Why people talk to themselves

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Psychoanalytic Theory
• Clinical Psychology

Background:

• Individuals may develop maladaptive coping mechanisms to manage intense negative emotions.
• Unresolved grief and lack of mourning can impede psychological development and healthy identification processes.

Observation:

• Patients experiencing shame or loneliness engage in self-directed talk.
• This self-talk creates a subjective sense of presence, typically of an unmourned family member.
• The behavior serves to alleviate immediate distress and can function as resistance in therapy.

Findings:

• The "presence" is a manifestation of unresolved loss and a failure to mourn.
• Insufficient mourning leads to a lack of enriching identifications with family members.
• Therapeutic progress involves mourning these losses and internalizing identifications with the figures.

Implications:

• Understanding the function of self-talk in managing grief and loneliness is crucial for therapeutic interventions.
• Facilitating the mourning process can lead to healthier identification and integration of early relationships.
• This highlights the importance of addressing unresolved loss in clinical practice.