Dennis Strauss

My sister told me about aphantasia last year, and she told me about the New Yorker article a few days ago. She has the condition, and when she described it, I realized that I had it, too. When I try to visualize something, it feels like there is an image at the back of my head, and I’m trying to see the projected image through a fog. I do see vivid images when I’m falling asleep, dreaming, or waking up. When I draw, I have to sketch something crude first, to edit in shape and to add details. I can recognize whether the drawing matches what I intended. I was given an intelligence test at school when I was about 9, and I could draw an object from a different angle from that presented, but when I was asked to recall a sequence of colored beads on a string, I couldn’t do it. I do have trouble when I have to remember left from right in directions. I am left-handed, and I am on the autism spectrum. I am a semi-retired chemist. I like to re-purpose or jury-rig things when I can’t find the exact tool that I need.