Autokommunikation

»Auto-communication«. Strictly speaking, the title should be provided with a question mark: »Auto-communication«? Is there such a thing? Can people address linguistic signs to themselves? Of course they can. We talk to ourselves, we keep diaries, we write shopping lists. But can these phenomena be covered by a theory of communication? After all, communication means saying something to someone else. Or doesn't it? Even within the paradigm of autopoietic systems of consciousness and social intercourse, questions remain. Is auto-communication a cognitive operation because it takes place in one person's mind? Or is it a communicative operation, as the name suggests?