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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To be freaked out, Can't imagine images...

167 replies

Slappadabass · 14/10/2019 19:42

So I came across a post on here about aphantasia, not been able to imagine or picture a image in your mind, I can't, but I'd never thought about it and thought it was the norm until now.
I've been trying to picture my DC (amongst other things) in my head, I know what they look like, could give you every little tiny detail about them, but can't imagine their faces, I can't imagine anything.
I don't know how I've not realised people can do it but I can't until now.
AIBU unreasonable to be freaked out? Shock apparently there's a fair few people on here with aphantasia, anyone?

OP posts:
Monty27 · 15/10/2019 03:27

I can see images. I can get their expressions to change to a smile as they always look sad. Then they disappear and along comes another.
Sometimes they will be a close family member deceased. Sometimes I don't know who they are.
I shared this with two lifelong best friends and they think I'm psychic Shock Confused

Fink · 15/10/2019 06:06

It's about voluntary visual memory rather than not being able to see anything! For example, I can't see anything at all on the red star test, but I remember, e.g. that when my friend showed me his tattoo we were standing in X place. I can't visualise anything, but there's clearly a visual memory stored in there somewhere that I can't access.

What some of you are describing sounds more like face blindness, which is a separate condition. Face blindness, as the name suggests, is specifically the inability to visualise and recognise human faces rather than every visual image. It also often goes with difficulty with directions. There's loads of tests online for face blindness. I took part in a really interesting study on it (as a participant rather than a scientist) at Birkbeck a few years ago.

Theromanempire · 15/10/2019 06:09

dishing I'm not upset about having aphantasia as I have never known anything else and, if I was, there is nothing I can do about it.

And yy to who ever said that books that spend ages describing scenes, looks etc are dull when you can't picture it!

Theromanempire · 15/10/2019 06:11

fink I am like you - can tell you lots about an experience, what someone looks like, give directions etc but just cannot 'see' these when I close my eyes. It is just black Confused

FuriousVexation · 15/10/2019 06:22

This is fascinating. I have never heard of this before.

I visualise "things" very easily, so am great with directions, using equipment/software, imagining how a settee will look in my lounge, etc.

I have great difficulty visualising living things and tend to actually be remembering a photo of the person or animal rather than drawing on the memory of an actual moment of life. I'm also terrible at recognising people out of context - if I saw a colleague at the supermarket, for example, I'd be hard pressed to remember where I knew them from unless it was someone I worked with very closely. A few weeks ago I was served by someone at the supermarket who was in my team reporting to me for at least 2 years, but until she said "It's Furiosa isn't it? I was in your team at XYZ company, I'm Doris" I would never have recognised her or even thought she looked familiar.

I'll have to give my son this test at the weekend. He has dyslexia and he really struggles with finding his way in particular. Until now I had put this down to him finding it really hard to read road signs, landmarks etc, but I now wonder if this issue is also affecting him. We ended up having an argument a few months ago because we were getting ready to cook something and I asked him to hand me the casserole dish that we had been discussing and he simply could not grasp which dish I was referring to even though I kept saying "It's square not round, remember the one I cooked the shepherds' pie in when your Aunty Mavis came to tea..."

OTOH he seems to associate memories with sensations or tastes. One of his earliest memories is being pushed in his buggy by his birth mum and it was cold and raining. His buggy didn't have a rain cover and he described the sensation of rain very vividly as "it felt like the cat putting his claws in my face." He was only about 18 months but still remembers the feelings.

FuriousVexation · 15/10/2019 06:26

Additionally when he was younger he would say "Can I please have chicken soup for tea, ooooh it smells so good, I can taste it in me mouth!"

He meant he could literally recreate the taste in his memory, whereas when I think to myself "Oh I fancy a prawn sandwich" I'm not tasting the sandwich in my brain, I'm just trawling through my memories of "things I have eaten and liked".

PulpPixie · 15/10/2019 06:46

My minds eye is fantastic. I can visualise something so good, it’s like
I’m standing there. I’d hate not to be able to do that

Bellringer · 15/10/2019 08:57

Traumatic events/childhood memories can be suppressed and emerge later, perhaps in therapy.
Your condition doesn't seem to hold you back

beckyvardy · 15/10/2019 09:31

So those of you who can't visualise in your mind, what are your dreams like?

How do you dream if you can't visualise?

This is so fascinating!!

I can visualise and sometimes I have really graphic nightmares and then I can't get the images out of my head for a few days.

I wonder if it's connected to anything else?

JaimeBronde · 15/10/2019 09:33

I agree Pulp it's great.

thatguiltyfeeling · 15/10/2019 09:45

I tend to visualise my emotions rather than a face. So I can feel the warmth of my nans hugs, but I can't picture her face. I could describe her perfectly though.
I also know exactly where everything is in an image, for example I can describe the field behind my house amazingly, and even pinpoint where certain memories are in random points of the field (nothing dodgy, just things like finding a bird) however actually seeing the field in my mind isn't possible.
If I try to visualise a tree I can see the green and I can see the brown but I can't merge them into an actual tree.
My dreams however are very vivid, and whilst reading I can feel the characters emotions and to me that makes a person, even with pages of descriptions I would never actually see a proper person.
Someone up thread said it's like it being on the tip of your tongue and that's exactly how it is for me

candycane222 · 15/10/2019 09:47

Don't feel bad OP, someone I know is just the same, only just found out that mind's eye etc is not just a figure of speech for everyone. She's very successful in a high-powered technical job so it hasn't held her back at all.

It looks from this thread to be quite common! I wonder if people don't realise because language is so full of idiom anyway like 'going to the dogs' or 'bee in their bonnet' or spanner in the works'. Why should 'mind's eye' be any different?

WillowKnicks · 15/10/2019 09:56

I'm exactly the same & found out from mumsnet?

I can describe my children & know what they look like but I can't 'see' them in my head if I'm not with them.

I find it really sad, as my Mum can 'see' my Dad who died as clear as day in her head but I can't 😢.

Skyejuly · 15/10/2019 10:02

I'm 1 too. I thought that was normal.

Skyejuly · 15/10/2019 10:03

I can visualise stuff so to speak but I cant see it if that makes sense

WhispersOfWickedness · 15/10/2019 10:09

I'm also intrigued about if they link to not being able to do other things, so for example, my friend has aphantasia and also cannot hear a song in her head as it originally sounds, she can only do it with her inner voice singing it.

Toitoitoi · 15/10/2019 10:15

Yes I have this too. My dreams are extremely vivid. I think the neural pathways are different so lots of people find they can visualise just before dropping off to sleep but cannot control what they are seeing.

I am actually great at finding my way around in new places and my sense of direction is fantastic but useless at following other people's directions.

I enjoy reading but do like books to be philosophical, abstract, or have strong emotional content etc. Murder mysteries are lost on me as I can't follow the plot at all. Yes to hating Lord of the Rings etc.

Absolutely useless at art, my creations are child-like, which is interesting because now looking at some famous artists I do wonder if they too have this condition.

Toitoitoi · 15/10/2019 10:18

I have no other internal senses either - which makes me now rethink a lot of philosophy Grin

Original poster
Slappadabass · 15/10/2019 11:19

@Fink That's exactly how I feel, I could tell you in great detail for example what my child looks like, the colour of his hair, the way it falls, his little freckle near his ear, she shape of his lips, colour of his eyes etc etc. But no matter how much I try, I can't conjure a image up of him, it's like I have a visual memory of him, there's something in there I just can't access it. It feels like it's there but I can't get to it, like someone else said, it's like having something on the tip of your tounge.

OP posts:
Deadringer · 15/10/2019 11:34

Slap that's just the way it works for me. I know every inch of my DC's faces, I can describe them in detail, but can't rustle up a metal picture of them, or when I manage to it's very fleeting. I hate fantasy novels, all that description is wasted on me but I love reading in general. I just remembered i had a dream last night and in it there was terrible thunder and non stop lightening, I could see the sky it was full of dark clouds lit up by lightning, I know I pictured it in my dream because i remember it, but I can't visualize it now. Weird.

Moltenpink · 15/10/2019 12:35

This is so fascinating. I wonder what people with the condition are like as babies? Obviously they can’t think in words, would it just be feelings? Confused

Gingaaarghpussy · 15/10/2019 12:58

So the minds picture is like looking through a window with your eyes shut?
When you shut your eyes and imagine a beach, for example, you see that beach and not blackness?
If that's the case, no wonder meditation is hard. I tell myself what I want to see but can't actually see it.

DaveMyHat · 15/10/2019 13:21

@DishingOutDone when I was younger (primary school age and early years of secondary) I remember trying really hard to "see" my family and getting frustrated that I couldn't. But it wasn't a major thing that made me really upset. It did bother me enough that I spent a lot of time trying to do it though.

What some of you are describing sounds more like face blindness, which is a separate condition. Face blindness, as the name suggests, is specifically the inability to visualise and recognise human faces rather than every visual image. It also often goes with difficulty with directions. There's loads of tests online for face blindness. I took part in a really interesting study on it (as a participant rather than a scientist) at Birkbeck a few years ago.

Could the two not go hand in hand? The face blindness and the lack of a mind's eye?

Skyejuly · 15/10/2019 13:23

Ginga, I always wondered why it was so hard.

DishingOutDone · 15/10/2019 13:58

So those of you who can't visualise in your mind, what are your dreams like? - DD tells me they are just "shadows" - light and dark but nothing else. This is an amazing thread - really helpful, thank you to OP for bringing it up. We are still having DD's head injury assessed in light of her development and its interesting to see that some of the things she has - e.g., unable to remember things, particularly if accompanied with images - might actually be her natural state rather than a result of the injury.

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