# What kind of things does your internal monologue say?



## bellisaurius (Jan 18, 2012)

This recent xkcd strip has me wondering if the different types have different topics, or broad patterns of internal monologue. So, the question is simple: What does your head talk with you about? (cross posted to SP, SJ, NF, and NT).


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## nordlund63 (Jul 24, 2012)

I saw that earlier today. 

That hits home a little.


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## Fat Bozo (May 24, 2009)

"i sure could go for a cheeseburger right now...wow, check out the yabbos on that chick...I should get a shake too...I need to pee..wait, did I remember to lock the door?...mmmmm bacon.."


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## bellisaurius (Jan 18, 2012)

nordlund63 said:


> I saw that earlier today.
> 
> That hits home a little.


I was working on this particular theory in my head for the last couple weeks, that sensors and intuitives probably differed in regards to their internal monologues. To some extent, the thought was born out, albeit in a way I didn't expect -and more surprisingly- in a way that would actually reflect something out of the mbti: The internal monologue is the filter through which intuitives see the world (as opposed to more directly), because of this, we're usually pretty comfortable with it, while the sensors seem to have one that often tells them things they don't always want to hear/experience. WE, on the other hand, often become uncomfortable when that inside voice drops out.


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## firedell (Aug 5, 2009)

Most of my internal thoughts revolve around my feelings. It's pretty hard to even put this into words. :s


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## bellisaurius (Jan 18, 2012)

firedell said:


> Most of my internal thoughts revolve around my feelings. It's pretty hard to even put this into words. :s


So, as impressions then? Like a flash of the emotional experience itself?


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## chrisu (Mar 6, 2012)

i have dialogues in my head. the person i'm talking to can be someone completely imaginary or (more common) someone i know. they either ask me how i think about something and point out logical fallacies if there are any or beg me to tell them about some experience in my life and if/how that changed my point of view.

when i'm really talking with someone else.. uhm.. it's more a half-conscious stream of information-input put into conscious. when they are talking it's ... a short example from talking to an aquaintance recently:
"fascinating, his eyes move all the time and still he doesn't manage to look me into the eyes even once [*remembers youtube video talking about eye movement and intuitive preferences*]. ohmy, here's the robot-analogy [... *takes in information about his former relationships and some personal experiences*...] oh great, i am similar to his exes [...] he just repeated what i said. why do people do that? is it some strange social bonding strategy? what the.. gah, no, he's coming closer. please don't be attracted. i really don't need that right now."


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## Choice (May 19, 2012)

Well if I'm just completely focused on outward sensations, I'd be thinking like a mood, a brief repeat of the sensation, or the overall picture that I see. And sometimes, especially when I'm tired, actions will be reduced to [select object I need to pick up & interact with] + [inner nod of acknowledgement].

A lot of it is mindless reactionary chatter, like a long chain of swearing at frustration, or *gasp* or :wub: or just instructions (do this, do that, ok time to brush my teeth). And the rest of the time I think in movie scenes I'm participating in, so you'll catch me talking to someone else in my head out loud.

But yeah, most clear thoughts are dialogues. 
*hears sounds of people approaching* "nice and quiet here. Go away, don't talk to me, don't talk to me. Much better. "
"What the hell are you getting at? Haven't we been through this before?"
"Yes yes yes, oh wait, no. That's not it. " 
"Hello to you, and you. Have a nice day. What does your shirt say? That's Engrish. Hi man, you're pretty today. " 
"Oh my god, shut up. stfu alright? I'm sorry, was that too rude? lemme be more polite - SHUT THE FUCK UP...PLEASE." 
_Actual: Hey. Shhh-! Can you just keep it down for a while? It's the library. ...No, you shut up. ... NO U!!_


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## WickerDeer (Aug 1, 2012)

[ESFP--I think]This is interesting. 

I have whole conversations with people in my head. I will go on and on and on in my head--usually explaining something. This is often pleasant.

Otherwise, my inner dialogue can be incredibly annoying--especially in social situations. This is how I was feeling/thinking when I had to go to a board meeting recently:

"where am I supposed to sit, or should I sit or stand? Why are they standing. Who decides who sits? Do they think I'm rude to sit? I should have stood over there. I feel like I'm going to explode. I hope no one can see my feelings. What kind of expression do I have on my face? I bet my nostrils are flared...does that make me look crazy? Is he looking at me? Maybe if I ignore him... I want to strum my fingers but someone will think it's rude. Do they think it's weird that I'm the only one wiggling my chair back and forth? How much longer? Can't I just leave? Why did my voice sound shakey? Did anyone else notice that? Why do they make offices like this, all square? I wish I was outside. Why is he looking at me--? Am I looking in his eyes too much? Maybe I should look down and see if he looks away. Damn--I didn't hear what they said at all...what just happened? Can I just lean my head over like this--onto the desk? I just wish I could lay on the desk--or under it...or against the wall--or grab something really hard. I have to run my hands through my hair, but I hope they don't think I'm flirting. But I can't keep face so still.....going to explode...must move lips--hope I don't look crazy or like I'm trying to seduce someone. How much longer? Please don't look at me. Do I look like as much of a freak as I feel?"

I think this is an example of what happens when I try to use my shadow functions or whatever. It's like--no, I don't understand social nuances and I never will--and I don't want to follow them...and I don't want to be in a cube room inside a cube building with a bunch of people in business suits talking about work....but I also don't want to say or do something stupid or insensitive--so I become trapped in a state of extreme anxiety trying to avoid that.

Edit: and I'm going to have to look on Youtube for intuitive preferences and eye movements. I often replay situations like the board meeting in an effort to understand the social nuances later--and look up body language etc.


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## Uralian Hamster (May 13, 2011)

"shit, I forgot my keys" followed by a silent yet audible "goddamnit"

"hmm, those m&ms look pretty good, hope I have a quarter" (it was a dispenser at work). *fumbling in pockets* "fucking of course I dont have a quarter" followed by a silent yet audible "fuck"

"OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD PLEASE DONT LET THE DOOR BE LOCKED PLEASE DONT LET THE DOOR BE LOCKED" *pulls on door handle, nothing happens* followed by a loud "SERIOUSLY??? WHY ME?! GAWWWWW..."


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## Elaminopy (Jun 29, 2011)

Here's one long one I had once while walking to work. Not really "internal dialog" as far as I was actually saying these things in my head, but more just thoughts I had that didn't have a voice associated with them. I pretty much started on auto-pilot right out my front door. I was listening to the band Angra:

That pretty girl next door. Nope, her car's not here. She's a bitch anyway. What time is it? (pictures the microwave clock at home) It's already 8. (pictures a digital clock with the display "8:10") I'll only be about 10 minutes late. (pictures a wall clock) That's not so bad. (a scene of me walking into work plays briefly in my head) It's a lot better than 30 minutes like I normally used to be. I'm trying to be there on time.

This is a good song. (pictures the cover of the CD with a huge white angel spreading his wings) This is the CD where they go back to their original style after changing it in the last album. Or is this the one where they change their style? Hmm, does this sound like their old stuff or different? I can't tell. But at any rate, it's all good.

(song lyrics sing "Nova Era", the title of the song) Nova Era... That means it doesn't go. I doubt the singers meant it that way. Nova means "does not go" in Spanish. (this scene plays in my head from the movie "Tower Heist" that we watched last night: Ben Stiller and Eddie Murphy are driving in a car. Ben just bailed Eddie out of jail. He's trying to make small talk with him and he says "Nova means 'does not go' in Spanish. That's why they didn't sell many in Latin America." Eddie is not impressed. Ben starts saying more trivia and Eddie just looks annoyed.) Heh, typical "book smart" meets "street smart" scene. Of course they had to depict it with a white and black guy playing those roles respectively. Dude, Ben, Eddie's going to think you're a lame nerd if you keep talking like that. That's not the way to make small talk with him. He has no respect for you.

(pictures Ben Stiller's face and notices his gray hairs) He did look like he had a lot of resolve in that movie, though, and he's getting older. He's not just some weak loser. And Eddie Murphy's hardly someone to be hardened. Who is he to act all serious, being a comedian himself? When did Eddie get fed up again? (Ben asks him if he wants something to eat and Eddie finally gets fed up and slams on Ben's foot, making him accelerate before asking him why he bailed him out of jail) Ben picked him out because they had words on the street each day. Dude, that doesn't mean you relate to each other or have a connection. I learned that the hard way with that bitch next door. Of course he's going to wonder why you bailed him out of jail. He seems to not remember you, but he does, he just doesn't think it is relevant. See, you are thinking "we see each other every day, so that would explain why I'd bail you out", but he wouldn't think that would be any more of a reason than if you hadn't ever seen each other before, so he's not even letting on that he remembers you. When you try to get him to remember, you're goal is for him to understand why you bailed him out, but you don't understand that getting him to recognize you wouldn't achieve your goal. How can you not get that right away? Well, I suppose it has to go this way to depict the comedy moment.

Even given that you were classmates as kids, it only gets a little closer to explaining why you bailed him out. (scene plays where Eddie remembers Ben as the seizure kid and Ben explains that he didn't have seizures, only had asthma. but Eddie is adamant that he had seizures and foamed at the mouth and everything. Ben insists there was no foam) (pictures actual foam coming out of a kid's mouth) Would Eddie really think he had seizures just because he used an inhaler? He must have had something happen for Eddie to remember it that way. Why would he make that up? And he doesn't care what it really is. He wants to remember him as "seizure kid" because it's more demeaning. He needs to feel superior to him. Is that how he'd really be, or is it just the stereotype of that kind of person he was written as to provide the proper character for the comedy moment they wanted to happen? I hate when they do that. What did he think when he first got bailed out and saw Ben standing there? (scene plays when Eddie gets out of jail and sees Ben by his car) What was he thinking then?

(scene plays when the guard tells Eddie in jail that he made bail and Eddie purses his lips together and squeezes the deck of Poker cards he's holding in a way that makes them all spring out of his hand onto the ground and gets up to leave) Don't just make a mess. Will the guard have to pick them up? Or maybe some janitor. What a crappy job. Do you really get a deck of cards in jail? What, do they just give you cards so you don't have to be bored when you're there as a punishment? Don't they only let you have things you can't use as a weapon? Couldn't he slice the guard's throat with one of those? Well, maybe not. You'd have to already have a significant physical advantage over the guard to do that, and then you wouldn't need the card anyway. Throw the card? No, you couldn't throw it hard enough to make it fly straight like a tornado could. Only if you're Gambit would cards be dangerous.

He didn't even look like he was playing anything with them. He'd probably only play Poker with them. If I was in jail and had a deck of cards, I'd spend the whole time playing with them and working on further developing my card game. (pictures myself sitting in on a bench in his jail cell and playing my game against myself, playing the role of multiple players) I'd have a lot of time to do that. That'd be cool. Would it become popular in there? What if it became a game everyone in prison played? Would hardened criminals really play my game or would they think it was dumb? (pictures Patrick Jane from the show "The Mentalist" in prison showing card tricks to the inmates to distract them from attacking him) Are real people in prison like that? Jane distracted them with card tricks. Most people would be afraid of these guys and probably freeze up or try things that wouldn't work. He keeps his cool and knows what will get these guys to focus on what he wants them to focus on. This is a good song. Wait, it's almost over. I completely missed this song because I was lost in thought.

(this was past the halfway point in my walk, meaning about 7-8 minutes had passed)

Hmm, I was completely oblivious to the song being played and I don't remember any of my physical surroundings for the last 7-8 minutes. I can't have been using Se unless it was set on auto-pilot and I'm using something else right now. Well, I was focusing on thoughts, so an internal function. There's Ti and Ni. Ti just analyzes things, but it needs data to analyze. A perceiving function is needed for that, but it has to be internal since the source was all memories. Was I using Ti+Ni that whole time with Se in subconscious mode? That's one of those loops. Ti+Ni loop. I read those can lead to unhealthy reasoning without the function of the opposite orientation between them being involved. But how could noticing the details of my surroundings help the reasoning I just had? It would only distract me. Is that what all "lost in thought" moments are? Ji+Pi loops? Can your dom/aux even be in subconscious mode?

Well, I certainly wasn't using it in my conscious thoughts. I don't have any conscious memories of anything outside myself for that whole duration. I was recalling memories and linking them to other related memories. That's how my current understanding of Ne works, but it could be just iNtuition in general. I can't have been Ne anyway, since I wasn't focusing on the external world. So I was either using Ni or Si. If Si, then it was subconsciously. I know one of the subconscious roles is used when having internal dialog. Hey, this would be a good thing to post about on the forum. Yeah, I could talk about how I got lost in thought about the movie last night and how one thought brought me to another one and I was oblivious to my physical surroundings. Maybe someone there can point out what function I was using. I hope it surprises them and this type of thing isn't just normal. So the first thing I thought of was "Tower Heist", right? What made me think of that? It was something Ben was saying to Eddie, like trivia stuff. But what made me think of Ben's trivia? Was I imagining myself trying to impress someone else with trivia? No, I don't think so. What was I thinking of before that point?

At this point I was approaching work and decided I'd think of it once I got settled in at my desk. It wasn't until I looked at my song list and saw the song "Nova Era" I finally realized what made me think of the movie.


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## Cristy0505 (Oct 8, 2012)

Majority of my internal thoughts are about money lately.

How will I manage to get better on work... (but this also because I need more money)

If can I do something on free time (to earn more money)

etc.


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## Lady Lullaby (Jun 7, 2010)

This isn't really that true of my thoughts - but thought it sort of fit the topic:


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