Stream of consciousness
Etymology
The phrase was coined by the psychologist William James in “The Principles of Psychology” (1890) to describe the unbroken, flowing nature of conscious experience. Literary critics then borrowed it for the narrative method perfected by writers like James Joyce and Virginia Woolf.
noun phrase · /STREEM uhv KON-shuhs-nuhs/
A style of writing that renders the continuous, unfiltered flow of a character’s thoughts, impressions, and associations.
What it names
A literary technique for depicting the mind from the inside — thought as it actually meanders — rather than tidy, reported reflection.
Example
The chapter unfolds as stream of consciousness, drifting from a smell of bread to a childhood summer without pause.
Related idea
Related to free indirect discourse, but distinct: free indirect discourse blends a character’s viewpoint into the narrator’s third-person voice, staying relatively orderly, while stream of consciousness aims to reproduce the raw, associative churn of the mind itself, often abandoning conventional syntax.