John Cooper

Tom, That was a brilliant (and necessary) response. Beautiful, articulate, and extremely well reasoned. Whenever an article like the original gives the impression that they protest too much—then it always says more about the author than the issue. In this case a desperate need for any sort of superiority, and using, as you nicely debunk, inverse logic. I could be argued that aphantasics may be clearer and thus more creative thinkers because their minds are not trespassed upon by unbidden senses, which thoughts are often cliched, stereotypical or personally biasedl. And anyway, in architecture form follows function; and function can easily be conceptualized by aphantasics. Conversely, the vivid visualizer who approaches innovation using form first is likely to come up with the concept car that never gets built, or the clothes of the catwalk that never get worn. More power to you.