←back to thread

Some people can't see mental images

(www.newyorker.com)
183 points petalmind | 3 comments | 30 Oct 25 17:45 UTC | HN request time: 0.442s | source
Show context
happytoexplain ◴[30 Oct 25 18:27 UTC] No.45763396[source]▶
I have no real basis for this, but I always suspected that the majority of differences in ability to picture things is actually just a difference in semantics about terms like "visualizing", "picturing", etc. I don't think anybody is "literally" envisioning things, as in hallucination. On the other end, I don't think anybody is actually unable to "think of" what a thing looks like. But it's really difficult to objectively describe what it's like to picture something in your head - so difficult, in fact, that I can see some people calling it "literally summoning an image" and others calling it "not seeing anything at all", while both talking about the exact same thing.

Not that there isn't a difference in ability, just that it might not be as dramatic/binary as we seem to think.

replies(8): >>45763428 #>>45763442 #>>45763472 #>>45763523 #>>45763617 #>>45764388 #>>45765031 #>>45765320 #
1. godshatter ◴[30 Oct 25 18:31 UTC] No.45763472[source]▶
As a person with aphantasia, I can see actual images when I'm on the edge of sleep, and I can see actual images when I'm dreaming, but I can't get anything like that to show up when I try to "picture" something. Just black with static.

It is difficult to describe, but so many people talk about it as if they are seeing something and I never have - I've always assumed it was a figure of speech of some kind to visualize something.

replies(2): >>45763789 #>>45768672 #
2. AaronAPU ◴[30 Oct 25 18:51 UTC] No.45763789[source]▶
I can’t generally “literally see” my mental images. But on a few rare occasions in my life, I did. I don’t know why, and it was brief, but at least I can easily believe now that some people do it all the time.

When it happened to me the few times it was an otherwise very mundane day and it felt very natural. It was overlayed onto whatever else I was looking at and could persist with eyes closed.

Honestly the experience kind of cheapened art for me to an extent since you either have that cheat code or you don’t.

3. scuff3d ◴[31 Oct 25 05:18 UTC] No.45768672[source]▶
For me it's like I'm seeing a wire frame through mist. I get vague impressions of what the thing looks like, but can't "see" the thing.

My wife swears she might as well have a movie playing in her head. And was totally befuddled when I explained what I "see".