As someone with a very noisy inner monologue that seldom shuts up, I was also fascinated to learn that some people have no "voice in their head" at all. It's hard to imagine a quiet brain. Wrote about this a bit here: https://celebration.substack.com/p/more-than-words
It is SO hard to imagine it. I can talk a lot and people are surprised when I say I run every sentence 2-3 times over in my head already before I speak. There is so much noise in there! 😆
I have aphantasia and truly cannot ‘see’ anything in my imagination but I know it in a different way. I am also unable to hear in my imagination any voice other than my own. So when I think of a door bell it is my voice going ding dong . I believe though that this is why I am a powerful performer - I do not see the characters or story, I become them. I can memorize 90minute long shows …. A lot of this is to do with the rhythm of the words … interestingly I draw images a lot - as symbols to represent things or just for pleasure but I cannot see an image in my head before I draw it - it is more like my pen goes for a walk.
It’s always comforting to relate to the experiences of other creatives. I feel so relieved to know that I’m not the only one stuck in a place trying to work out the difference between being “creative” versus being “technical”. Your words help me affirm that doing both is significant and not mutually exclusive.
WOW! This article is a mind-blower, if you'll pardon the expression. I'm a visual learner and have always had trouble with math. Geometry I can visualize and it was fun ... for awhile. Then some jerk teacher started yammering about formulas of how to find the whatever to whatever. As long as the subject matter remains visual, like geology (loved that class) or paleontology (yeah, dinosaurs), I got right into it. Then the numbers arrive, and the chemical equations, and the periodic tables and eras. BLECHTH! I've read that dislexics have trouble reading because they can visualize nouns and verbs, but not all the conjunctions and other "connectors." For example, "The boy ran into the house." They can see a boy running and the the house, but not "the," "into," and "the." After a few sentences, they're totally lost and frustrated. That must be the adverse of aphantasia. Or maybe related to it. As for interior monologues, I'm talking to myself all the time both inside and outside. Mom thought I was crazy for talking to myself, but apparently, now people think that's healthy. Who knows?
Masks were such a blessing for people like us - able to mumble to ourselves without anyone finding out! 😅 As another visual learner, I concur. I love diagrams and infographics, and my notes from college were always constructed that way, stray sentences and phrases connected by arrows, with plenty of drawings. It is one of the reasons I only write in un-ruled notebooks!
Un-ruled notebooks. Now there's an idea for people who think outside the boxes/lines. I found recently that I've been writing for so long, I can no longer draw worth a dang. Perhaps I should keep on trying. That's why your drawings fascinate me. And I noticed you drew your little child's pix without lifting the pen from the paper. My MIL taught me that, but I haven't practiced it in decades. Another little exercise to exercise the brain muscle.
Finally remembered what my MIL called this style. Contour drawing. Just look at the subject while drawing it. Although I doubt if that's what you do. If we don't look at the drawing, it gets a little weird. 😁
Hi, I have aphantasia. When I close my eyes the only thing I see are the backs of my eyelids :)
Math did come easy when I bothered to do it--I didn't find it interesting. I want to get back to it in the future; maybe physics will still be easy, maybe not, I'm nearly 40 now. I was much more interested in art and storytelling. I can't see a scene when I read a book. Instead, the words and art come from somewhere else. I simply "hear" what to write and what assets to add to my collages. I let it flow from me. I believe I'm channeling something else as I pray every night.
Seeing nothing, just being an open channel, is useful when it comes to art, however. I can analyze the face I'm looking at without distraction. "Ah, the eyes and mouth have this spatial relationship and this ear sits at this angle." The hard part is the hand-eye coordination, but it's coming.
I write about the things hidden between the stars in my fiction. I can't say where that came from, but we'll find out where it leads!
Renni, that is fascinating. Thank you for sharing this insight into your thought process and creative expression. As a deep visualizer, it is difficult/impossible for me to truly relate with how things might work without images in my head, but I completely see your point about not having undue distractions.
It is good to not always know where things come from, self-discovery can be the most fun part of our self-expression!
Self-discovery is incredibly fun, though sometimes not for the faint of heart! I read something once that I was moved to adopt and live by: cherish life as it unfolds.
I play Killer Sudoku frequently and I see the numbers as patterns and sometimes I feel what should fill the gaps. I spend a lot of time talking to myself, rehearsing difficult conversations. In fact I do better if I imagine the difficult scenarios and rehearse them, I'm not good at instant confrontation, wish I was. Wish I could find the perfect words to diffuse arguments without spending hours rehearsing. However, if I'm not emotionally involved people say I am a natural diplomat. Shame my family only see the dorky person as they are always pushing my buttons. 😒
Liz, I do all of those things too! I reckon myself only above average at Sudoku, but the only way it works for me is to get a sense of the patterns. Anything more formulaic than that is too tedious for my brain. And I have been rehearsing conversations in my mind for as long as I can remember. Maybe this is part of the reason people find me articulate in public - that I already say things a thousand times in my head in different combinations of sentences. 😅 Also, I am quite terrible at defusing tricky situations.
People say I'm good at presenting but I have to rehearse in my head so many times. But do you agree, it gets easier the more you do. I still have to rehearse no matter what - even chairing a meeting. At work I was quite good at diffusing arguments that I wasn't involved in, but only if I was in the chair position (ie in authority). If there was an argument otherwise, I just kept quiet 😂. But usually I am rubbish if I'm emotionally involved, I usually avoid and let people have their way unless I'm very bothered. However, the older I get the more bothered I am 😂
Haha I'm good at presenting only when I don't prepare too much. I'm better at speaking impromptu with a vague sense of direction. Otherwise I get lost in my own preparations! But yes I agree about the arguments - I'm quiet unless I can be in charge, or if I care too much. 😛
Aaaaa! Contra!!! Yes omg “weak but intuitive about Math”???? Same! That’s how I felt about the Physics component in grade 11 and 12.. I was like I get it but why can’t I “apply it”?
I did not realize how much I relied on visual thinking as a tool to study till certain disciplines within dentistry became harder for me
And when you accept your own neural wiring.. that’s when you start to allow yourself to enjoy with guilt. Heck Neurotypicals are doing it why can’t we 😂
My visuals may be a little lacking in specific detail but I see a red ball (dodge ball from 80s gym classes) and a dog (the breed varies - currently shaggy da style because I’m thinking about 80s thanks to contra and red ball). And good lord I wish I could kick some of the people out of my head - I meditate to try to deal with the monkey mind. More monologuing than the most chatty villain that ever villained.
100% relatable. I studied engineering, working in Tech, and now found myself constantly trying to shift to creative fields which gives me more fulfillment (and all I do in my spare time is mostly visual arts related activities as I grow older). Thanks for this super interesting post.
When I access a memory, I think about it in words. When I paint (which I do mostly intuitively), I follow the words in my mind.
Sometimes I just reach for a color. Sometimes, while painting, I "think" of the color (except that I'm not thinking about it rationally, if that makes sense). I also don't "hear" words in my mind — after reading your post, I'm wondering if other people can actually hear voices in their heads?
- but I do have an internal monologue, by which I mean I think a lot. I often have conversations with "myself". As for
remembering things, in school and college, it was all about "mugging up". With directions, I need to drive to a particular place a few times before I remember it. I find that I'm pretty good with remembering things that are important to me, but I can also easily forget things that I casually read. This is all very fascinating. I think I'll have to give that podcast a listen!
I think my memory is heavily auditory and visual. Images rise up before words, and sounds and voices are there all the time. So I have trouble imagining a memory that would be only words? Like even the things people said? Do you remember them as words and repeat them back in your own voice? How fascinating!
I would love to hear your thoughts after listening to the episode!
What a fascinating episode! I never in my wildest imagination thought people had actual voices in their head! I talk to myself, but that’s just in sentences? Like I will have a dialogue with myself in my mind, but it’s sentences that I’m thinking, silently. I can “hear” inflection and surprise, but it’s all just thoughts. No sound. How very fascinating!
Maps and street signs help me understand where i am and need to go. In case of Google Maps, i don't have much problem following the directions. But to give directions to sb, that's where i sometimes struggle with.
My learning styles are visual and auditory. When i wanna memorize things, i love to see them on a diagram or table (drawing diagrams and creating tables on MS Word helped me a lot during my BA and MA periods).
As for numbers, i have to repeat them a few times at first (In case of phone numbers, i always save them with the name of the owner on my phone). After enough reps, i can say a person's number from memory (This also applies to people's birthdays as well).
And finally, for names. Because i'm a visual learner, maps always fascinate me. When i wanna know where a city is, i either look at Google Maps or the maps software in Windows. And for those cities i know, i can easily say where they are (north, south, east, west and center of a country).
I love maps too. It is the fastest way for me to understand where I am and need to go. My wife, on the other hand, needs to see the list of directions on Google Maps, which I absolutely cannot deal with.
I’m same as you described yourself, except for the pixelation (lol). Perhaps because I am also rhythmically/musically inclined I have a large mental library of lyrics and cadence, so any conversation brings at least one song lyric to mind (completely with its music) and usually more than one. Frankly that last item can be a bit distracting as it takes my thoughts off on tangents.
I was very surprised a few years back that there were people who could not bring up memories or new mental images with color and audio, let alone have a mental recall for taste or smell.
And yes, mental narration as well, and repeating things like phone numbers in my head to remember them, as you described.
I’m a creative but sort of fell into a sort of accounting career lately; but my biggest contribution there is not actually number crunching but being able to write and troubleshoot spreadsheet formulas (I can “see” data flow and relationships better than those who are better at the math itself, but am less good at mentally know whether totals are “good” or “bad”, lol)
So fascinating! I also keep going off on tangents because of that. And I can relate to the idea of 'seeing data flow' better than actually working the numbers. 🙌🏽
Do you have to use any tricks to shut down the distractions while you work? I need white noise and ASMR to keep my attention on one thing at a time.
Well, when I have to focus on a task (e.g. a report under deadline) I put my MS Office status to DND or busy for a set time, minimize the email window, turn my cellphone face down, and/or close my office door.
I also find I naturally focus by doing the self-talk softly out loud, “responding” to what I’m doing. Sounds like: “Hmmm… what happened. Ok…” (thinks it through) “oh I get it… what if…?” (click click click) “ok good” , that’s better.” As you said, it is me as me, not some imaginary other.
Hearing it keeps me more focused. Sometimes when I’m really engrossed and muttering to myself (not constantly) hours can fly by.
I don’t listen to music because I can’t ignore it.
However my job often entails responding to people to answer their questions so I can’t always do the above, so when I’m “plate spinning” (like on an old variety show) and get interrupted I usually say “one sec” to either finish and send an email or I make a written note as to what I was doing or if in a spreadsheet I may highlight the end of section to show where I stopped. Also I have written instructions on various reports so I know where a good place is to stop and check for messages that won’t wait. That way if I lose focus, I can pick up again more easily.
Picking up again is the hard part for me! I do not deal with distractions very well. So my day is full of little bursts of attention separated by periods of extreme distractedness. Speaking aloud seems like another great way to quieten the inner voices!
But the biggest change that has happened for me came from trying ADHD medication. I have had Vyvanse the last couple of months and it is a game-changer!
I just had a thought on this. This is sort of the thought version of Id and Ego. In this case the Id would be the “machine” part of the brain (or maybe the very synapses firing if you will) and the visual imagery and/or internal audio we experience would be the Ego’s initial translation into something memorable and communicable (hopefully!) From there comes words, so maybe that part (and the muttering aloud) is super-ego? I’d had to learn more about Freud’s theory to see if the analogy makes sense.
My other thought was that my muttering aloud sometimes when working is like talking to your car when driving, lol. 😝
Wow! Such an interesting post. I've never thought about this. I actually had to look up aphantasia to get a better understanding. When you prompted for visual thoughts, I noticed I had a vague picture in my head. It made me wonder what the symptoms are and suddenly I'm wondering if my difficulty drawing, and imagining, are challenged because of a degree of aphantasia. I've always worked in the middle grays of my world - interest in a lot of things, pretty good at things that entail a bit of detail, but always getting lost in the weeds. My art work feels stronger when I'm following a step by step guide. I wonder if aphantasia can be reversed, or improved, with practice? I've been practicing creating with fewer guidelines and expectations and am finding my ability to create increases. Is it like a muscle, or even memory? The more you do it, the better you get at it? Of course, recognizing the challenge would need to come first - Thanks for talking about it!
As a purely observation-based artist, I like to think the drawing ability improves as I add more entries to my "library of good lines". The brain is certainly not a muscle, but it is a living thing that benefits from tackling complex problems. Back when I was a researcher, we would observe the neuroplasticity of stroke patients' brains - i.e. the new neural connections their brain would make to circumvent the areas affected by the stroke. New paths to doing the same thing, new paths to doing things with a slightly altered pattern, and new connections between mind and body.
The podcast episode does touch upon degrees of aphantasia and anauralia. I am sure it is not a binary condition. And one of the people they speak to that suffers from anauralia is a musician!
As someone with a very noisy inner monologue that seldom shuts up, I was also fascinated to learn that some people have no "voice in their head" at all. It's hard to imagine a quiet brain. Wrote about this a bit here: https://celebration.substack.com/p/more-than-words
It is SO hard to imagine it. I can talk a lot and people are surprised when I say I run every sentence 2-3 times over in my head already before I speak. There is so much noise in there! 😆
Thanks for the link, I'll read soon. 🙌
I have aphantasia and truly cannot ‘see’ anything in my imagination but I know it in a different way. I am also unable to hear in my imagination any voice other than my own. So when I think of a door bell it is my voice going ding dong . I believe though that this is why I am a powerful performer - I do not see the characters or story, I become them. I can memorize 90minute long shows …. A lot of this is to do with the rhythm of the words … interestingly I draw images a lot - as symbols to represent things or just for pleasure but I cannot see an image in my head before I draw it - it is more like my pen goes for a walk.
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/navigating-the-world-with-aphantasia - this was an article I wrote about it.
Oh thank you so much for sharing! 🙌
Yes - though in my head they are perfectly in tune.
I also have tonnes of song lyrics that are easily triggered like one of the previous comments ..
Katrice, how fascinating! I can *see* how it would aid performance. Do you remember songs also in your own voice?
It’s always comforting to relate to the experiences of other creatives. I feel so relieved to know that I’m not the only one stuck in a place trying to work out the difference between being “creative” versus being “technical”. Your words help me affirm that doing both is significant and not mutually exclusive.
There is so much overlap!
WOW! This article is a mind-blower, if you'll pardon the expression. I'm a visual learner and have always had trouble with math. Geometry I can visualize and it was fun ... for awhile. Then some jerk teacher started yammering about formulas of how to find the whatever to whatever. As long as the subject matter remains visual, like geology (loved that class) or paleontology (yeah, dinosaurs), I got right into it. Then the numbers arrive, and the chemical equations, and the periodic tables and eras. BLECHTH! I've read that dislexics have trouble reading because they can visualize nouns and verbs, but not all the conjunctions and other "connectors." For example, "The boy ran into the house." They can see a boy running and the the house, but not "the," "into," and "the." After a few sentences, they're totally lost and frustrated. That must be the adverse of aphantasia. Or maybe related to it. As for interior monologues, I'm talking to myself all the time both inside and outside. Mom thought I was crazy for talking to myself, but apparently, now people think that's healthy. Who knows?
Masks were such a blessing for people like us - able to mumble to ourselves without anyone finding out! 😅 As another visual learner, I concur. I love diagrams and infographics, and my notes from college were always constructed that way, stray sentences and phrases connected by arrows, with plenty of drawings. It is one of the reasons I only write in un-ruled notebooks!
Un-ruled notebooks. Now there's an idea for people who think outside the boxes/lines. I found recently that I've been writing for so long, I can no longer draw worth a dang. Perhaps I should keep on trying. That's why your drawings fascinate me. And I noticed you drew your little child's pix without lifting the pen from the paper. My MIL taught me that, but I haven't practiced it in decades. Another little exercise to exercise the brain muscle.
Long, continuous lines are key to my style. I recommend it to everyone!
Finally remembered what my MIL called this style. Contour drawing. Just look at the subject while drawing it. Although I doubt if that's what you do. If we don't look at the drawing, it gets a little weird. 😁
Yes that's the word! I do a bit of both. Over time you build enough muscle memory to know how good your line is without looking all the time.
Hi, I have aphantasia. When I close my eyes the only thing I see are the backs of my eyelids :)
Math did come easy when I bothered to do it--I didn't find it interesting. I want to get back to it in the future; maybe physics will still be easy, maybe not, I'm nearly 40 now. I was much more interested in art and storytelling. I can't see a scene when I read a book. Instead, the words and art come from somewhere else. I simply "hear" what to write and what assets to add to my collages. I let it flow from me. I believe I'm channeling something else as I pray every night.
Seeing nothing, just being an open channel, is useful when it comes to art, however. I can analyze the face I'm looking at without distraction. "Ah, the eyes and mouth have this spatial relationship and this ear sits at this angle." The hard part is the hand-eye coordination, but it's coming.
I write about the things hidden between the stars in my fiction. I can't say where that came from, but we'll find out where it leads!
Renni, that is fascinating. Thank you for sharing this insight into your thought process and creative expression. As a deep visualizer, it is difficult/impossible for me to truly relate with how things might work without images in my head, but I completely see your point about not having undue distractions.
It is good to not always know where things come from, self-discovery can be the most fun part of our self-expression!
Self-discovery is incredibly fun, though sometimes not for the faint of heart! I read something once that I was moved to adopt and live by: cherish life as it unfolds.
That is a beautiful sentiment. ❤️
I play Killer Sudoku frequently and I see the numbers as patterns and sometimes I feel what should fill the gaps. I spend a lot of time talking to myself, rehearsing difficult conversations. In fact I do better if I imagine the difficult scenarios and rehearse them, I'm not good at instant confrontation, wish I was. Wish I could find the perfect words to diffuse arguments without spending hours rehearsing. However, if I'm not emotionally involved people say I am a natural diplomat. Shame my family only see the dorky person as they are always pushing my buttons. 😒
Liz, I do all of those things too! I reckon myself only above average at Sudoku, but the only way it works for me is to get a sense of the patterns. Anything more formulaic than that is too tedious for my brain. And I have been rehearsing conversations in my mind for as long as I can remember. Maybe this is part of the reason people find me articulate in public - that I already say things a thousand times in my head in different combinations of sentences. 😅 Also, I am quite terrible at defusing tricky situations.
People say I'm good at presenting but I have to rehearse in my head so many times. But do you agree, it gets easier the more you do. I still have to rehearse no matter what - even chairing a meeting. At work I was quite good at diffusing arguments that I wasn't involved in, but only if I was in the chair position (ie in authority). If there was an argument otherwise, I just kept quiet 😂. But usually I am rubbish if I'm emotionally involved, I usually avoid and let people have their way unless I'm very bothered. However, the older I get the more bothered I am 😂
Haha I'm good at presenting only when I don't prepare too much. I'm better at speaking impromptu with a vague sense of direction. Otherwise I get lost in my own preparations! But yes I agree about the arguments - I'm quiet unless I can be in charge, or if I care too much. 😛
Aaaaa! Contra!!! Yes omg “weak but intuitive about Math”???? Same! That’s how I felt about the Physics component in grade 11 and 12.. I was like I get it but why can’t I “apply it”?
I did not realize how much I relied on visual thinking as a tool to study till certain disciplines within dentistry became harder for me
And when you accept your own neural wiring.. that’s when you start to allow yourself to enjoy with guilt. Heck Neurotypicals are doing it why can’t we 😂
I was thinking about you when writing this, Rabia! Like when we talked about how we use Google maps visually.
Yes exactly but I’ve never written it down and this is well articulated!!
My visuals may be a little lacking in specific detail but I see a red ball (dodge ball from 80s gym classes) and a dog (the breed varies - currently shaggy da style because I’m thinking about 80s thanks to contra and red ball). And good lord I wish I could kick some of the people out of my head - I meditate to try to deal with the monkey mind. More monologuing than the most chatty villain that ever villained.
100% relatable. I studied engineering, working in Tech, and now found myself constantly trying to shift to creative fields which gives me more fulfillment (and all I do in my spare time is mostly visual arts related activities as I grow older). Thanks for this super interesting post.
I am glad you liked it, Shelling. And best of luck moving towards the things that fulfil you!
I have aphantasia. No mental images at all.
When I access a memory, I think about it in words. When I paint (which I do mostly intuitively), I follow the words in my mind.
Sometimes I just reach for a color. Sometimes, while painting, I "think" of the color (except that I'm not thinking about it rationally, if that makes sense). I also don't "hear" words in my mind — after reading your post, I'm wondering if other people can actually hear voices in their heads?
- but I do have an internal monologue, by which I mean I think a lot. I often have conversations with "myself". As for
remembering things, in school and college, it was all about "mugging up". With directions, I need to drive to a particular place a few times before I remember it. I find that I'm pretty good with remembering things that are important to me, but I can also easily forget things that I casually read. This is all very fascinating. I think I'll have to give that podcast a listen!
I think my memory is heavily auditory and visual. Images rise up before words, and sounds and voices are there all the time. So I have trouble imagining a memory that would be only words? Like even the things people said? Do you remember them as words and repeat them back in your own voice? How fascinating!
I would love to hear your thoughts after listening to the episode!
What a fascinating episode! I never in my wildest imagination thought people had actual voices in their head! I talk to myself, but that’s just in sentences? Like I will have a dialogue with myself in my mind, but it’s sentences that I’m thinking, silently. I can “hear” inflection and surprise, but it’s all just thoughts. No sound. How very fascinating!
That is very intriguing! I cannot imagine my mind without the sound and noise and sometimes wish it would be quieter so I could get things done. 😅
Maps and street signs help me understand where i am and need to go. In case of Google Maps, i don't have much problem following the directions. But to give directions to sb, that's where i sometimes struggle with.
My learning styles are visual and auditory. When i wanna memorize things, i love to see them on a diagram or table (drawing diagrams and creating tables on MS Word helped me a lot during my BA and MA periods).
As for numbers, i have to repeat them a few times at first (In case of phone numbers, i always save them with the name of the owner on my phone). After enough reps, i can say a person's number from memory (This also applies to people's birthdays as well).
And finally, for names. Because i'm a visual learner, maps always fascinate me. When i wanna know where a city is, i either look at Google Maps or the maps software in Windows. And for those cities i know, i can easily say where they are (north, south, east, west and center of a country).
I love maps too. It is the fastest way for me to understand where I am and need to go. My wife, on the other hand, needs to see the list of directions on Google Maps, which I absolutely cannot deal with.
I’m same as you described yourself, except for the pixelation (lol). Perhaps because I am also rhythmically/musically inclined I have a large mental library of lyrics and cadence, so any conversation brings at least one song lyric to mind (completely with its music) and usually more than one. Frankly that last item can be a bit distracting as it takes my thoughts off on tangents.
I was very surprised a few years back that there were people who could not bring up memories or new mental images with color and audio, let alone have a mental recall for taste or smell.
And yes, mental narration as well, and repeating things like phone numbers in my head to remember them, as you described.
I’m a creative but sort of fell into a sort of accounting career lately; but my biggest contribution there is not actually number crunching but being able to write and troubleshoot spreadsheet formulas (I can “see” data flow and relationships better than those who are better at the math itself, but am less good at mentally know whether totals are “good” or “bad”, lol)
So fascinating! I also keep going off on tangents because of that. And I can relate to the idea of 'seeing data flow' better than actually working the numbers. 🙌🏽
Do you have to use any tricks to shut down the distractions while you work? I need white noise and ASMR to keep my attention on one thing at a time.
Well, when I have to focus on a task (e.g. a report under deadline) I put my MS Office status to DND or busy for a set time, minimize the email window, turn my cellphone face down, and/or close my office door.
I also find I naturally focus by doing the self-talk softly out loud, “responding” to what I’m doing. Sounds like: “Hmmm… what happened. Ok…” (thinks it through) “oh I get it… what if…?” (click click click) “ok good” , that’s better.” As you said, it is me as me, not some imaginary other.
Hearing it keeps me more focused. Sometimes when I’m really engrossed and muttering to myself (not constantly) hours can fly by.
I don’t listen to music because I can’t ignore it.
However my job often entails responding to people to answer their questions so I can’t always do the above, so when I’m “plate spinning” (like on an old variety show) and get interrupted I usually say “one sec” to either finish and send an email or I make a written note as to what I was doing or if in a spreadsheet I may highlight the end of section to show where I stopped. Also I have written instructions on various reports so I know where a good place is to stop and check for messages that won’t wait. That way if I lose focus, I can pick up again more easily.
Picking up again is the hard part for me! I do not deal with distractions very well. So my day is full of little bursts of attention separated by periods of extreme distractedness. Speaking aloud seems like another great way to quieten the inner voices!
But the biggest change that has happened for me came from trying ADHD medication. I have had Vyvanse the last couple of months and it is a game-changer!
I just had a thought on this. This is sort of the thought version of Id and Ego. In this case the Id would be the “machine” part of the brain (or maybe the very synapses firing if you will) and the visual imagery and/or internal audio we experience would be the Ego’s initial translation into something memorable and communicable (hopefully!) From there comes words, so maybe that part (and the muttering aloud) is super-ego? I’d had to learn more about Freud’s theory to see if the analogy makes sense.
My other thought was that my muttering aloud sometimes when working is like talking to your car when driving, lol. 😝
Wow! Such an interesting post. I've never thought about this. I actually had to look up aphantasia to get a better understanding. When you prompted for visual thoughts, I noticed I had a vague picture in my head. It made me wonder what the symptoms are and suddenly I'm wondering if my difficulty drawing, and imagining, are challenged because of a degree of aphantasia. I've always worked in the middle grays of my world - interest in a lot of things, pretty good at things that entail a bit of detail, but always getting lost in the weeds. My art work feels stronger when I'm following a step by step guide. I wonder if aphantasia can be reversed, or improved, with practice? I've been practicing creating with fewer guidelines and expectations and am finding my ability to create increases. Is it like a muscle, or even memory? The more you do it, the better you get at it? Of course, recognizing the challenge would need to come first - Thanks for talking about it!
As a purely observation-based artist, I like to think the drawing ability improves as I add more entries to my "library of good lines". The brain is certainly not a muscle, but it is a living thing that benefits from tackling complex problems. Back when I was a researcher, we would observe the neuroplasticity of stroke patients' brains - i.e. the new neural connections their brain would make to circumvent the areas affected by the stroke. New paths to doing the same thing, new paths to doing things with a slightly altered pattern, and new connections between mind and body.
The podcast episode does touch upon degrees of aphantasia and anauralia. I am sure it is not a binary condition. And one of the people they speak to that suffers from anauralia is a musician!
I am 99% internal monologue and 1% coffee
Room for cream?
Sigh, back to the drawing board.
I think you may get some interesting ideas from the podcast episode!
Ugh, going to another room is the surefire way to forget what I wanted to do!
Hahaha!!!! You just made me feel a little bit more “normal” if there is such a thing!👍🏼😁❣️
Dangerous path to go down with a Syd Barrett mindset!