Are you nuts!?

Have you ever been out and about in the world and come across a homeless person talking to him or herself, perhaps rather loudly? If you have, you probably thought that person was crazy, especially if you are in earshot of them for long enough to realize that they are actually having an argument with some other person that no one can see.

There are plenty of jokes out there about how you are crazy if you talk to yourself, or only if you listen to what you have to say or only if you talk back to yourself. But, if the homeless people that talk to themselves are crazy, then so are you and I and everyone else in this world that is old enough for conscious thought. Does that seem like an insane declaration? Maybe but let me explain why I say this.

Certain thoughts, feelings and events in our lives naturally remind us of people with whom we have associated in the past. When we think of those things our minds automatically call up those people and what they would say or think about those things.

This is a normal process and can be intentionally used to great benefit in our lives. Many inspirational and motivational speakers encourage people to find traits that they want in themselves and to think of people living or dead who have or had those traits. They then suggest that we imagine ourselves at a conference table surrounded by these people and have regular meetings in our head with these people to work as a team on solving our day to day problems and work on bigger and better goals.

The homeless person arguing out loud with a person no one can see has simply lost sight of the fact that the other voice to whom he is speaking is within his head and not real. The other likely problem is that the person he is arguing with is not a person who is or was a positive influence on his life.
Does talking to oneself still seem crazy?

Well how about this then? When you are out with a group of friends and one of them suggests going to a place where an ex of yours is known to hang out what happens? You hesitate and are probably silent for a moment or two. Why?

Because you are talking to yourself. There is a conversation going on in your head all the time. And whether you want to admit it or not, it is not a monologue. There are two or more voices in your head almost all the time. Even if they are all yours, they are separate. You think about wanting to go to that bar or club and all sorts of reasons or excuses not to go come up. And as soon as you attempt to work through any of them you begin debating with yourself about pros and cons.

A debate is not a one sided affair. If it were there would be no need for its existence. If you automatically naturally agreed with yourself, you would just do want you wanted to do all the time and there would never be a conflict. But you talk to the other you all the time, telling it what you want to do and arguing with it when it does not agree with what you want.

If talking to oneself, out loud or in ones head is normal, then I submit that the opposite must be crazy. Do not trust people that claim they never talk to themselves. They are either insane or lying.