This article has two objectives. First, it emphasizes the internal conversation as a basic human capacity for reflection that is necessary for the performance of complex tasks and decision making. Second, it interprets the internal conversation as a semiotic process for the dialogical expression of the self. The argument is based on an adductive logic, from the Latin adducere, which means to bring forward or consideration data from different sources. As a result, inner speech appears: 1) as a psychological phenomenon by its own conditions, independent of methodologies or theories; 2) as a process of meaning that we may call simply the self; 3) as a linking that clarifies the mutual influence between a private self and a social milieu, but recognizes the potential autonomy of the self toward the social forces.
inner speech; reflexivity; self-awareness; self; adductive logic