Internal discourse

An inner discourse, or internal discourse, is a constructive act of the human mind and a tool for discovering new knowledge and making decisions. Along with feelings such as joy, anger, fear, etc., and sensory awareness, it is one of the few aspects of the processing of information and other mental activities of which humans can be directly aware. Inner discourse is so prominent in the human awareness of mental functioning that it may often seem to be synonymous with 'mind'. The view is then that 'mind' means 'what one experiences when thinking things out', and that 'thinking things out' is believed to consist only of the words heard in internal discourse. This common sense idea of the mind must either block out the fact that the mind is constantly processing all kinds of information below the level of awareness, or else rename that activity to some putatively 'non-mental' status such as 'reflex reaction' or even, sometimes, 'demon possession'. An inner discourse, or internal discourse, is a constructive act of the human mind and a tool for discovering new knowledge and making decisions. Along with feelings such as joy, anger, fear, etc., and sensory awareness, it is one of the few aspects of the processing of information and other mental activities of which humans can be directly aware. Inner discourse is so prominent in the human awareness of mental functioning that it may often seem to be synonymous with 'mind'. The view is then that 'mind' means 'what one experiences when thinking things out', and that 'thinking things out' is believed to consist only of the words heard in internal discourse. This common sense idea of the mind must either block out the fact that the mind is constantly processing all kinds of information below the level of awareness, or else rename that activity to some putatively 'non-mental' status such as 'reflex reaction' or even, sometimes, 'demon possession'.