2.4 Inner speech and visual thought patterns in ideocalligraphy

Visual thought calls for a visual language. In ideocalligraphy wordless thought patterns are brought to light by the primary meanings of the ideocalligraphs chosen, their positioning and by the structure of their inter-relationships implied in the ideocalligraphy.

For the psychologist L.S.Vygotsky, "inner speech is speech almost without words... it is not the interior aspect of external speech, it is a function in itself... While in external speech thought is embodied in words, in inner speech words die as they bring forth thought. Inner speech is to a large extent thinking in pure meanings."

Our inner speech is the world we know to be our own. Ideocalligraphy serves as a visual medium for that inner speech and leads it to the outside world. Although at first sight a monologue, ideocalligraphy invites dialogue and a reader can respond to it with her or his own inner speech.