Today I listened to Why you don’t like the sound of your own voice by Rébecca Kleinberger. I remembered hearing about it a while ago and listening to it, but I didn’t remember what she said. I wanted to listen to it again today because I had been thinking about the difference between how we see ourselves and see others.
Most of us possess 3 voices: the outward, inward, and inner voice. Rébecca talks about this in terms of the mask model. When we wear a mask we don’t see the mask. And when we try to observe it, all we see is the inside. The inside of the mask is our inward voice. The voice that others hear when we talk is the outward voice. To bring up the idea of the inner voice, she explains what corollary discharges are. A corollary discharge is a copy of a motor command that the brain sends to other parts of the brain to inform other parts of the brain about an impending action but which does not produce any motion itself. Our inner voice is speaking when we read a book silently to ourselves and in our dreams. She characterizes the inner voice as the missing link between thought and actions.
This last part (the missing link between thought and actions) was interesting. I feel like there must be a connection between the concept of self-talk and the inner voice. Treating ourselves with compassion must invoke a softer inner voice.