Most people have an inner monologue. It is a person's internal, mental, verbal monologue that runs while they're conscious. It's often referred to as one's "inner voice". It is the conversation that can be heard internally when given options. It is the verbal Pro/Con list when faced with a difficult decision. It's the voice that whispers you worst anxieties in your ear before bed. And it existsin both systems and non-systems.
It's ALL about the experience!
Picture this: Two of your closest friends are having an argument. And while they cant manage to understand one another, You can clearly see both sides of the argument. And you're torn. In this instance, a person might experience an internal argument between opposing parts of the brain, "hearing" these thoughts internally.
And it might sound something like this:
"Okay, well I get where friend a is coming from, friend b hurt them. But friend b may not have know about that issue, and friend a didn't need to retaliate that way. But if friend b knew about the issue, then I understand why friend a retaliated..."
What we are hearing here, is a conversation between two opposing parts of an identity. We are seeing through the lens of two episodic memory collections. It's apparent that there are two (or more) different emotional stand points within one brain. But because there are no dissociation barriers, the experience is just a running dialogue. It isn't experienced as two separate people speaking, but rather one person talking to themselves.
In systems, these moments are experienced as separate people, And unless aphantasia is present, experienced visually, and often viscerally.
Using our own system as an example, it would be something like this:
Lacie: Why would friend a do such a thing?
Charlotte: You mean friend b, right?
Ziggy: (shouts) paybacks a B****!
MC: I don't think friend b knew it was an issue.
Scarlette: friend a still didn't need to retaliate.
Ziggy: (shouts) oh shit. What if friend b DIDNT know????
Charlotte: Okay, then I understand.
Lacie: Yes, and if friend b did know, then I understand retaliation.
The same emotions, information, and opinions were expressed. However, in systems, the brain has compartmentalized autonomously, and therefore the parts are visually expressed as well as felt in a compartmentalized fashion.
It's still the total of the parts.
If we view consciousness as separate from the corporeal body, the same rings true for every human- System or not. You cannot simply consider one aspect of a person to be the entirety of their being. Identity- of all types, are spectrums.
And once again, system brains offer a sort of visual reference and example of these spectrums within humans.
《 Next Up 》
Identity is a spectrum- average accordingly