She doesn’t have an inner voice. Her condition is so rare doctors don’t have a name for it


Mel May only realised she was different while reading a news article one day.

“Wait, what? Some people hear a voice in their head?” she thought at the time.

She was stunned to discover that this was not just a figure of speech – her friends were actually chatting to themselves in their minds.

May, a 30-year-old Australian video producer who lives in New York, remembers trying to explain it to her family.

“My dad was like, ‘You are lying’,” she says.

But her father came around once May started working with psychologists who agreed – she is one of very few people who lack inner speech.

Russell Hurlburt, a psychology professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, has studied people with a range of inner experiences, like May’s. Photo: Instagram/apa_org/
Russell Hurlburt, a psychology professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, has studied people with a range of inner experiences, like May’s. Photo: Instagram/apa_org/

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