""Most places your mind saves JPEGs, mine has text files instead." This is how Mike (name changed for anonymity) describes living with complete aphantasia. Coined in 2015, aphantasia affects approximately 4% of the population and is a condition characterized by the brain's inability to visualize or imagine images. Though not classified as a disability or medical condition, it has a profound impact on Mike's daily life."
"Mike describes how frequently visualization is essential in daily interactions, work, and education. Phrases like "just picture it in your mind," "visualize yourself," or "recall a time when" are common, but for Mike, the lack of his ability to visualize makes tasks like spatial awareness difficult or even impossible. We rely on the brain's ability to form mental images far more than we realize."
"UK researcher Bridget Mawtus from Edge Hill University suggests that for individuals who develop aphantasia later in life, it may be a protective response to trauma. Registered psychotherapist Cheryl Diver, who lost the ability to visualize as a child following sexual trauma, shared that developing aphantasia felt like losing a piece of her creativity. She described the experience as "having an artist's soul but being unable to paint the sunset because I can't picture it.""
Aphantasia is a condition in which the brain cannot generate visual imagery, affecting roughly 4% of people. Individuals with aphantasia cannot form mental pictures, which complicates spatial awareness, decorating, design, fashion selection, and many daily and educational tasks. Some people develop aphantasia after trauma, possibly as a protective response, and they may relive events without visual components. Loss of visualization can reduce creative experiences and make memory-based therapies more difficult. Many clinicians fail to recognize or understand aphantasia, leading to underdiagnosis and inadequate therapeutic approaches for those affected.
Read at Psychology Today
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