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"Kill them all."
"Hmm, are you sure?"
"Yes."
"Well, I'm convinced."
The Medic, when equipped with the Second Opinion, Team Fortress 2

It seems that in fiction split personalities can talk to each other, manifesting as Hearing Voices. Sometimes the various personalities will talk to each other inside the character's head, sometimes one of them (by implication the "real" or "dominant" one) will talk out loud, and sometimes they'll all talk out loud, being distinguished by cinematography, facial expression or vocal differences. While different people in a multiple personality group can and do talk to each other, this is of course exaggerated for dramatic purposes in media portrayals of multiple personalities — see Split Personality for a more in-depth explanation.

Even entirely sane (or mostly sane) people can be prone to this trope if the other voices represent simple conflicting desires like "brain versus heart", "id versus superego", or Good Angel, Bad Angel.

Compare Holding Both Sides of the Conversation, where one person is pretending to be two different people (at the same time, in conversation) in order to maintain some charade. This is a specific form of Shifting Voice of Madness, where the "voices" are in conversation with each other.

Very important: do not confuse Thinking Out Loud with this. Thinking Out Loud is not a symptom of mental illness in most casesnote .

For instances of a person who is literally speaking to another version of themself due to things such as cloning, Literal Split Personality, or Time Travel, see Which Me?. For instances of an actor voicing multiple characters (which were named "Talking to Himself"), see Acting for Two.

In Real Life, multiple-personality selves do talk to each other (including talking out loud, discreetly) or can learn to do so. This communication is actually a good sign and is encouraged by doctors.


Examples:

    open/close all folders 

    Anime and Manga 
  • Agito, Akito and Lind of Air Gear all inhabit the same body and talk to each other occasionally.
  • The song "Morning Dreamer" from Angel Beats! is about Yui (the one singing the song) not wanting to get up in the morning, but having to, and asking someone to heat the bath, buy a new guitar string to replace a broken one, etc. The song ends with Yui saying "Anyway, who have I been talking to when I live alone?"
  • In Birdy the Mighty, Birdy and Tsutomu often talk to each other, and characters around them tend to think that they've gone crazy and are talking to themselves, but entirely retain their own personalities. In the manga, this is even taken so far as Tsutomu not understanding Birdy's superior's speaking, while Birdy herself can.
  • Bleach: Shinigami can communicate with their Zanpakutou spirits within their Inner Worlds. The spirits can also manifest outside the Shinigami, sometimes visible to only the Shinigami and sometimes visible to everyone. The Zanpakutou are reflections of the Shinigami's soul and represent their true selves. Some shinigami have more than one spirit, although that's rare. Ichigo has two spirits because he has power from multiple origins. The Inner Hollow represents his Shinigami and Hollow power while Old Man Zangetsu represents his Quincy power.
  • Change 123: Motoko has three other personalities that are master martial artists. When they emerge, they are fully aware of the two others, but Motoko herself is unable to communicate with them. This frequently causes problems when she 'wakes up' and has no idea of her current situation.
  • Death Note: Only people who have touched a Death Note can see and hear the book's shinigami, making it look to other people like they're talking to themselves.
  • Viro in Elemental Gelade is a spy with the bad fortune to fall for her target. Even worse, he's already an Official Couple with Ren. Just when things look like they can't get any worse, she gets the order to kill him. Faced with killing her new friends or a lifetime of unrequited love as a Sting Raid, she gets into an argument with hallucinations of herself as a Sting Raid (complete with a hot outfit) and as a human.
  • In Mobile Suit Gundam 00, Allelujah's personalities talk and yell at each other during times of stress. The more violent one has a tendency to torment the calmer personality if he can't seize control or thinks it would be funner to watch the calmer one squirm. It is implied that the violent personality was somehow artificially implanted.
  • Split Personalities Shirou and Shiho from My Monster Secret can talk inside their mind, but they can also take control of separate body parts, and talk to each other from the parts they control. The fact that there are voices coming out from places without mouths is never addressed.
  • Naruto:
    • Naruto and his shadow clones talk to one another as if they actually have the same personality but different identities. It's never clearly explained exactly what a shadow clone is, other than the solid version of a clone technique.note 
    • Zetsu has an easygoing, carefree side, and a very calculating side, both evil. In the dub, they originally even had their own individual voice actor. They can even split apart.
  • In One Piece, during the Thriller Bark arc, Usopp has a conversation with his alter ego Sogeking.
  • Yaya gets this with Nana in the manga adaptation of Othello after she is aware of her split personality.
  • A woman in Paranoia Agent receives messages on her answering machine from her other personality. Later, as her grasp on reality becomes weaker, she gets actual phone calls and hallucinates a physical fight.
  • In Princess Tutu, after Mytho's heart is poisoned by the Raven's blood, he often asks "what the other him inside of him wants" and protests its actions.
  • Moka in Rosario + Vampire occasionally communicates with her inner self via her Power Limiter.
  • In Sgt. Frog, Momoka and "the Other Momoka" do this sometimes. We later learn her mother Ouka has a similar situation.
  • In Tokyo Ghoul, one of the major symptoms of Kaneki's Sanity Slippage is having conversations with an imaginary Rize. She readily informs him that she's merely a part of his subconscious, given a form that lets him distance himself from those darker impulses and thoughts. In the sequel, Sasaki experiences the same hallucinated conversations with a Kakuja-form Kaneki, and later, the two make peace and begin readily carrying on conversations with each other. Whether it's a genuine case of Split Personality or not is unclear.
  • Ren and Run from To Love Ru: occasionally one of them will demand that the other "Turn into me!" so the one making the demand can put moves on the object of his or her affection. This demand is typically refused with the words "Go back to sleep!"
  • Yu-Gi-Oh!:
    • Everyone with a Yami side in Yu-Gi-Oh! and GX: Yugi and Atem, Malik and Yami Malik, Fubuki and Darkness, Saiou and the Light of Ruin... Of course, in most cases, these are actually separate characters, who inhabit the bodies of the regular ones.
    • A rather odd example happens in a two-part episode in GX when Mizuchi confronts Judai and Edo in a virtual world. To face them in a team duel, she uses virtual technology to divide herself into two different avatars, who are able to talk to each other despite technically being the same person.
    • In one episode of Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, Saiou's sister Mizuchi traps Judai and Edo in a virtual reality arena and challenges them. In order to face them two-on-two, she uses virtual technology to somehow divide herself into two Mizuchis. Despite the fact that they are, for all practical purposes, the same person, they are able to converse with each other this way throughout the whole duel.
  • Sensui from YuYu Hakusho has arguments with himself on who gets to fight Urameshi.

    Comic Books 
  • The Badger, the protagonist of Mike Baron's super-hero spoof of the same name, had several extra personalities that would sometimes communicate with each other.
  • The DCU:
    • Batman:
      • Two-Face's two personalities often talk to each other, with the good personality usually being dominated by the evil one.
      • Also, the Ventriloquist and Scarface. The Ventriloquist firmly believes that the puppet Mr. Scarface is alive, but he's the one controlling and voicing him the entire time. This actually makes the character very tragic, as the Ventriloquist himself is a mild-mannered and reasonably nice person bound into an abusive relationship with himself... unless Scarface actually is alive and a vessel of the evils over 300 hanged men committed. Or something. It varies, though when the original Ventriloquist dies and a female replacement shows up, it's somewhat more credible, although she's visibly as crazy as the original. Scarface's explanation is simply that he was looking for a more comfortable place to sit.
    • Triplicate Girl/Triad from the Legion of Super-Heroes does this very often when her three bodies are separate, the three of them talking amongst themselves and even arguing at times. This is especially true for her post-Zero Hour: Crisis in Time! reboot version. (While her powers are common for the inhabitants of her planet, this sort of behavior is not; they consider it a form of insanity, although her grandmother insisted that it's natural.)
  • Marvel Universe:
    • Since their rebirth as a child, Loki has this. In Journey into Mystery (Gillen) Kid Loki's pet magpie and evil advisor Ikol exists only in his head and is the remnant of his old self's consciousness. In Young Avengers and later Loki: Agent of Asgard, their Body Snatcher old/next self has the Kid around, who acts as conscience.
    • Daredevil:
      • After being crushed down by a long series of events starting with Born Again and included having his sanity crushed by Typhoid Mary, faking his own death and visiting Hell, Matt started experiencing hallucinations which included being attacked by and talking to his various alter egos — different interpretations of Daredevil he adopted over the years.
      • At the beginning of Soule's run, the Purple Man creates a device that, in combination with his and his children's abilities, allows him to create a mental world and trap Matt in it. This manifests as a bar with the customers being the various stages of Daredevil's incarnations; from the college-age vigilante to the edgy 1990s "replacement" to the cheerful sharp-dressed and open with his Secret Identity guy. All of them have an argument over what is the worst thing they could possibly do, and each expresses a different opinion.
    • Deadpool does this in a way that Breaks the Fourth Wall: he has entire discussions with his own thought boxes, of which he has two distinct sets. The first set was originally the standard yellow narration boxes often seen in comics, except that he interacts with them. Sometime in the 2000s, a second set appeared, white boxes written in Courier, as though it's being written on a typewriter. It's revealed in one annual that the white caption boxes are, in fact, the old supervillain Madcap, who is also insane and had a complete Healing Factor. Apparently, they were both blasted to ash and their ashes co-mingled, so when Deadpool reformed, Madcap was trapped inside his head. This being a Deadpool comic, that is the extent of the explanation we get. The video game gives them the personalities of "serious" and "child", though even the serious one is completely bonkers.
    • The Incredible Hulk: Bruce Banner and his many personalities have done this, but generally only the ones not "active" at the time. At one point, it's lampshaded that it's just a metaphor for his inner struggle and he's just imagining it.
    • In Jean Grey #7, the titular teen heroine holds a conversation with her ghostly adult self. Ghost Jean notes with irony her younger self doesn't want to appear she's talking to herself as she's actually literally talking to herself.
      Ghost Jean: And I don't understand why you're wearing headphones right now.[...]
      Teen Jean: Because it makes it seem... like I'm not a crazy person. Talking to herself.[...]
      Ghost Jean: Heh. There's the irony, right? You are talking to yourself.
    • Moon Knight has three different aliases other than his super-hero one, with those three being Marc Spector (the original), Steven Grant (filthy rich investor) and Jake Lockley (taxi driver). In more recent runs, they are depicted as being different personalities caused by DID, and the three are talking to each other.

    Fan Works 
  • Abraxas (Hrodvitnon): In San and Vivienne Graham's first form as Two Beings, One Body, Vivienne's head at first is the only one that has a mouth, leading to San at times taking control of her vocal cords to communicate and either of the two going back-and-forth. Alan Jonah's paramilitary initially mistakes it for the hybrid being crazy before they become certain that there are two minds rather than one in the Artificial Hybrid.
  • Advice and Trust: The morning after getting together, Asuka's side which is full of doubts, insecurities and self-hatred questioned how long Shinji would stay with her before realizing she was useless and pitiful and abandoning her how everyone did. She replied that he promised he likes her and will stay with her.
  • According to Swallow Star in Apprentice and Pregnant, the first thing he noticed that seemed off about Applefur was that she began talking to herself. Her behavior became increasingly unusual until he found her attempting to drown herself. That was over a year ago, and she's been on medicine since.
  • Subverted in BlazBlue Alternative: Remnant with Luna. She's actually just communicating with Sena and Trinity, whose souls inhabit her body. However, when we see her from outside her POV, it looks like this trope to others since they're unaware of that fact and can't hear the other souls regardless.
  • In Part 1 of Cave Story Versus I. M. Meen, Jack (naturally, being a Woobie and all) completely loses his mind after watching Sue and Toroko fuck each other seemingly to death and then being wrongfully thrown in jail afterwards. Naturally, this leads to a very bizarre, insane and intensely melodramatic case of this trope as he paints the floor with cornbread, ketchup, mustard, and his own nose mucus, vomit and toe jam.
  • Child of the Storm:
    • The Winter Soldier, as his programming breaks down. When the narration switches to his POV, we are treated to what is essentially a never-ending argument between a literal-minded robot with no knowledge of how society works and his Deadpan Snarker passenger.
      She is astonishingly gorgeous. Which is really disturbing, since intel says that she was only about twelve until ten minutes ago.
      Error. Observation irrelevant.
      Accurate though.
      Error. Still irrelevant.
    • The sequel Ghosts of the Past has Harry talk to an older alternate version of himself who, for the sake of simplicity, goes by Nathan. The two get on reasonably well, in between the Snark-to-Snark Combat, and Nathan provides his younger counterpart with some valuable insights.
  • A Crown of Stars: Asuka does this a lot, especially after she and Shinji get together. Her self-loathing constantly berates her, calling her a useless and worthless whore who does not deserve Shinji and worse things. After a while, in chapter 59, she seems to finally defeat her inward darkness after a long inner argument.
  • In A.A. Pessimal's Discworld fics, young Witch Rebecka Smith-Rhodes will have inner dialogues with her "Second Thoughts" which surface whenever she needs a prompt. Usually, her Second Thoughts speak to her in the voice of her mother, a woman Bekki recognises as being worldly-wise, resourceful and somewhat cynical, an inner voice which is still her but which has full permission to think and voice all the thoughts Bekki can't quite bring herself to think. At a time of real peril, however, Bekki — who has received a set of matroschkya dolls from a soon-to-die Baba Yaga — discovers that like Rodinian stacking dolls, her inner thoughts can go all the way back to "Fifth Thoughts".
  • Dragon Ball Z Abridged has Piccolo do this after fusing with Nail, who remains a voice in Piccolo's head. Nail claims he'll fade away into Piccolo's subconscious eventually, but he shows no signs of this. This just gets worse with the addition of Kami.
  • Dungeon Keeper Ami: Cathy sometimes appears from the outside to be having a conversation with herself, but those who know better are aware that it means Ami is possessing her for some reason (eg because Ami's real body is badly injured). The transition is made more obvious by the fact that Ami has red Glowing Eyes of Doom when in control.
  • Evangelion 303: Asuka's inner turmoil and conversations are shown like two Asukas talking to each other. Usually, her common sense is lecturing her (constantly on display) emotional side. It can be seen in chapters 4, 12 and 14. Here is an example.
  • Thanks to her years in the asylum, Weiss in Fighting for the Future frequently imagines having conversations with her teammates in her head and responding to them out loud, either complimenting an idea "Ruby" came up with or calling "Yang" out on making a terrible pun.
  • Freakin Gensokyo: Brad meets a violent, uninhibited version of himself in the Dream World. They have quite a productive chat about beating people up.
  • In Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality, Harry creates lots of internal voices to debate various courses of action in his head. He creates one representing each Hogwarts House along with a few more standard ones like the Inner Critic. Amusingly, at one point in the story, most of the voices decide to mercilessly make fun of him when they think he's putting too much thought into something.
  • Lathbora Viran has Solas speaking to an inner voice, sometimes called "the Wolf".
  • Luminosity's Elspeth has this as a manifestation of her witch power, and can make more if need be.
  • Once More With Feeling (Crazy-88): Invoked when Shinji talks to the Lilith's ghost. She tells him that she's sort of a memory in his mind, and Shinji thinks "Oh, great, now I'm talking to myself".
    "I'm not really here" she said quickly with a slight smile as the observation passed through his mind. "And no, you are not loosing your grip on reality" she assured him.
    "After everything that's happened, I am not so sure" he replied somewhat sarcastically.
    "Understandable" she nodded. "If it helps, think of me... as an echo of the events, a shadow without form, nothing more then a memory in your mind".
    "Well uh... you're a rather... talkative memory" he replied, then stopped. Oh God, am I talking to myself now he asked in despair...
  • Good Cop/Bad Cop does this in A Piece of Rebellion. While the currently non-dominant personality can communicate with the other through their thoughts, this seems to only go one way. That or the other's just used to responding vocally.
  • Scar Tissue: Shinji and Asuka develop two versions of it after Third Impact:
    • Shinji's guilt and extreme self-loathing and self-contempt become so strong that Shinji develops a split personality, a nightmarish version of himself who loves torturing him and mind-raping him night after night, reminding him of all his wrongs and sins over and over and over again. He listens to its voice almost every time he closes his eyes, and sometimes it almost drives him mad. In chapter 14, Shinji finally manages to defeat it and make peace with himself and his enormous guilt.
    • In contrast, Asuka's common sense and compassion manifest like a voice that pleads with her stopping to hurt Shinji and help him, or blames her for his pain.
  • In Sword Art Online Abridged, Kirito and Asuna spend Episode 10 getting into mental screaming matches with their respective inner voices after Kirito, to fill the awkward moment after sex, blurts out a marriage proposal, and Asuna is so surprised that she accepts.
    Kirito's Left Brain: YOU FOOL! YOU'VE DOOMED US ALL!
    Kirito's Right Brain: H-Hey, uh, she seems pretty happy about it! Maybe she knows something we don't?!
    Asuna's Left Brain: BITCH, WHY THE FUCK DID YOU SAY "YES?!"
    Asuna's Right Brain: I DON'T KNOOOOOOWWW!
  • Tales of the Undiscovered Swords: The two sides of Ichinodō Shichido argue out loud in two different voices and two different registers. This tendency is compared to rakugo theater at one point.
  • Cruise Control in Turnabout Storm, although yelling to himself would be far more accurate, at least when he's Obfuscating Stupidity.
  • Twilight the Musical uses this comically. Edward Cullen must argue his evil reflection about whether or not he should eat Bella. In later episodes, his schizo conversations grow to include more characters: a doll and cardboard stand-up of Robert Pattinson.
  • In The Vampire of Steel, Buffy is running from several guards after blowing her cover. She chides herself... and then chides herself for wasting time on chiding herself.
    Stupid. Stupid stupid stupid stupid.
    Shut up, mind. Do your job. Find me a way out of this.

    Films — Animation 
  • In the BIONICLE animated movies:
    • Makuta spends most of his time in Mask of Light talking to himself, pretending to be talking to his "brother" Mata Nui (who's in a coma and can't hear him) and his "sons", the non-sentient Rahkshi.
    • Legends of Metru Nui has a perplexing example, wherein the shady city governor Turaga Dume talks to Makuta in private via a giant mirror, reassuring each other of their plan's progress, only for a later scene to reveal that Makuta is Dume and the real Dume has been locked away the whole time. Fans to this day argue what the scene means, some think it's a remnant of an older script that was kept in the film by mistake, that Makuta's practicing his impersonation skills, or that he's talking to another member of the Makuta species. The novelization suggests the scene was supposed to be cryptic, with the mirror reflecting Makuta's true self, making it ambiguous whether there are one or two people in the room until the eventual reveal. If that was the intent, the animation does an insufficient job of portraying it.
    • In Web of Shadows, Roodaka constantly whispers to her master Makuta (and thus keeps the audience up to speed with her plan), who's at the time encased in crystal, by talking to stones representing him. As Makuta can activate a Psychic Link with her even in his dormant state, maybe she's not as insane as she looks.
  • No dialogue, but in Geri's Game, an old man plays chess with himself. He plays white as a cautious, easily intimidated but victorious through cheating player and black as a gleefully aggressive one. He doesn't seem to be mentally ill, just fooling around by staying in character very well ... so much so that, when the white player fakes a heart attack, the black player believes it.

    Films — Live-Action 
  • In Breaking the Waves, Bess has some kind of Split Personality; she talks to God, and then she answers herself in "God's" voice.
  • Half the dialogue of Die Hard is McClane talking to himself — though some of that is him Thinking Out Loud, and he's alone throughout most of the action.
  • Disenchanted (2022): As the curse starts afflicting her, Giselle begins arguing with her Wicked Stepmother persona, trying to get her to stop. Since she's doing it in broad daylight, she gets some odd looks. Evil Giselle wins out.
  • Fight Club has the nameless protagonist talking to his Split Personality Tyler.
  • Friday the 13th (1980): The stress of her son, Jason's death seems to have broken Pamela Voorhees' mind and given birth to a split personality that assumes Jason's persona. While hunting Alice, these two personalities are seen conversing with each other.
  • In The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, the two personalities of Dr. Jekyll communicate to each other in mirrors.
  • Gollum/Smeagol in The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. Lampshaded in the latter:
    Smeagol: We knows safe paths for Hobbitses. Safe paths in the dark.
    Gollum: Shut up!
    Bilbo: I didn't say anything.
    Gollum: I wasn't talking to you.
  • In Mr. Brooks, the main character Earl Brooks is a serial killer who habitually converses with his "Mr. Hyde"-style alter ego Marshal. They argue over the merits of committing suicide and even laugh at each other's jokes. They appear to have a healthier personal relationship than some brothers, rather than as adversaries.
  • In The Muppet Movie, Kermit laments on the mess he's got himself into, his inner self, manifesting as another Kermit, speaks to him to give him a pep talk reminding him of the dream he and his friends all share.
  • The different personalities of the Ripper in My Soul to Take appear to be able to do this.
  • Subverted in No Time to Die. Ernst Stavro Blofeld has been in solitary confinement in a maximum-security prison for so long he's apparently gone mad, holding long rambling soliloquies with himself. Turns out he is talking to someone, using his bionic eye to see what his henchman Cyclops (who has a similar bionic eye) is seeing and relaying orders through him, thus running SPECTRE by remote control.
  • One Night in October: Michelle, while tied up, ends up conversing with her villainous split personality, who convinces her to let it take over and get revenge on her captors.
  • Sonic the Hedgehog (2020):
    • Due to spending over ten years with no-one else, Sonic has developed a habit of talking to himself.
    • In the first post-credits scene, Robotnik, after spending over 83 days alone, has gotten into the habit of ranting to himself.
  • Melinda Sordino in the film adaptation of Speak. This only occurs in one scene and it's not so much between multiple personalities as between herself and her conscience.
  • Spider-Man Trilogy: Norman Osborn/the Green Goblin does this on occasion; the first movie contains such a scene, made all the more memorable by Willem Dafoe's excellent performance, talking to his Green Goblin personality in his mirror.
  • Parodied in Suicide Squad (2016). Harley Quinn says the voices in her head said that she should kill everyone and escape. Then she laughs and says "Just kidding. That's not what they said."
  • In X-Men: Days of Future Past, Future Charles and Past Charles are able to have a heartfelt conversation, with the former ultimately reviving the latter's broken resolve.

    Jokes 
  • This:
    Man: Doctor, you've got to help me! I talk to myself!
    Shrink: That's not that bad. Sometimes, even I do that.
    Man: Yes, doctor — but I'm such a bore!

    Literature 
  • In Beyond the Barrier by Damon Knight, a creature that has spent many years hiding inside, and as, a human can no longer shake that side of himself. He is challenged to do what the human would do and not what he wants to do.
  • Discworld:
    • In The Truth, Altogether Andrews of the beggars has eight personalities (none of them, oddly enough, named Andrews). Each one gets a vote when the crew is deciding something... except for Burke. Nobody wants to see Burke again.
    • Agnes Nitt can't have a single thought without Perdita arguing with it.
    • Less extreme examples include Rincewind getting into arguments with his conscience and libido in Sourcery (although by this point he's so used to mysterious voices in his head, it takes him a moment to realise these ones are supposed to be there) and Mort's discussion with his "inner self" in Mort (he knows it's him because nobody else calls him by name.)
    • Tiffany Aching especially will have long inner conversations with her "Second Thoughts" and occasionally on a good day her "Third Thoughts" — effectively deeper parts of her mind that think differently and more deeply and which advise her on a meta-level. This is not uncommon for Witches on the Disc.
  • In the Doctor Who Expanded Universe novels, aside from the Doctor literally meeting themself, their past incarnations are said to be asleep in their mind. Traumatic events can sometimes cause them to awaken and give unasked-for advice, with the current Doctor usually reacting the same way they do when they meet them for real. As in the series, the Doctor also sometimes talks out loud when they're without a companion because they're used to explaining the situation to someone to help them think.
  • The Dresden Files: Harry Dresden's subconscious doesn't think much of him, and makes his opinion clear on several occasions. Luckily for Harry, the two can only commune when he's unconscious.
  • Edgar of Edgar & Ellen doesn't have a split personality, but he starts doing this in Split Ends to keep himself company.
  • Falling Up (Bromberg):
    • After Gregg loses the writing contest that brings him to New York, he imagines the Empire State Building talking to him, telling him to give up and go home. Gregg argues back out loud, attracting the attention of a cop.
    • While suffering writer's block, Gregg imagines his ex-wife Annette in the apartment with him, making critical comments; he argues back and forth with the imaginary Annette.
  • Subverted in The Garden of Sinners: a key part of the plot revolves around Shiki's split personality (and the consequences of its death), but Tohko correctly notes that what she has cannot be called split personalities, as they're far too independent and separate from each other (see quote).
    Shiki: There's nothing funny about having a dual personality.
    Tohko: No, no. You know, you two don't have anything as pleasing to look at as dissociative identity disorder. Existing simultaneously, each having its own unique will, and on top of that, your actions are coordinated. That sort of complex personality shouldn't be called a "dissociated identity," but rather a "united independent personality."
  • Harry Potter does this himself on occasion. A prominent example is when he starts falling for Ginny and is afraid that Ron will object.
  • A big part of Geoph Essex's Jackrabbit Messiah: at least half of Jack's dialogue is in his conversation with God, the fussy voice in his head (Jack is schizophrenic). Their relationship is full of snarky insults (mostly on God's part), but when push comes to shove, both would admit that they're each other's best friend.
    Jack: How come I don't have any friends?
    God: Maybe because, outside of your uncle, you never have more than one conversation with a single person.
    [...]
    Jack: I have a lot of conversations with you.
    God: If you're going to count imaginary friends, you're going to run out of fingers.
  • John Rain: In Requiem for an Assassin (a.k.a. The Killer Ascendant), while smoking dope in a coffee bar in Rotterdam, Rain has a conversation with 'The Iceman', the cold-blooded killer part of his personality, who derides his belief that he can retire from his life as a Professional Killer.
  • Lafayette O'Leary: At one point in The World Shuffler, O'Leary is "sick, freezing, starving, hung-over, and dyspeptic", not to mention lost and frustrated, and he begins talking to himself. And answering himself. He acknowledges — to himself — that it's a sign of insanity, but responds "Poof, what's a little touch of schizophrenia, among all my other ailments?"
  • Livvie from Livvie Owen Lived Here often gives herself orders about how to behave, sometimes using direct quotes from her parents.
    Another thing about being Livvie Owen. She rarely ever listened when I spoke to her. Usually, when she did, it was already too late.
  • The Lord of the Rings:
    • One memorable scene features Gollum arguing with himself — a concept transferred rather successfully to the movies.
    • Just when Sam and Frodo reach Mount Doom, what is Sam Gamgee doing? Arguing with himself about the futility of their quest... just like the very hated and despised Gollum.
  • Ransom briefly develops this in Out of the Silent Planet, with his body seeing his rational mind as a second person who helps him find a place to sleep. This is caused by getting lost on an alien planet and sleep deprivation, though.
  • Rebuild World: Due to others being unable to see Alpha, Akira looks like he's talking to himself like a crazy person early in his career. This later stops once Akira agrees to the part of the contract that grants him Telepathy with her, but people still give him funny looks when he suddenly looks off in another direction as if he's lost in thought. At least once, Akira accidentally talks to Alpha in front of someone else when he's too relaxed.
  • Spiral Arm: In Up Jim River, Donovan. His multiple personalities were induced deliberately, but the manner was bungled — also, perhaps, deliberately.
  • Star Wars Legends:
    • In Galaxy of Fear, Tash speaks to a ghost who is Invisible to Normals — no one else can see, hear, or otherwise perceive him. The Big Bad watches her try to elicit his help and assumes she's talking to herself.
    • New Jedi Order has a variation. Tahiri and her implanted Yuuzhan Vong alter-ego Riina have several conversations inside Tahiri's mindscape, but never talk to each other out loud — Tahiri is shown to black out whenever Riina takes control of their body, making this sort of interaction impossible (Riina, for her part, states that she is aware, but impotent while Tahiri is in the driver's seat).
  • Vorkosigan Saga: In Mirror Dance, when Mark develops split personalities, they not only talk but actively choose which personality will be in control at a given time.

    Live-Action TV 
  • 30 Rock: Liz gets a case of Acquired Situational Narcissism after getting her own talk show, leading to a confrontation between "Performer Liz" and "Backstage Liz".
  • Andromeda: The Andromeda Ascendant and her avatar Rommie occasionally talk to each other. As do her holographic and monitor selves.
    Hunt: You know, talking to yourself is the first sign of insanity.
    Andromeda/Rommie: [simultaneously] Only for wetware.
  • Babylon 5: "Shadow Dancing" has Doctor Franklin get stabbed while stopping someone from being killed in Down Below, and being left for dead. As he calls for help, he is answered... by a hallucination of himself, in all his Doctor Jerk glory. What ensues is a withering "The Reason You Suck" Speech, with the hallucinatory Franklin telling the bleeding Franklin that he is a failure, that he always runs away from his problems rather than face them, and that if he had another chance, that he'd screw it all up anyway. This turns into a Rousing Speech after Franklin refuses to give up, even if it does mean failing more, as his hallucination drives him to drag himself, bleeding, to a populated part of the station to seek help.
  • Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The arguments between Glory and Ben in the final episodes of season 5, though in this case, they are distinct characters with different actors who just happen to be sharing a body. They've been turning into one another back and forth for years, but only in that instance are they able to interact this way because the mystical barriers keeping them separate were breaking down. Their personalities also start bleeding into one another just before they are able to interact.
  • Cheers: The episode "Diane Meets Mom" has Diane talking to herself to give herself the courage to stand up to Hester Crane, who has threatened to kill her, though Diane is not crazy (after all, she just got out of a ment— health spa where she met Frasier). Doesn't stop an alarmed Sam from witnessing the scene and lamenting how he spent a whole year romancing her.
  • Criminal Minds: The season 2 episodes "The Big Game" and "Revelations" deal with a man named Tobias Hankel (James Van Der Beek) who was abused by his psychotic father after his mother left for another man, telling him that everything he did was a sin and abusing him by claiming he's doing "God's work". He ended up killing his father, who remained as a split personality of his, and when he murders people, he calls himself "Raphael", which is one of the archangels. Sometimes he argues with himself as his father and switches between the three personalities at random: as himself, he's friendly and helpful, as his father Charles, he's abusive and gives lectures, and as Raphael, he murders someone or forces his hostages to choose which victims will live or die.
  • The Devil Judge: Sun-ah sometimes talks to herself when she wants to praise herself, saying things like "you're perfect, Sun-ah!" or "Jung Sun-ah is incredible" in front of her mirror.
  • Doctor Who:
    • The Doctor talks to the TARDIS, but because she can't talk back, many companions are weirded out because it seems they are talking to themself.
    • In "The Sensorites", it looks like John is doing this in Episodes 1 and 2. He's actually communicating with the Sensorites trying to get him to kill Susan and Barbara.
    • In "Nightmare in Silver", the Doctor seemingly talks to himself when the Cybermen attempt to take over his mind. He even plays a game of chess with himself while in this state.
    • When the Thirteenth Doctor is alone, she sometimes talks to herself like the companions are still there, often to either cheer herself up or keep her brain busy. She weaponizes this in "The Timeless Children" when she essentially talks herself out of a Heroic BSoD. She also uses this trope to get through being imprisoned in the time gap between the Series 12 finale and "Revolution of the Daleks".
    • At the beginning of part 2 of "Spyfall", the Doctor explicitly does this both to assure herself that she's still alive, and presumably to calm herself down after being stranded in an Eldritch Location.
  • Alpha from Dollhouse regularly engages in arguments between the various imprinted personalities within his mind. More justified than most because he's not a normal case, but rather somebody with multiple artificial personalities. As such all of them are constantly "on". Also, he actually does have a few personalities with schizophrenia or multiple personality disorder, but it doesn't seem that the personalities with actual mental disorders can talk to themselves.
  • The Flash (2014): By Season 5, Caitlin Snow eventually develops this dynamic with her Superpowered Evil Side Killer Frost. At first, they need the psychic device they used to defeat DeVoe in the previous season finale, although over time, they're able to talk to each other without it.
  • Full House: Michelle does this in the final episode after she loses her memory and ends up to talking to her inner self.
  • Heroes: In Volume Four, Sylar starts to have conversations with his dead mother. And since he has Voluntary Shapeshifting, he assumes her form for her side of the conversation, too.
  • Jekyll: After being drugged, Jackman is more than a little surprised when Hyde is able to contact him.
    "How could you be phoning me?"
    "Jesus! I'm not phoning you. I'm in your head."
  • Kamen Rider:
    • Happens occasionally in Kamen Rider Den-O as a consequence of four spirit creatures Sharing a Body with the main character.
    • And also in Kamen Rider Double, where the titular hero is made by having the consciousness of one person join with the body of another; this is represented by having Double's eyes flash on the side representing the person who's talking.
    • In Kamen Rider Build, after regaining his memories and becoming the identity in control, Sento Kiryu occasionally converses with his original self in a mindscape with doors, equations and gears. They get along about as well as a misantropic cynic and an ubreakable optimist sharing a mind could.
    • Kamen Rider Revice has Daiji Igarashi and his Demon, Kagerou. Even if only one controlled their body, the other self would talk to them through the nearest mirror.
  • Lie to Me: In one episode, a girl with multiple personalities is able to share information between one personality that witnessed a murder, and another that is capable of communicating with the team.
  • Rutland Weekend Television had the fictional talk show Schizophrenia, in which the host regularly talked to himself regarding if it was his turn to present the guest or the other personality's turn.
  • Smallville: The good Alexander and the evil Lex Luthor do this and even get into a fight.
  • Stargate SG-1: The Tok'ra can do this, since they are a variation on Puppeteer Parasite that forms a symbiotic relationship with their host instead of controlling it. "Seth" features an instance of Jacob Carter's symbiote Selmak telling Samantha Carter that Jacob has some unfinished business with his son Mark (Sam's brother), and that Mark not visiting Jacob while he was dying hurt him greatly. Jacob contradicts Selmak almost immediately.

    Music 

    Professional Wrestling 
  • Sami Callihan, sort of. He hears voices, but rather than answer, it seems he tries to drown them out, not that this ever stops him from doing what they want, he and his voices seem to ultimately have the same goals.
  • On Monday Night Raw, R-Truth called Triple H crazy for talking to himself, even though Truth was talking to people no one could see seconds beforehand.
  • The difference between Will White and Bill Black, Black talks to himself, loudly.

    Theatre 
  • The musical Jekyll & Hyde has "Jekyll" and "Hyde" do this — and, of course, they're both played by the same actor, who has to go through quite a bit of effort to make it feel like a dialogue between two different people.
  • Medea debates with herself out loud about whether or not to murder her children. She doesn't actually have multiple personalities but the scene bears striking similarities to many of these.
  • In Treasure Island (2014), Ben Gunn holds several spirited conversations with himself, which he explains to Jim is a result of having had nobody else to talk to for all these years.

    Video Games 
  • Two-Face briefly goes through this in the first level of Batman: Arkham City as his two sides argue over whether to dunk Catwoman in a vat of acid or put her on trial with a Joker Jury first, then dunk her.
  • Batman: The Telltale Series has Harvey do this during a confrontation with Bruce at Selina Kyle's apartment, culminating in him leaving after Bruce either lashes out or dodges long enough to tire him.
    Harvey: It's okay, Bruce... I'll go... I don't deserve your help.
    Two-Face: Go off with your tail between your legs.
  • The epilogue of Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls features a cutscene during which this happens. Specifically, Junko's Artificial Intelligence program talks to herself about her Evil Plan for revenge against Byakuya, Kyoko, and Makoto—which the Warriors of Hope unwittingly helped to "[lay] the foundations for" with the kid-adult war in Towa City. Oh, and she was a Master Actor Playing Both Sides by posing as Shirokuma and Kurokuma.
    Junko: It's me! Puhu! Puhuhuhuhu! Well, they're pretty much the same. White despair. Black hope. In the end, neither won... but I guess that works too. I mean, I didn't really give a damn about this town from the beginning. The fact that those guys will take an interest in this place will yield a much more fruitful harvest. Hey! Don't you think so? Personally, I think they did a pretty good job for a group of kids. Hey, hey! Don't you think so? Thanks to them, the preparations are nearly complete! Laying the foundations for the final match — it's so despairingly perfect! Hey, hey, hey! Don't you—
  • In Dark Fall: Lost Souls, it's a case of Texting to Themself, as it turns out that "Echo" is the Inspector's own nagging conscience.
  • The main character in Deadly Premonition, Francis York Morgan, is continuously talking to the invisible "Zach", who appears to be an alternate personality and who may or may not be the player as well.
  • Killia from Disgaea 5: Alliance of Vengeance is tormented by "the other Killia", who talks down on the real Killia for being weak and too cowardly to unleash him, even though he could destroy Void Dark with ease. It's his personality from back when he was Tyrant Overlord Killidia, which Killia suppresses by eating a lot. His allies seem to sometimes notice Killia talking to himself.
  • Xel'lotath, the Ancient of Madness in Eternal Darkness, speaks in two voices: one imperious and rational, the other whispering and paranoid. In one incident when she's talking to Pious, the second voice starts doubting his loyalty, and she has a short conversation with herself as she decides whether to drive him insane, kill him, or the first one, then the other.
  • Fallout:
    • Charon, a Ghoul companion the player can recruit in Fallout 3, has a habit of saying things like "Over here!" and "Keep firing!" to himself in combat, and when sneaking or waiting will mutter unintelligibly. He's not outright stated to have multiple personalities, but his backstory is traumatic enough to allow for it.
    • Best Friend Tabitha in Fallout: New Vegas. It's heavily implied that this is the case on her radio show, where she claims to be doing an interview with "Rhonda", only to say mournfully to herself later, "I still miss you, Rhonda, after all these years." Raul also refers to Rhonda as "Tabitha" briefly before hastily correcting himself.
  • Vayne Aurelius and his Superpowered Evil Side at the end of Mana Khemia: Alchemists of Al-Revis.
  • Pat (Tsukasa) in Mega Man Star Force has a split personality disorder, and his hateful emotions manifest as a dark alter ego called Rey (Hikaru). When merged with Gemini, Pat and Rey become Gemini Spark White and Gemini Spark Black, respectively. (In the second game, he's able to wave change even though he's banished Rey from inside of him.)
  • Fred/Napoleon Bonaparte from Psychonauts, the latter being more a manifestation of Fred's crippling insecurities and low self-esteem. Fred's completely aware that Napoleon is a figment of his imagination; he just can't make him go away. He should know all about insanity; he used to be the orderly.
  • In Red Dead Redemption II, as Dutch's Sanity Slippage worsens, he can be heard doing this starting late Chapter 4. Unlike the usual "muttering to yourself" that Arthur (and most people in real life) can sometimes do, Dutch talks in full conversations and at one point even plays a verbal game of chess despite being alone.
  • Spec Ops: The Line: The big reveal at the end of the game is that the Big Bad has been Dead All Along. The conversations protagonist Capt. Walker had with Col. Konrad over the second half of the story were all one-sided — Walker was hallucinating a voice over a broken walkie-talkie, one that was acting as his conscience when berating him for his actions. When Walker finds Konrad's corpse and is forced to face the truth, there's a moment where Walker is clearly seen moving his mouth when "Konrad" is talking.
  • In Team Fortress 2, equipping The Second Opinion on the Medic will cause this.
    "Do you ever think that you might be going mad?"
    "Oh, all zhe time. I don't zhink it's anyzhing to worry about."
  • In Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines, Therese and Jeanette Voerman have protracted and extremely noisy arguments — most of which are held behind closed doors. At one of the main climaxes in Santa Monica, you can find her as half Therese and half Jeanette. With a gun to "their" head. You have to talk them down so they can coexist (which is extremely difficult this early in the game) or influence the "death" of one of them, only leaving the other.
  • In Xenoblade Chronicles 2, Pyra and Mythra are sometimes shown talking to each other inside their head.

    Visual Novels 
  • The Fruit of Grisaia: Only at the end of her route when Michiru finally manages to accept her other side, managing to coexist with her, do they become able to communicate like that.
  • Higurashi: When They Cry: Shion and Rena literally argue against a voice in their mind that convinces them to become distrustful of others and commit violent acts in their personal arcs.
  • The protagonist of Steins;Gate, Okabe Rintarou, is a self-proclaimed Mad Scientist who often talks to someone who doesn't exist with a turned-off phone, often mentioning an Organization that didn't exist or that it's all the will of Steins Gate (which, per his words, doesn't really have meaning, it just sounds cool). The funny thing is that while it's not what he meant, later on, it's revealed that there's an Organization that functions just like what he said in his fictional conversation — SERN on Alpha World Line and DURPA/Stratfor on Beta World Line.
  • Umineko: When They Cry:
    • This turns out to be the case with Shannon, Kanon and Beatrice, who are all personas of Sayo Yasuda, and whose discussions symbolize the conflicts that exist in Sayo's heart. This is done so seamlessly that you most likely won't notice it until much later in the story, and when you reread the series with this trope in mind every conversation between them changes completely.
    • Eva also does this with her imagined younger self, who later becomes EVA-Beatrice.

    Web Animation 
  • Technically occurs in Red vs. Blue when the Alpha AI, aka Church, converses with Delta, Omega, Gamma, or any of the other AI fragments who broke off from him. Later Epsilon, which represents the Alpha's memory, is able to create facsimiles of the other fragments to help him with tasks, or just to chat with.

    Webcomics 
  • First off, there's been one occasion in Ansem Retort where Aerith's split personalities have addressed each other. Then there's the time Axel and Zexion hijack a plane and try to negotiate with the governor... Zexion. Who talks to his chief advisor... Axel.
  • AsteroidQuest: In Polokoa Quest, this is the first indication that Rokolo is less stable than she claims to be. In a subversion, it's not a symptom of wholesale insanity, but rather the side-effects of her Mad Scientist experiments and her Bizarre Alien Biology. It's still not a good sign, of course.
    Rokolo (from Polokoa's perspective): Fuck, 'they' don't even really exist! It's just parts of my mind being a bit delusional. That's a- Shut UP Polo you're an aerospace engineer you don't know SHIT about neurobiology OR psychiatry!!
  • How Hyde and Jekyll converse in The Glass Scientists, at least when Hyde's in charge. It's unknown yet whether the same is true when Jekyll's in control.
  • Dan Shive, author of El Goonish Shive, sketched this after arguing with himself on Twitter.
  • Trollian memos in Homestuck have a transtimeline function, enabling the characters to talk to each other in real-time while still being hours or days away from each other, sometimes resulting in this trope when a character starts arguing with their future or past self. Best exemplified by a conversation in which one character has an argument with themselves ten minutes into the future.
  • In Life (2012), Felicia/Natalie converse with each other on several occasions, occasionally to their/her discomfiture.
  • Haley in The Order of the Stick loses her ability to speak coherently, and the longer she is unable to communicate with others, the more she holds internal conversations with aspects of herself, especially her hypercritical teenaged self.
  • Anna and Susan do this in Sire when they want to discuss private matters, such as Emilie being descended from Inspector Javert or how none of the other characters know that they were the ones that murdered Paul.
  • Cerene of Suppression does this in just about every scene where there's more than one of her. Probably doesn't help that she's naturally kind of a chatterbox and tends to argue with and snark at herself. This trope is especially prominent when she uses Mind Prism: Red Cerene and Grey Cerene tend to butt heads, and nobody seems to like Blue Cerene.
  • Tina of Wapsi Square does this a bit. She even argues about pizza toppings.
  • John and Poor Trotmann of The Word Weary have entire issues devoted to their one-man conversations, even going so far as to refer to themselves in the second person.

    Web Originals 
  • Jen Delaney of The Jenkinsverse originally starts talking to herself to stave off loneliness for four months alone in an alien world. Over time, "Old Jen" — the embodiment of her timid nobody former self — becomes a fully-fledged mental voice with her own opinions, who carries on conversations with "New Jen".
  • In Star Harbor Nights, Perfect does this with a stuff rabbit.
  • In Survival of the Fittest, Kaleigh Jones, Nessy Guthrie, and arguably Cillian Crowe go through this. Oddly, Kaleigh seemed to be able to decide which of her personalities was in control at any given time. A lot of V6's Benjamin Lichter dialogue is also him talking to a voice in his head, though it's left ambiguous whether or not it's actually another personality or just a side of himself he can't bear to admit he has.
  • Each page on TV Tropes (except for discussions) is supposed to look like it was written by the same person; therefore, tropers are not supposed to refer to themselves individually (by saying "I" or "This troper") or have arguments on trope pages. However, some tropers do this anyway, making such pages look like they were written by someone with a Split Personality who is Talking to Themself.
  • In Twig, Sylvester starts hallucinating projections of the other Lambs which offer him tactical advice and companionship, including Evette, who was never actually a person.
  • The Whateley Universe has Generator (Jade Sinclair). Justified in the fact that Jade's main power is in splitting off telekinetic manifestations of her soul/spirit — which makes it a lot easier for her to do that than it would for most people. Also either justified or subverted in that each manifestation does have the same memories and experiences as Jade when they first split off from her — it's only time that changes this. Spending too much time away from each other tends to lead to Jade passing out when they reunite, due to Sensory Overload while her brain assimilates the memories.

    Web Videos 
  • In 50% OFF, instead of having internal monologues, Haru has a whole collection of Harus in his mind who like to argue, play board games, sing the DuckTales (1987) theme song, put on wrestling matches, murder each other...
  • Animerica: Kiyone did this very often with his "evil" side until it reached the point where he could no longer hold it back and the evil side became dominant. The second time they talk, he manages to successfully defeat him due to The Powerof Friendship and The Powerof Love combined.
  • Karim Debbache does this constantly in Crossed, with his "other self" often intervening to make naive remarks or ask stupid questions.
    Karim: You want to know how shitty The '90s were? I grew up in the nineties, and now I'm on the Internet, talking to myself.
  • FreedomToons: "Every Rubin Report Ever" ends with Dave Rubin interviewing "Rave Dubin".
  • In the Season 3 finale of The Guild, Cyd has a conversation with her avatar Codex in her imagination. Later in the episode, it's strongly implied that she's developing a genuine Split Personality.

    Western Animation 
  • Archer: Barry Dylan talks to himself frequently, referring to himself as "Barry" and "Other Barry".
  • Mr. Fix does this often throughout Around the World in Eighty Days. Ex: "Have you got a plan, Mr. Fix?" "Have I got a plan, Mr. Fix? Have I got a plan?"
  • Gargoyles: Coldstone has three souls, which not only converse, but fight for dominance.
  • Harley Quinn (2019): Harley occasionally has conversations with her psychiatrist's past self which her Best Friend Ivy is rather blasé about. Curiously, Dr. Harleen Quinzel is completely aware that Harley Quinn is stuck in a codependent abusive relationship with a psychopath who doesn't love her and tries to get her hopelessly blind villainess self to see this. Dr. Harleen Quinzel finally gets through to Harley Quinn when the Joker lets her fall into what they think is acid. She can however give bad advice to her villainous self as seen with her suggestion to seek out her Abusive Parents, although Harleen had no way of knowing her parents would try to kill her.
  • Kaeloo: Starting in season 5, Kaeloo and her split personality Bad Kaeloo talk to each other, which is shown to the audience via one controlling the body and the other being inside a thought bubble.
  • Mixels: Nurp-Naut, being made of both Nurp (an infant) and Naut (an elder), have a tendency to argue with each other and treat each other as separate entities, with others doing the same.
  • My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic:
    • Twilight Sparkle does this during a psychotic breakdown in "Lesson Zero". As a homage to The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, it's done via reflective puddle, with her face representing one side of the argument and the face in the reflection representing the other.
    • Minor example in "Baby Cakes" when Pinkie converses with herself during her comedy act.
      Pinkie at drums: Woo, tough crowd.
      Pinkie on stage: Tell me about it.
  • Samurai Jack Season 5 shows that after the 50-year Time Skip, Aku now conjures up a psychiatrist clone of himself to vent his frustrations to. It's much more helpful than Jack's subconscious trying to goad him into Seppuku.
  • South Park features Mr. Garrison engaged in constant dialogue with his puppet, Mr. Hat. Made even stranger by the fact that Mr. Hat sometimes does things without Garrison's knowledge. Weirdly, Garrison understands that Mr. Twig is inanimate and only pretends to talk to him, while he sees Mr. Hat as a sentient being.
  • Spider-Man: The Animated Series features Norman Osborn/the Green Goblin doing this, complete with the use of mirrors. This version of Osborn is the closest the guy has ever come to being a decent man and parent, but his Goblin persona was as demented as usual.
  • Steven Universe: Fusions, being made up of two or more Gems, occasionally do this, although the more stable the fusion, the less often it usually happens. For example:
    • Stevonnie, the unprecedented fusion of Steven and Connie, does this fairly frequently, even as they've become more stable over time. For instance, from "Jungle Moon":
      "Good night, Stevonnie."
      "Good night, Stevonnie."
    • Garnet is normally one of the most stable fusions on the show, but even she's done this a few times, always in unusual situations:
      • In "Keeping It Together", her utter horror at seeing the forced fusion experiments created by Homeworld causes her components Ruby and Sapphire to react individually, and she nearly defuses.
      • In "Keystone Motel", her anger over Pearl's deception in the previous episode causes Ruby and Sapphire to have an argument. This time, they do defuse before they eventually make up.
    • Alexandrite, the fusion of Garnet, Amethyst and Pearl, does this fairly notably in her debut, "Fusion Cuisine" when the three Gems start having an argument over eating that leads directly to them defusing.
    • Malachite, by far the most unstable fusion in the show, comprised of Jasper and Lapis Lazuli, who hate each other, does this a lot early on, to the point that she doesn't have her own voice, instead being voiced by the VAs of her two components. Her most notable moment of doing this is when Lapis reveals her true intention in accepting the offer to fuse: to imprison Jasper.
  • Teen Titans (2003): The appropriately named villain Billy Numerous. He has the ability to create hundreds of duplicates of himself, and the duplicates talk to each other a lot, referring to each other as "Billy" as they do so.
  • Transformers:
    • Blitzwing of Transformers: Animated is an odd case that isn't a good/evil split, but rather calm/angry/manic. All three are evil, but they tend to argue over the correct course of action. Oddly, this doesn't make him any less effective. Blitzwing's arguments with himself are actually reasonably rare, as his personalities usually have the same objective. Clashes between his Icy and Hothead personas are usually solved by Random. Though fans often like to make use of this fact: here
    • There's also the five-faced Alpha Q in Transformers: Energon. Years of isolation inside Unicron drove him into insanity just to have someone to talk to. He does seem to have one core, real personality with a childlike voice. It isn't represented by a face but only manifests itself when he's got his jaws shut.
    • In Transformers: Robots in Disguise (2015), the combiner teams do this. Ultra Bee is not a Mental Fusion the way other combiners are, so Bumblebee has to call out to the others to give orders. The Stunticons hate other as much as in other incarnations, so Menasor has to tell his components to stop fighting each other and focus on the Autobots. And in the finale, Galvatronus is brought down because Cyberwarp, who wants a more peaceful resolution between the Autobots and Decipticons, starts fighting against her team, with Galvatronus calling to her to get back in line.
  • Young Justice (2010): In the second season, this is how Blue Beetle's arguments with his sentient armor plays out, and as he's never bothered to tell anyone that the armor talks to him, his teammates think of him as a little bit... "odd".

    Real Life 
  • In When Rabbit Howls, more or less an autobiography of Truddi Chase, who has dissociative identity disorder, the author's various personalities have internal conversations with each other.
  • Some writers describe having their characters talk to them and/or each other inside their heads.


 
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Dylan Encounters "Aliens"

Dylan becomes convinced he has spotted aliens cornering Roxy, which leads him to start having a conversation with himself.

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