The Science of the Voices in your Head – with Charles Fernyhough

Psychologist Charles Fernyhough reveals how our inner voices play a vital part in thinking through stories of everyone from children to people who hear voices.

Close your eyes and have a thought. Now what was it like to think that thought? What we usually call 'thinking' is often a kind of speaking by, and a listening to, the multiple voices of our consciousness. Psychologist and writer Charles Fernyhough tells stories of everyone from children to people who hear voices and reveals how our inner voices play a vital part in our thinking.

Charles Fernyhough is a Professor in the Department of Psychology, Durham University. His background is in developmental psychology, with a particular focus on social, emotional and cognitive development. His work has contributed to our understanding of how language and thought are related in child development and beyond and his most recent focus has been on applying mainstream developmental psychology to the study of psychosis.

He is also a writer whose work has been published in several anthologies and have been translated into eleven languages. He has taught creative writing, with a particular focus on psychological processes in reading and writing.

Product links on this page may be affiliate links which means it won't cost you any extra but we may earn a small commission if you decide to purchase through the link.

[melissadroddy]

I met a person who spoke 6 different languages. At one point I asked them which language their internal thoughts were in. Oddly enough, their answer was NOT their native language. I think they were as surprised as I was by that idea. Apparently, they had never really considered that before. They just heard the inner speech and processed like anyone would.

[merrigalebeddoes]

I once took an extensive course in Vietnamese language. The sounds of the vowels, diphthongs, tripthongs, some of the consonants, and tones were so different from what we were used to in English that the first 2 weeks of class consisted of nothing more than listening to, and to some extent reproducing, those sounds. No actual words were taught; just the sounds. I began having dreams where 2 Asian men, dressed in black suits and bowler hats, were engaged in a dialogue, conversing at length in Vietnamese, although I still had not learned 1 word of Vietnamese. Their speech was very clear, but I understood very little of it. I mentioned this to a classmate and found out that most members of the class were experiencing the same thing, although the men might be dressed differently. I don't know if that relates to this subject in any way, but I was vividly reminded of it.

[peteroreilly]

I speak three languages and get inner speech randomly in all three.

[ソトヤママリアテレサ]

After having a MELAS syndrome stroke like episode in 2013. My inner voice ceased. It was the loniiest feeling.

[RSBurgener]

The thing that happens to me is that I hear music in my head ALL DAY long. And I don't choose what it is. I *can* choose it, but it can spontaneously change. I wake up with a song in my head every morning. It might be something I'm listening to lately, but it doesn't have to be. I recall trying to do this when I was in 3rd grade. I couldn't afford the music I wanted and I trained myself to play it back for myself. It's gotten stronger and stronger as I've gotten older, to the point now that the music is nearly as audible as though I were hearing it for real. I don't know how common this is. Sometimes the song that manifests is some kind of clue to things that I ought to be paying attention to. And it'll stay in my head for days until I realize what it's telling me. Kinda creepy to be honest!

[Sorenzo]

I'm autistic and I have kept talking to myself. In my mind, I've usually pictured a person I knew as being the listener to what I was telling myself. As if I was trying to explain something to them.

I always retconned it as being speaking practice, due to my problems with speech, but honestly, I think I'm like the 5-year-old, just talking at someone whether they listen or not because it makes my thinking more focused to do so.

[davidsweeney]

when having to solve a problem or make a decision about something quite often if you put your own self-talk to one side then your own mind will suggest a solution to you, it can be amazing as you were never even thinking along those lines originally!

[JasonJBrunet]

If my inner speech developed from the way adults spoke to me when I was a toddler, that explains quite a bit.

[DannyLIVEWIRE]

I believe this is why multi lingual is so important! ... It opens our minds and our lives to think in other languages too

[ripvanwho]

That beeper study sounds like a great way to improve self-awareness.

[HopeToday]

The voices in my head didn't start until I was told to stop reading out loud and to read to myself.

[Censeo]

I can only recall hearing a voice once and it was just one word. It was my own voice shouting "Here!" from the bathroom 15 meters away from me after I had talked aloud to myself saying "where are my keys?" I didn't know I knew where I had left them. They were in the bathroom

[melindabendle]

THANK YOU ALL OF THIS INFORMATION IS WONDERFUL FOR HIGHLY INTELLIGENT HUMAN'S..I HAVE HAD BRAIN SURGERY IN SANTA BARBARA CALIFORNIA ..😊🇺🇸

[kirikayumura]

I often feel like much of the voices in my head.. well the ones that aren't heard by my inner ear as being in my own voice.. are just memories. Seems like echos of conversations I overheard, partially/vaguely overheard, or thought I overheard at some point in the past of my daily life.

Sometimes when I'm feeling really anxious, fearful, and/or ashamed, I feel like I'm hearing the thoughts of other people thinking badly about me. Those times are rough because even though I tell myself it's really just _me_ thinking badly about me, I can't stop reacting to it as if it is someone else's thoughts.

I've almost never heard an auditory hallucination that sounded clearly from outside of my physical body. I'm glad that is extremely rare. When that happens it goes beyond being an interesting or annoying oddity and becomes outright scary and disturbing!

[McLKeith]

I am a meditator. A part of my practice is to notice my inner conversation. This inner conversation gets in the way of directly experiencing life, in that it is a facsimile of life and not the actual natural experience.

It is a left brain activity that pulls me out of "Reality". Of course, inner dialogue is useful at times, but it shouldn't become the dominant experience, if one wants to live a peaceful and natural life.

[gopalvyas]

Thank you for your work! I have tremendous admiration and gratitude for you and your colleagues!

[latashathomas]

This interests me because my son is autistic. It seems that he has trouble accessing and expressing language, but his vocalizations are like a “stream of consciousness.” He can understand language perfectly well. In fact, he knows multiple languages. Very interesting indeed.

[susankoralewicz]

Happy 😊 valentines 💝 day let compassion be your compus blessings to all ! !

[trillstina]

I remember a thought process i had when i was 3 or 4 and that thought process lacked words and was a fully grown adults mentality...much more knowledgeable than i was and it was observing and concerned about what i was doing. When i think about where that thought process came from i can recognize it as being the exact same thought process that exsists within my mind today. It doesnt age. Maybe my conscience itself..the difference is that now there are many many more of these thought processes that exist within my mind, some are helpful some are hurtful.

[morbid.]

very interesting talk...
I'm deeply introverted... I spend more time in my life talking in my head than to other people.