Hey, it’s Chris.
You ever catch yourself mid-thought and think:
“Wait... who the hell is talking right now?”
Not in a horror movie way.
More like... why does my inner voice sound like a school teach disappointed in my life choices?
Let’s dig in.
Is the voice yours?
Not exactly.
You know the one.
That narrator that won’t shut up.
The one that replays arguments from 2014
while you’re trying to fall asleep.
That panics about hand placement when you're talking to your crush.
That tells you you’re behind, messing it up, too late, too much.
Sometimes it’s helpful.
Sometimes it’s mean.
Sometimes it’s… someone else.
The self is what language feels like from the inside.
You don’t think in silence.
You think in words, symbols, images...
More specifically... metaphors and analogies: comparison.
And most of them aren’t "technically" yours.
Julian Jaynes (yeah, him again) suggested that what we call “thinking”
is just internalised commands...
once spoken by kings, priests, parents, culture,
that weird marketing guy you subscribed to once…
Now simulated in your own voice.
You don’t hear your thoughts.
You generate them.
You’re not listening to yourself think.
You’re feeling what language does when it loops inward.
Most of your inner voice is a remix:
- School teachers
- Marketing slogans
- TikTok trends
- Old relationship echoes
- That one thing your mum said in 1997
Eventually, you stop noticing it’s a mash-up.
You just call it you.
CLINICAL BRAIN SNACK
Narrative Internalisation + Semantic Identity Construction
Inner speech = inherited speech.
Vygotsky said private speech evolves from external language. Jaynes took it further:
Your mind isn’t a stream of thoughts.
It’s a hall of mirrors... built from every voice that shaped you.
Studies back it up:
Internal monologue mimics external syntax, tone, and cultural vocabulary.
If your inner critic sounds like your dad?
That’s not a glitch.
That’s... the system working as designed.
How to jailbreak the voice
You don’t have to silence it.
Just intercept it.
- Catch it mid-sentence.
- Ask: “Whose voice is this really?”
- Notice the tone.
- Translate it into something you would say.
- Say it. Quietly. Or out loud. Doesn’t matter.
Do this enough times…
and the narrator starts sounding more like someone you trust.
Someone familiar.
Someone… like you.
If this rattled something…
Reply.
I’m listening.
I’ll meet you in that liminal drift
where your focus fades
and the real thoughts begin.
~ Chris