Inner Speech, Imagined Speech, and Auditory Verbal Hallucinations

Abstract

A theory which has had significant influence seeks to explain auditory verbal hallucinations (AVHs) as utterances in inner speech which are not properly monitored and are consequently misattributed to some external source. This paper argues for a distinction between inner speech and imagined speech, on the basis that inner speech is a type of actual speech. The paper argues that AVHs are more likely instances of imagined speech, rather that inner speech, which are not properly monitored (a possibility which has been raised by Wu (Mind & Language 27(1): 86–107, 2012), Cho and Wu (Frontiers in Psychiatry 4: 155, 2013) and Cho and Wu (Frontiers in Psychiatry 5: 75, 2014), although they prefer a quite different explanation of AVHs).