[sparks1970]

What do you mean by "internal dialogue" here?

To me a dialog would mean some back-and-forth, some difference of opinion or two individuals sharing ideas that one side doesn't have.

Does your inner voice have autonomy, does it want things separate from what "you" want? Is it in any way "other" from you?

Apologies if these seem like dumb questions. I have never heard a voice in my head so it's a bit like a monochromatic person discovering people see in color, it just seems very strange.

[vidarh]

You will often find authors talking about characters "telling them" what they do, and while some means that metaphorically, if you dig into it you'll find a lot of people who mean it literally. Not (usually) in the sense that they believe this is some separate entity, but that they do often have the characters story play out with varying fidelity of both visual and aural presence in their mind.

A surprising number of people also have e.g. multiple voices speaking in their minds (again, the distinction between mental illnesses causing people to have intrusive voices they believe to be other entities vs "just" seeing them as thoughts/imagination playing out)

[netcan]

Yes... basically. Dialogue. Audible-like dialogue. Back and forth. Difference of opinion. exactly that,

> Does your inner voice have autonomy, does it want things separate from what "you" want?

...Almost. I'm aware that it's all me. All my voice. By nature of dialogue, I cn sometimes feel like there's a "me" and a "voice" sometimes. But, it's quite fluid. Which one is which can reverse. I also try to use "me" or "I" instead of "you" or "we." Feels more sane... to me.

Just imagine a person having a conversation or debate with themselves out loud. It's similar to that.

[red1reaper]

Im not netcan, but in my case... I am the inner voice, the inner voice is essentially the me in me, it is myself, the most basic and self, mind you, the conversation while 99% verbal can be non verbal, I can talk to myself in images and even concepts and have a dialogue/debate with that, its just kind of weird?

But the inner voice, at least from my POV is essentially the self, if you want to experience, just go to a bathroom with a mirror and try to debate with your reflection, it is essentially the same thing, ofc to debate with yourself you have to be able to debate points you do not believe in, like a lawyer or a politic, there is only you only a single opinion, but you are putting your opinion to the test, so you try to defend and try to attack your opinion and your acts, is like playing devil's advocate against your own opinions while you defend them, there is not two people or two wills is like talking to the mirror, is only you. It can also be used to essentially praise yourself if you do something good, or console yourself if you are sad or insult yourself drill sargent style to get that extra adrenaline to run the extra meter to not lose the train, you can also sign to yourself with that, which is horrible, s you will distill any song to its most catchy part and repeat it ad infinitum every moment like a very crappy self-sountrack.

Inner dialogue ofc can also be used for the obvious... simulate conversations with others if you know them well enough to have counterarguments against them available, is like thinking a comeback later but instead of later, before and instead of one, a lot of them, 99% never used.

Another use is that you can use your inner voice to repeat a thing constantly to nor forget it short term, for example holding into a 4 digit code that you can only read for 1 second and you have to remember a minute later, you can just read it the first second in your head "one two there seven" and just keep repeating it over and over in your head "one two there seven,one two there seven,one two there seven,one two there seven,one two there seven" until you need it, that way you can store a bit of info very short term without memorizing anything, I remember doing exactly this with a multiplication table math test when i was a kiddo, I was not able to memorize the multiplications with 7, so 2 minutes before the test i just started chanting the results of 27 up to 29 and when i received the test i just wrote that on the side(we were allowed to write stuff on the side) and thus i used my inner voice to sneak a cheat sheet into the test, I did similar stuff all trough my school years.