inner world
Private mental realm
A person's inner world is their private mental and emotional life—thoughts, feelings, fantasies, and experiences not visible to others.
The phrase implies depth and complexity: She kept her inner world hidden behind a cheerful exterior.
Someone with a rich inner world has an active imagination or contemplative nature.
The term contrasts with outward behavior or social presentation.
- thoughtsMental reflections
- stream of consciousnessNarrative mimicking uninterrupted thought
- consciousnessState of sentient awareness
- introspectionObserving one's own mind
- soul searchingHonest internal moral inventory
mindfulness · quiet mind · joy · sadness · mental imagery · dreams · mind's eye · cognition · perception · self-concept · personal truth · self-discovery · memory · authenticity · plurality · fantasies · sanctuary · mental models
- mindmind, thought, cognition, consciousness, thinking
- introversionintroversion, solitude, alone time, isolation, loner
- mental conceptsthought, thinking, ideas, concepts, memory
- personal writingdiary, journal, autobiographical essay, memoir, memoirs
- innerinward, internal, within, interior, inside
- inner experiencemind's eye, awareness, intuition, self-reflection, subjective reality
inner worldexternal world
Reality beyond one's consciousness
outside world · physical world · physical reality · objective reality · observable universe
inner worldpublic sphere
Realm of civic discourse
public life · social reality · communal space · public domain · surface