aphantasia
(ˌæfænˈteɪzɪə ) noun
an inability to form mental images
I always knew there were people that could not picture things in their mind or that didn’t have a voice in their head. As it turns out, I am one of them.
For my entire life my understanding of what it meant to picture something in your mind’s eye had been wrong. A few days ago my wife asked me some questions on how I visualised things, stemming from a conversation she had been having with friends.
After taking the Vividness of Visual Imagery Questionnaire (VVIQ) I discovered that I have aphantasia, I am unable to create a mental image of any kind.
I suddenly became fascinated with the subject. Finding out that my wife has the ability to picture things as clear as a photograph, or even animation, is incredible.
This is a representation of the scale of phantasia, from hyperphantasia (1) to aphantasia (5). From the research it seems there could be between 2% and 4% of the population who have complete aphantasia, with most people falling somewhere on the spectrum of being able to visualise something.
The term aphantasia was coined in 2015 in a study called Lives without imagery - Congenital Aphantasia, and derives from the Greek meaning “without image”. Research on the subject is still relatively new, so much about the condition remains unknown.
Out of interest I started asking my family and doing some tests to gauge what other people perceived. It turns out a lot of my family have aphantasia or are low on the spectrum.
If I am asked to think of a person I know, like my wife or brother, I know what they look like but there is no imagery attached to that thought. If I read a character description in a novel I can understand what the character looks like but I can’t “see” anything. It is hard to explain to somebody who can actual create detailed images in their head.
Learning this about myself has given me a better understanding of why I appear to struggle with some aspects of visual creativity compared to others. Take drawing for example. I like to draw and try to create characters or draw things from memory, but I always produce better results when copying a picture or using a reference image. Artists I know also use reference images, but so many of them seem to be able to sketch really well from memory. I always put it down to talent or practice (which there is of course) but now I know some artists can visualise a reference image in their head, basically cheating (sarcasm).
The same goes for photography. As those that follow along know, I have been learning more about photography in the last year. It always frustrated me when attempting to compose desired photos in my head. I knew what I wanted an image to look like, where objects would be placed or how I wanted the lighting, yet when I came physically compose the photo I would be unable to match the thoughts in my head. Learning that a lot of top photographers can literally build a realistic photo in their head then go about recreating it in real life helps to explain so much.
This isn’t an excuse for me to not be making award winning art. Knowing about and understanding my own aphantasia has made me more forgiving of my supposed shortcomings and is giving me a new foundation on which to build better or alternative techniques.
Since this discovery only a few days ago I have already found articles and information from artists and photographers who have aphantasia, detailing the various different approaches they make to producing better content. This will hopefully give me the tools to improve my own creativity process.
In my research I have also learned that along with being mind blind I have silent mind, meaning there is no auditory sense in my mind. A proposed term for this is anauralia. When I am “talking to myself” I don’t hear a voice or any sound, I just know what I am saying. I can recall conversations and songs, knowing what a person’s voice sounds like and knowing the tune and vocals of a song, but cannot actually hear anything. Again, this is hard to explain to those that do have an internal auditory sense.
From what I can tell my aphantasia encompasses my other senses as well. This is termed multisensory aphantasia. Along with the lack of visual and sound I have no mental smell, touch, or taste. Reports suggest that people with aphantasia also have lower levels of the other mental senses but not all have full multisensory aphantasia.
It is not all bad though. People with aphantasia are reportedly better at logical reasoning, slower but more accurate at mental rotation tasks, and my wife is now convinced it is how I can fall asleep so quickly.
Reading what little (real) research there is out there has proved yet again that the human brain is absolutely insane and still such a mystery.
Reading various articles, blogs, and Reddit comments has proved once again that humans are absolutely insane and we are all so different. Each of us experiences the world in different ways without truly understanding how others do. Next time somebody seems confused when you’re giving directions keep in mind that they might not be able to picture it the way you can, maybe they need to use an alternative method.
Where do you fall on the phantasia scale? No matter if this is all new to you or you have known about aphantasia for some time, I would be interested to hear about how you experience things. My contact details can be found on my homepage.