describes inner speech as a true dialogue: "we really are talking to ourselves in the way that we would have talked to others out loud." You’ll hear how researchers measure something so private, using beepers, questionnaires and clever dual-task experiments to show that kids rely on inner speech when they plan and solve problems.
The conversation moves into creativity, with fiction writers reporting that around 70% "hear" their characters and some feel they’re eavesdropping on a conversation in their minds. Fernieho distinguishes between "inner speaking" (feeling you’re producing the words) and "inner hearing" (feeling you’re listening to them), a subtle difference that matters a lot for mental health. For anyone who’s ever worried about hearing a voice, the episode offers careful context.
Voice hearing may be linked to inner speech misidentified as external, or to traumatic memories breaking into awareness. Fernieho discusses schizophrenia, PTSD, eating disorders and the Hearing Voices Movement, which treats voices as meaningful messages about someone’s past. He also raises a striking idea: "We are not just one unitary self. We’re a chorus" – a collection of internal voices that can sometimes fragment but also be brought into conversation.
If you've ever wondered whether that chatty inner critic or coach in your head helps or harms you, this episode gives you plenty to think about. How might your own inner voice be shaping the story you tell about yourself?
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