Many identify themselves with their inner voice - the silent voice in our heads we can use to think, plan and ponder. But from Lacan to Nietzsche many have warned this inner voice is not ourselves, nor is it innocent or harmless. Studies from Durham University and Trinity College Dublin link the inner voice with increased anxiety. While others show those that take their own lives are often tortured by a subliminal voice. Furthermore, research at Imperial, and the University of Michigan found evidence that when our inner voice is reduced mental health improves.
Should we conclude the inner voice is not the "real me", and its voice should be treated with caution? Should we seek to quieten the inner voice using techniques like psychotherapy, and meditation, and would doing so help combat the mental health crisis? Or did we evolve an inner voice for a reason, and should we see it as our conscience, a problem solving tool and as a guide in our lives?
Psychologist and author Steve Taylor, American philosopher Susan Schneider, award-winning author and psychologist Frank Tallis, and Durham philosopher Jack Symes, debate whether the inner voice is the self.