Introduction and a general question
2 min readByHannah Winter
Hi all
My name is Hannah Winter, though it is possible that you know who I am from my reddit user id The_BT and creator of the Aphantasia subreddit (over 7 years ago) though I do not actively moderate the subreddit
There has been something on my mind a lot about aphantasia and I think it's down to how we see aphantasia. It explains why people are so hostile or why you have people saying they can 'cure aphantasia'
I think the biggest issue is this. Aphantasia is not a condition. People treat it like it is a condition and then you get the spectrum idea (which is true for visualisation as a whole) but it's not
It is a symptom and a symptom of many things. We know from the original defining of the term it can be a symptom of a brain injury, we also know it can be a symptom of a congenital condition, it is also likely that a significant number of people it is the only symptom of a condition. I know my own aphantasia is unusual because I lack any internal sensation and my dreams also lack any imagery etc (which make them impossible to describe) but I also have a rare intersex condition which is rare enough to not be able to get good numbers to prove anything
I do think it's probable that it is generally approached this way in research but I'm not sure that message is getting through to people
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