i have Aphantasia and my picture of a bike would be conceptual. two wheels and a frame, very much stick person. so i think you are probably on the wrong track. now if you asked people to draw a picture of their own bike you might see a difference. in my case it would be almost the same.
i watched an interview with and investigator into SDAM. Dr Levine i believe. It was very interesting. One of the things he said was that there was ZERO evidence of what is popularly known as photographic memory. Much of what Aphantasics envy simple does not exist. If you say you cannot visualize you should not be surprised that the response is exagerated as in "Oh yes. I have photographic memory". That would be useful if it existed but simple visualization is not particularly useful given that 95% of the world can do it. Not an USP (unique selling point). Envy is one of the deadly sins. it has no positive aspect but in so many Aphantasic posts it is there. i am not going to question if you partner can really do what she says. it does not matter any more than the fact that your neighbour is taller than you.
i can certainly relate to the content of this post, but what you say and especially the comments make me feel that we are overicing the cake. We do not have "unique problems". it should not matter that other people can visualize any more than it should matter that some people are born rich and we were not. That is life. in a lot of the posts on Aphantasia (but not all) I see envy, self-pity and self-induced trauma. It is not cancer. It is not being born in a third world county without running water, health care or the certainty of being able to eat each day. No employer ever refused to hire me because i was not a visualizer. no girlfriend refused to date me for that reason. no neighbour put a sign out "No Aphants". It is not a disability. there is no obvious need to be able to visualize even in the arts. In fact, it could even be seen as an evolutionary step. a number of my friends have said that they envy the calm and the lack of Ego that can be implicit in Aphantasia. Mind you, I move in circles where materialism is not valued and egoism is seen as negative.
Sounds like there are hard core aphantasics and wannabes. The condition has only been in the public eye (no pun intended) for a few years and it looks to be going the way off gluten intolerance. I see nothing. I am also agoraphobic and have fear of heights. I have seen nothing about these conditions being related. Is there any research on this aspect?
Hi Leanne. It is not difficult to know if you are aphantasic. Close your eyes. Think of the person or thing you love most in the world. If all you see is black then you are aphantasic. Friends have told me they see like a movie or a photo. Not me. Just black. Freinds have told me they see like a movie or a photo. Not me. Just the black.
I am aphantasic and like you was surprised to find out that people actually saw things in that minds eye. I still worry though, but not about imagined catastrophies. No news is good news. However, there is a possible social issue here. A few years back I was robbed at gunpoint. I was with about a dozen people but it was me and my girlfriend who were the ones actually robbed. Once it was over most of the others were all upset or crying but not me. I told them, we were not shot so let's go and get a beer. I can only suppose that the others were running a movie on their minds about what could have happened to them. I can not do that. I did notice that the others were surprised by my reaction and nobody else was up for a beer.