The Voices Within: The History and Science of How We Talk to Ourselves (Wellcome) - Softcover

Charles Fernyhough is a writer and psychologist. He is the author of the critically acclaimed Pieces of Light, shortlisted for many prizes, and A Thousand Days of Wonder. He directs Hearing the Voice, a project on inner voices based at Durham University. He lives in County Durham, United Kingdom.

"Talk to yourself? We all do, all the time, and the voices persist even when you'd rather they shush. The 'inner voice' is becoming a prime-time topic in brain studies, and Fernyhough's book is a solid entry in the discussion. It provides enough science to ground the argument, but the real achievement here is the writing. The author is a psychologist and a novelist, and his prose has a narrative feel that separates it from most books on the psych shelf."―David DiSalvo, Forbes.com, Best Brain Books of 2016

"Fernyhough has built up an interesting picture of inner speech and its functions." ―Jerome Groopman, New Yorker

"In The Voices Within, [Fernyhough] has rendered complicated mental experience without losing its human texture, as so often happens when psychological questions are addressed in the lab.... [It's] an intriguing and deeply humane book."

"A must-read for those seeking to understand the voices in their heads."―Discover

"The author's investigations, at once scientific and humane, represent the discipline of psychology at its rare best.... After reading The Voices Within, you may never again be quite as thoughtless about the fact that you think."―Raymond Tallis, Wall Street Journal

"The Voices Within...intriguingly challenges conventional assumptions about the self as unified and coherent, while also posing the question: how might that which we deem pathological be shaped by the mores of our times?"―Christine Gross-Loh, Guardian, Best Books for Summer 2016

"[Fernyhough's] account is fascinating, not only for the ideas he raises but also for his vignettes of historical thought and research."―Lancet

"This sophisticated and appealing work scrutinizes a tangled topic with aplomb and will leave readers permanently observing their own thought processes differently. Perfect for readers of Oliver Sacks and Malcolm Gladwell." ―Booklist, starred review

"Fernyhough's book is a valuable addition to the literature surrounding the unending human quest to understand the location--and the creation--of the self." ―Publishers Weekly