Rousseau's Thesis of Collective Absorption

Rousa scholarship has focused appropriately on the theory of popular sovereignty. But when rousseau actually goes about describing, and this is before book three, he describes how the sovereign assembly operates. The gathered citizens look into their own heart to deliberate on the question of the general will but they do not deliberate amongst one another to identify the will. So so there's a kind a looking inward, right? A looking into one's heart, but crucially, in the collective co presence of others - that's why the chapter on rousseau is called rousseau's silent assemblies.