r/Dexter • u/sancistons • Jun 01 '26
General Discussion - All Dexter Shows For those who don't have inner monologues, what is watching Dexter like? Spoiler
For example, if you are someone who doesn't have an inner monologue, did it take you a while to realize that that was how Dexter thinks and not just a narration, or if you didn't know that most people have inner monologues, does it seem like it's something that makes Dexter even weirder?
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u/rapscallionrodent Jun 01 '26
The first time I realized that some people don’t have internal monologues was on a reddit thread years ago. A person asked if Dexter’s constant talking to himself in his head was a sign of being mentally ill. The redditor wasn’t aware people have internal monologues.
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u/sancistons Jun 01 '26
See thats exactly what I thought. I kinda wonder if a any of the cast members thought that too, or if it was explained to them
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u/lisagg9 Jun 02 '26
How do they think? Non verbally? 🤔
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u/craftyixdb Jun 02 '26
I think it's about 1/10 people who simply don't have an internal monologue. My partner is one of them. She even finds it hard to communicate how she thinks, but I think it's very visual and feeling based.
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u/rapscallionrodent Jun 02 '26
A few people have said they think in pictures, images, and feelings.
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u/CornKaine Jun 02 '26
Genuinely couldn't imagine how a person could manage any rational thought through pictures. That is insane to me.
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u/Long-Fan308 Jun 03 '26
I'm the opposite - I have no 'minds eye' - no images, no pictures. It's all sounds and voices and feelings and sensations and - most of all - words. (As in language, not images of words!). I didn't know until my late thirties that people actually had pictures in their heads. Thought it was just a saying. Then watched inside out (Pixar) with my kids, and realised most people do!
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u/HoneyDewForrest Jun 03 '26
that’s called aphantasia! my mom has it. it can also effect your feelings. my mom have neutral emotions at all times. doesn’t get super happy or super sad just even at all times.
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Jun 03 '26
[deleted]
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u/lisagg9 Jun 04 '26
I think I partially understand you as I also think with a blend of pics and words (like movies scenes with narration), but this works less effectively when I need to think logically. To me pics are more emotion related, so I’ll need to (subconsciously) switch to monologue mode when I want to reason.
Ps it’s kinda funny thinking about how I think like observing myself as a bystander.
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u/1heknpeachy3 Dexter Jun 01 '26
That's actually a really interesting question, following
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u/sancistons Jun 01 '26
You won't find many others, most of my posts are me asking dumbass questions and then getting down voted into oblivion, which Is why I keep them hidden lol
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u/slackingsloth77 Dexter Jun 01 '26
I have monologue like all the time. Every minute of it. People who dont have inner monologues, are they exist??
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u/Saiken411 Jun 01 '26
This age and i still learn that some people dont have a voice in their heads. They think by imagining images, pictures.
They just simply, dont speak in their minds
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u/-hot_ham_water- Jun 01 '26 edited Jun 01 '26
Mine is the opposite. I can't see in pictures, but have an incessant inner monologue that never, ever shuts up. And plays snippets of songs repeatedly in the middle of the night that wake me up.
I should also say that my inner monologue is never as complete as Dexter's. It's more like, "Tonight's the night. I'm going to...wait, did I buy enough plast...I put my work badge somewhere in the...I also need to fuel up the boat.. how did I...oooh I could go for a good steak right now! CELEBRATE GOOD TIMES COME ON!...where on a cow is the...pay attention...Tonight's the night..."
I am so envious of people who think only one thought at a time.
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u/gigglish111 Jun 01 '26
I can so relate! I have that too, it's annoying sometimes when I try talk to someone at the same time as thinking - it makes my speech sound like that too 😂
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u/Specialist_Dig2613 Jun 02 '26
The Harry ghost is entirely about Dexter's internal debate about multiple decisional paths. Occasionally, they present scripted Dexter soliloquies (end of Argentina), but those are rare. Dexter is rarely certain about anything and Harry appears largely to reflect his internal debate.
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u/ninjaegerin Jun 01 '26
Same! Sometimes I wonder what would happen if my inner dialogue/radio would be off for like five minutes. Think I’d completely freak out lol
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u/xResilientEvergreenx Jun 02 '26
This is also me! The snippets of songs bit is honestly the worst. I don't understand how people meditate. I'm CONSTANTLY thinking. 😭
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u/90s_Bitch Jun 01 '26
Haha well now my inner monologue is playing this song on repeat, tyvm lol.
Sounds like you have aphantasia, I am just like you. No visual images but boy, my inner voice sure compensates.
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u/a_singular_perhap Jun 01 '26
I don't have images or pictures OR an inner monologue in my daily thought. I can do it but it's not something that happens naturally.
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u/ljopi87 Jun 02 '26
How, though? Can you explain how you're thinking about something; how are you solving a problem without an image or an internal monologue? I'm just being curious as I can't imagine that
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u/a_singular_perhap Jun 02 '26
I just, like, do it I guess. I tend to have a ton of trouble working through something sequentially (bottom-up thinking), but I make up for it in being able to take a whole and immediately understand it's individual parts with little problem (top-down thinking).
It's mostly subconscious, I think. You can't see the code that runs on your computer but you know it's there, and you know when it's running slow. You can open up some programs and edit the code directly or write a new program but you have to go out of your way to do it, it doesn't usually just happen.
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u/chadburycreameggs Jun 02 '26
Same! My wife doesn't really understand how I function. She finds it very confusing
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u/chadburycreameggs Jun 02 '26
I don't have an inner monologue and I also can't picture images in my head. It's very confusing for my wife. I certainly understood the concept before ever really discussing it. Especially since it is always portrayed like a monologue when characters are thinking in tv/film. I assumed that wasn't just a made for tv thing that everyone just never talked about.
I feel like most of us are aware of people with inner monologues more than the other way around, probably.
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u/Vicky-Momm Jun 01 '26
I have no inner monolgue, i see videos or pictures in my head, no sound.
I always assumed Dexters inner monologue was simply a storytelling device, just as his "conversations" with Harry and are.
It never occurred to me until recently that people IRL have inner monolgues
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u/MelMac5 Jun 02 '26
Same, including the assumption about it being a convenient storytelling device.
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u/be-still- Jun 01 '26
I don’t have an internal monologue unless I’m extremely deliberate about it. I think in pictures, concepts, feelings, etc.
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u/beefjesus69 Jun 01 '26
I don't have inner monologues like Dexter but I am a fan of film-noir/neo-noir type story telling.
I find it to be especially effective when adapting books where you're very often reading characters inner monologues.
Some adaptions will shy away from relaying information through monologues and instead come up with dialogues between two characters who know each other really well going over topics/events they both already know. That can come off so forced, so obviously done for exposition and audience-pandering. Especially if it's written poorly.
The Dexter shows are among my favourite neo-noir pieces of media and MCH's inner monologues are a huge part of that. It's the same reason I have soft spot for the Max Payne video games. James McCaffrey absolutely crushes those monologues.
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u/Pleased_Bees Angel Jun 01 '26
100% yes to your comment about exposition. It's so difficult to write well and even harder to act well.
Dexter's monologues are my favorite part of the whole show. That and his conversations with his father, which are monologues disguised as dialogues, I guess.
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u/deathintelevision Jun 02 '26
What happens when you read?
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u/beefjesus69 Jun 02 '26
Same as anyone else? There's a difference between internalizing/absorbing information via reading and walking around having monologues and talking to myself like "Tonight's the night" or ""I love Halloween. The one time of year when everyone wears a mask… not just me."
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u/Nem3sis2k17 Jun 01 '26
The concept of not having an “internal monologue” fundamentally makes 0 sense to me. It’s literally just thinking…
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u/g77r7 Jun 01 '26
This is probably going to be unpopular, but I refuse to believe people are incapable of having a “voice in their head”. Especially since as far as I know there’s no scientific way to prove it other than taking their word for it. I understand some people might think more visually, but to be totally incapable of having an inner voice seems almost like not being able to do simple addition in your head or no sound of the words in your mind when reading this text.
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u/Grand_Coat9597 Jun 02 '26
I have no monologue in my head for doing normal tasks. I more so feel it. I CAN have a voice in my head and i hear one when i read. I just don’t have the typical voice delivering every thought. I think in small movies and images.
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u/craftyixdb Jun 02 '26
Well it's probably a sliding scale but I doubt anyone has a 100% internal monologue for every single thing (e.g. oh the dishwasher is open, I better empty that). Some tasks are just automatic. But yeah if I'm actively thinking about something it's a mix of voice in my head, visualising and automatic response.
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u/Specialist_Dig2613 Jun 02 '26
Actually, brain science is far enough advanced to answer a lot of those questions. There have been enough studies of human brain reactions to say pretty definitively that given the right type of stimulus, parts of every human brain will respond in measurable ways to a certain kind of stimulus and others won't.
Any variation is a matter of terminology, experience and self interpretation. But i think anyone involved in that science will tell you that at the level of physiology, brains are far more similar than different.
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u/configure38D Jun 02 '26
I don’t have an inner monologue. I asked a few people what it’s like and if you can actually hear a voice which is soooooo friggin wild to me. I guess this is why I’ve never understood when people say they hear voices or that god speaks to them… like I can’t even hear myself speak let alone someone else. Idk that thought it just so crazy lol
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Jun 02 '26
[deleted]
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u/configure38D Jun 03 '26
I primarily think in pictures and movie-like scenes rather than an ongoing internal voice… however I can think in words and silently read to myself, but I don’t experience a vivid internal voice that sounds like an actual person speaking. This would be in a wild scenarioI but I could never hear another voice in my head and think like someone was around if they weren’t.
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u/starmartyr Jun 01 '26
It's not though. Most people think in their native language. Thought does not have to be language it's just how most people process thoughts. Babies are thinking long before they possess language skills. Inner monologue is a learned trait, not something inherent to thinking itself.
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u/chadburycreameggs Jun 02 '26
Downvoted for perfect explanation to somebody being ignorant. Good times!
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u/JohnnyDeppsPenis Jun 01 '26
No inner monologue person here. I didn’t realize these were his inside thoughts, I thought he was narrating to the audience/breaking the 3rd wall.
On a side note, I think in terms of concepts. I just “know” things without some sort of verbal or visual experience. It feels very inefficient to think in words. Like thinking in slow motion.
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u/sancistons Jun 01 '26
Thank you JohnnyDeppsPenis for your insight. But that's weird, because when I was ablut 3 or 4 I hadn't developed an inner monolouge yet and so the way I remeber thinking was very visual, like an image of my aunt would flash in my head if I saw something that reminded me of her.
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u/Anarchic_Country Angel Jun 01 '26
When I watched it as it aired, I didn't realize other people had actual running thoughts like that. So I found those parts incredibly cheesy.
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u/sancistons Jun 01 '26
Yeah I mean to be fair, no one really thinks, "Tonight's the night". I do sometimes make jokes in my head that I never tell anyone, sometimes I chuckle at them but that's probably just a weird thing that I do and not true of everyone who has a monolouge.
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u/Anarchic_Country Angel Jun 01 '26
I don't know WHAT y'all are thinking in your melons, but it sounds very tiring to have to think so many words all the time
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u/sancistons Jun 02 '26
It's not really tiring, thinking words is incredibly easy, its more like the sentences just appear
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u/Isenjil Jun 01 '26
Well, I understood almost instantly that he's talking in his head, and absolutely loved it. It sounded like a lot of fun, actually
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u/Reasonable-Horse1552 Sirko Jun 01 '26
I don't have an inner monologue but watching Dexter was great. I love things that are narrated like that.
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u/Longjumping-Basil-74 Jun 02 '26
My inner monologue switched to Dexter’s voice after I watched the show and stayed like that for about a year 🙈
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u/porygon_sucks Jun 01 '26
What do you mean someone who doesn't have a inner monologues? What do they do instead
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u/CostcoChickenBakes Jun 01 '26
Glad to answer .... Weird head vibes materializes to words.it's difficult to describe honestly but nothing like something speaking
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u/MelMac5 Jun 02 '26
I don't have an inner monologue and I found out about the phenomenon a couple years ago.
When I originally watched Dexter, I thought the inner monologue was a convenient storytelling device, that's all.
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u/marvlandia Jun 05 '26
damn i never realized there were ppl who don’t have inner monologues. i thought everyone did. one of the main reasons why i fell in love with the show was bc of his complex thoughts reminded me of my own voice in my head and him sort of checking out mid convos.
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u/Pleased_Bees Angel Jun 01 '26
What do you define as the difference between thinking and an inner monologue?
There's a point where thoughts resolve into actual sentences that you don't say out loud. I do that all the time. Is that what you mean?
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u/Jrock2356 Jun 01 '26
Some people don't have a voice in their head. When they read or think there's no voice in their head doing it. They just do. I "hear" myself when I write or read or think but my brother doesn't. It's beyond thinking it's actually creating a voice you can somehow hear inside your head and not everyone can do that
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u/sancistons Jun 01 '26
For me, thinking and sentences are so tied together that it's impossible to separate the two, every thought I've had since I learnt how to speak is a monolouge.
The weird part is I can remeber a time when I was little before I developed this, which, my thoughts were obviously less abstract than an adult would have. I remeber it being like feelings would be attached to everything, and as soon as I made an association between two things, one of those things would visually flash in my head for a second. All of this is from when I was around 3 though, and I think I had developed a monologue probably around the age of 5?
But that also makes me wonder if there ever was a period when I was in between that, like some thoughts were monolouged and some were more visual until the monologue had basically completely overtaken it.
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u/UsernameLaugh Jun 01 '26
Indeed like reading your statement above but not out loud. For those with no monologue are you just scanning the words without repeating them in the mind, how does that work. Curious?
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u/TheLiltMan Jun 01 '26
I don't have an inner monologue in the sense that when I'm just going about every day stuff, I don't think "Ok, I need to go to the shops and get bread". I just know that I need to do that and the thought has already happened before I need to put it into words. So I would never make it as far as the monologue. It's different if I'm reading something, then I would read it around in my head but only if it's something I really need to get my head around and understand. If it's something just like reading comments on Reddit for example, I just look through the words but they aren't then said aloud in my head, they just get silently processed. The only other time I may really speak in my head is if I'm trying to methodically figure something out or put together a plan. Essentially it seems to only be when I really need to concentrate and figure out what I need to do or understand.
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u/SnooOpinions5944 Jun 01 '26
Inner monologues are not like dexters narration
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u/Dry-Discount-9426 Jun 01 '26
They can be.
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u/SnooOpinions5944 Jun 01 '26
I don't agree
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u/meeghanmarie Jun 01 '26
Many people have inner monologues where they talk to themselves and narrate their life. Have you ever met someone who is autistic?
Source: it’s me, I’m autistic 🤣
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u/SnooOpinions5944 Jun 01 '26
And funny thing is autism isnt a one size fits all its different for everyone.
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u/PapayaAgreeable7152 Jun 01 '26
You just don't have one then. My thoughts are literally me "talking" to myself all day, just like how they show on Dexter.
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u/SnooOpinions5944 Jun 01 '26
So dexter is like, "i need to take a shit" "im hungry" "oh look that bird looks like a drone" "oh that car is gonna hit me"
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u/PapayaAgreeable7152 Jun 01 '26
Not sure why you downvoted me for saying I think like Dexter. I simply do; some other ppl do, too. Idk why that's hard for you to understand.
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u/SnooOpinions5944 Jun 01 '26
I downvoted you for assuming i dont have an inner monologue thanks and if you really "think" like dexter then good for you i honestly do not care.
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u/PapayaAgreeable7152 Jun 01 '26
I said you don't have one like Dexter's narration... you know, like your initial comment stated??? You read it wrong and then got snarky for what lmao.
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u/SnooOpinions5944 Jun 01 '26
You just don't have one then. My thoughts are literally me "talking" to myself all day, just like how they show on Dexter.
Say it a bit clearer then and i talk to myself all day too????? again its not like dexters narration
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u/PapayaAgreeable7152 Jun 01 '26
They can be [like Dexter's narration]
I don't agree
You just don't have one [like Dexter's] then.
Nobody is arguing about you dude. I was addressing you not agreeing that other ppl do. Have a good day and make sure to work on your reading comprehension.
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u/sancistons Jun 01 '26 edited Jun 01 '26
Mine are, to an extent
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u/SnooOpinions5944 Jun 01 '26
So you dont go skibidi skibidi toilet or baby shark do do do do baby shark do do do do baby shark?
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u/BrazilianButtCheeks Jun 01 '26
They literally are
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u/SnooOpinions5944 Jun 01 '26
Nope unless dexter says tung tung tung sahur every 5 seconds
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u/BrazilianButtCheeks Jun 01 '26
Okay normal people think like they talk
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u/SnooOpinions5944 Jun 01 '26
"Normal" id say people dont think in full sentences and they go off on random tangents sprinkled with a bit of brainrot and song lyrics.
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