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My first encounter with the actual world was my tertiary education. I had a defined mold for everyone I came across and whoever did not fit in; I considered abnormal. You can imagine how odd it must have been for me to have a roommate who often held conversations with herself as though she were speaking to another, in clear consciousness (I recently picked up this rather hilarious phrase from my psychiatric clinical posting in Abeokuta). Until that time, I had a pretty vague understanding of soliloquy from my literature classes in middle school and, juxtaposing the knowledge I had with my somewhat “off” roommate, it did not quite fit as, she was neither in a play, nor rehearsing script for one. In simple-minded ignorance, I considered her psychotic. Although my assumption may not have been far off the mark as according to Mental Health Experts, everyone is considered either mildly or severely psychotic—argue with your screens; my grounds for pinning her with such medical diagnosis were faulty. I figured several non-medical simple minds are wont to committing such errors so; I defined the boundaries of Soliloquy and the symptoms of schizophrenia for which it is often mistaken.
Soliloquy is simply speaking one’s thoughts aloud when by oneself or regardless of any hearers. When it is the product of hallucinations, it becomes a symptom of schizophrenia. People contemplate decisions daily and sometimes voice their inner conflicts aloud. This trait is not a mental health problem but, a habit they have adopted to get by life’s processes while maintaining a grip on things. Where this harmless habit becomes a warning sign of Schizophrenia is when one speaks in response to “voices in one’s head”, auditory hallucination.
Another variation of this symptom is called Hallucination of Soliloquy. Here, the person besides auditory hallucination experiences vivid sensations of speaking without external vocalization. Such a person does not just hear voices in his head but, hears himself respond to those voices despite not being heard by others around him. There could also be Delusion of Soliloquy, which is the pathological conviction that one unintentionally spoke to oneself, mainly in public. Here, patients are convinced that they let slip “soliloquy” and everyone had learned their secrets through it, despite being fully aware that their soliloquies were never verbalized. Often, these “voices” are usually echoes of their own thoughts in a stranger’s voice and often reveal the patient’s spontaneous thinking.
Overall, while soliloquy is merely the external vocalisation of one’s contemplations, in schizophrenia, it is a motor response to auditory hallucinations which could be hallucination.
Written and Edited by- EZEBUIRO LOIS
REFERENCES
- Definition of Soliloquy retrieved from: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/soliloquy
- Hallucination of soliloquy: Speaking component and hearing component of schizophrenic hallucinations retrieved from: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1046/j.1440-1819.2000.00748.x