The Voices Within The History and Science of How We Talk to Ourselves (Audible Audio Edition) Charles Fernyhough Julian Elfer Audible Studios Books
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A luminous exploration of the nature of thoughts, from daydreams to the voices in our heads.
At the moment you caught sight of this book, what were you thinking? Was your thought a stream of sensations? Or was it a voice in your head? Did you ask yourself, "I wonder what that's about?" Did you answer? And what does it mean if you did?
When someone says they hear voices in their head, they are often thought to be mentally ill. But, as Charles Fernyhough argues in The Voices Within, such voices are better understood as one of the chief hallmarks of human thought. Our inner voices can be self-assured, funny, profound, hesitant, or mean; they can appear in different accents and even in sign language. We all hear them - and we needn't fear them. Indeed, we cannot live without them. We need them, whether to make decisions or to bring a book's characters to life as we read. Studying them can enrich our understanding of ourselves, and our understanding of the world around us; it can help us understand the experiences of visionary saints, who might otherwise be dismissed as schizophrenics, to alleviate the suffering of those who do have mental health problems, and to understand why the person next to us on the subway just burst out laughing for no apparent reason.
Whether the voices in our heads are meandering lazily or clashing chaotically, they deserve to be heard. Bustling with insights from literature, film, art, and psychology, The Voices Within offers more than science; it powerfully entreats us all to take some time to hear ourselves think.
The Voices Within The History and Science of How We Talk to Ourselves (Audible Audio Edition) Charles Fernyhough Julian Elfer Audible Studios Books
Mr. Fernyhough presents an insightful contribution to the literature on what is variously called self-talk, covert verbalizations, self-verbalizations, inner voices, or inner speech, and distinguished by the author from the phenomena of “hearing voices.” The work is written from the perspective of a clinical psychologist and researcher possessed of an articulate, lucid, and prosaic writing style. Fernyhough - how I enjoy repeating this interesting name in my mind’s own self-talk – contributes a broad range of anecdotes from troubled patients, creative fiction writers (including himself), observations of his toddler daughter’s behavior and inferred thought processes, historical autobiographical works, the author’s own experiences, and other clinical research studies and experiments. He also cites theory and evidence associating variations of inner voice phenomena and anomalies with specific cognitive processes and particular anatomical features of the human brain. The author underscores the nascence of research into details, mechanisms, and processes of human cognition that attempt to explain the varied types of inner voices.We gain an appreciation of how many in society stigmatize inner voice hearing, and tendencies to pathologize those who express what most of us consider anomalous experiences. Inner voices may be debilitating for some, merely annoying or neutral/benign for others, or even facilitating as for stimulating the imagination of creative writers. The growing “Hearing Voices Movement” is described as a support initiative and venue for therapeutic sharing. It is stipulated that hearing voices is a normal behavior process, arguably with adaptive value.
The book is a valuable read, although it does not address my particular area of interest which is the role of self-verbalizations or inner speech in the conduct of typical activities of daily living, problem-solving, reflection, analysis, and specifically, its role in the collective conscience manifesting human social institutions such as systems of law. Curious are lack of references to the work of Albert Ellis and his Rational Emotive Theory/Therapy, the ideas of Noam Chomsky relating to “surface” and “deep” layers of cognitive processing, and to the so-called Sapir/Whorf hypothesis. Perhaps the reader would also benefit from further explanation of the tantalizing concepts “theory of mind abilities” (p. 220), “social agent tracking,” “social cognition,” and the “dialogic framework” (p. 236) presented by the author. A final lament, perhaps peculiar to my tastes, is the lack of bottom-of-the-page references – they are all pooled at the end of the book. Those of us who find great value in reading footnotes pay the cost of endless flipping from citation to reference.
I highly recommend this laudable work for those interested in this under-studied area of cognitive science and for researchers endeavoring to make further contributions to the literature on inner voices and both the constructive and apparently potentially destructive, or pathological, effects, associated with their occurrence. I wish I had this book in the early 1980s when writing a graduate thesis (unpublished) pertaining to the effect of self-verbalizations on motor behavior and task performance.
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The Voices Within The History and Science of How We Talk to Ourselves (Audible Audio Edition) Charles Fernyhough Julian Elfer Audible Studios Books Reviews
great book that puts into perspective how the mind naturally communicates
Dry writing style, but detailed and thorough. If this is a topic that interests you, then this is a worthy book.
Fantastic and beautifully written. Charles goes into just enough detail about the respective neuroscience without being overwhelming. I was elated to see the references to Julian Jaynes's work and the modern scientific understanding of inner monologue. Tons of data from surveys, in which Charles respectfully considers in his ideas. One of the favorites I've read in the past year.
This book combines modesty with wide-ranging erudition. In an area where most "experts" barge in making claims based on little but the authority of their own minds, Fernyhough strives to embrace evidence however contrary, and collaborates broadly in search of more. He makes it obvious that having one of the most basic facts of human psychology --- the prevalence among many (but not all) of us of "inner speech" -- largely unexamined cannot be excused by claims of intractability, as it has so largely been.
Very good book! Helped me understand myself.
Interesting book and generally easy to read. I did feel at times that the author was speculative and made conclusions that may not have been fully supported by research.
I finished reading this reasonably priced book which was delivered speedily to my door(sorry I can't resist that one) and I have taken time to think about what I have read and now I am going to give a review based on my reading of the entire book. Imagine that.
I highly recommend this book because it sheds light on a subject that doesn't get much light. The main reason for why it doesn't is because talking to oneself is something that everyone does but never admits. In a sense it is like other functions of the body which are not done in public and are considered not done at all in a way. You can think of a few examples of what I am talking about for sure. Talking to oneself is not a sign of mental illness if others hear you doing it anymore than some other private actions would be if done in public. It is not socially acceptable but we all do it alone because our brains work this way.
This book does a very good job of blending scientific analysis with insightful real life examples and narratives while exploring various levels of the internal talking. This book has a wide perspective on the topic and discusses self talking from medieval religious mystics to the voices people hear.
There are a lot of descriptions of differing explanations for how and why the brain produces internal talking and in a good scientific manner it reveals how many ideas have yet to be totally proven. The author advances his own construct for how the brain does internal speech and brings that construct through controversial aspects in order to see how it holds up. Thus this book is good open minded science in the best sense.
If you ever wondered about that talking you do with yourself all the time, then this is the book for you.
Mr. Fernyhough presents an insightful contribution to the literature on what is variously called self-talk, covert verbalizations, self-verbalizations, inner voices, or inner speech, and distinguished by the author from the phenomena of “hearing voices.” The work is written from the perspective of a clinical psychologist and researcher possessed of an articulate, lucid, and prosaic writing style. Fernyhough - how I enjoy repeating this interesting name in my mind’s own self-talk – contributes a broad range of anecdotes from troubled patients, creative fiction writers (including himself), observations of his toddler daughter’s behavior and inferred thought processes, historical autobiographical works, the author’s own experiences, and other clinical research studies and experiments. He also cites theory and evidence associating variations of inner voice phenomena and anomalies with specific cognitive processes and particular anatomical features of the human brain. The author underscores the nascence of research into details, mechanisms, and processes of human cognition that attempt to explain the varied types of inner voices.
We gain an appreciation of how many in society stigmatize inner voice hearing, and tendencies to pathologize those who express what most of us consider anomalous experiences. Inner voices may be debilitating for some, merely annoying or neutral/benign for others, or even facilitating as for stimulating the imagination of creative writers. The growing “Hearing Voices Movement” is described as a support initiative and venue for therapeutic sharing. It is stipulated that hearing voices is a normal behavior process, arguably with adaptive value.
The book is a valuable read, although it does not address my particular area of interest which is the role of self-verbalizations or inner speech in the conduct of typical activities of daily living, problem-solving, reflection, analysis, and specifically, its role in the collective conscience manifesting human social institutions such as systems of law. Curious are lack of references to the work of Albert Ellis and his Rational Emotive Theory/Therapy, the ideas of Noam Chomsky relating to “surface” and “deep” layers of cognitive processing, and to the so-called Sapir/Whorf hypothesis. Perhaps the reader would also benefit from further explanation of the tantalizing concepts “theory of mind abilities” (p. 220), “social agent tracking,” “social cognition,” and the “dialogic framework” (p. 236) presented by the author. A final lament, perhaps peculiar to my tastes, is the lack of bottom-of-the-page references – they are all pooled at the end of the book. Those of us who find great value in reading footnotes pay the cost of endless flipping from citation to reference.
I highly recommend this laudable work for those interested in this under-studied area of cognitive science and for researchers endeavoring to make further contributions to the literature on inner voices and both the constructive and apparently potentially destructive, or pathological, effects, associated with their occurrence. I wish I had this book in the early 1980s when writing a graduate thesis (unpublished) pertaining to the effect of self-verbalizations on motor behavior and task performance.
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