SELFTALK

self-talk: translation

(SELF.tawk)

n.

Words or phrases said to oneself, especially for therapeutic or motivational reasons.

For any age, she said,self-talkrepresents a useful tool in staying focused. A positive statement to oneself during a game, said Jerry Stern, a Columbus psychologist certified as an Olympic sports therapist, spurs the participant to a peak state. Still, he doesn't "suggest talking to oneself out loud."

— Rosanne Rosen, "For Your Ears Only,"The Columbus Dispatch, January 4, 2002

He mixes the scientistic latinisms of the old sociology (''participation framework,'' ''referent-response'') with the weird ungrammatical coinages of the new (''say-foring,'' ''commentarylike,'' ''self-talk'').

— Geoffrey Nunberg, "The Theatricality of Everyday Life,"The New York Times, May 10, 1981

The earliest media citation uses this phrase as a quotation from the bookForms of Talk, by Erving Goffman, which was published in 1981.

co-rumination

self-handicapping

self-tracker

Psychology