Lost in Speech: Depressive Rumination and the Dynamics of Inner Silence.
Inquiry November 14, 2025 DOI: 10.1080/0020174x.2025.2587214 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | Depression Meditation Philosophy of mind |
| Keywords | Inner speech Philosophy of psychiatry Rumination Silence |
| Citations | 1 |
| Key points | Argues that depressive rumination involves a disruption in the capacity for inner silence, which explains the distress of rumination and the effectiveness of meditation-based therapies. |
Abstract
This paper clarifies the experiential profile of depressive rumination, a form of repetitive and persistent negative thinking that is phenomenologically and aetiologically central in depression. Phenomenological analyses of depression have generally remained too high-level to account for this centrality. Drawing on first-person depression narratives and recent philosophy of psychiatry and psychology, we elucidate an underexplored phenomenological aspect of depressive rumination: a disruption in the capacity for inner silence. This disruption captures ruminating individuals' yearning for but inability to initiate and maintain inner silence. It also explains the distress involved in rumination and the effectiveness of therapies such as meditation.