Aphantasia is the inability to create a mental image.
I’ve seen a lot of articles, within the last two years, about this, and a growing number of people talking publicly (on social media) about their experience with the ‘disease.
Exploring Aphantasia: The Mind Without a Mental Picture
— Neuroscience News (@NeuroscienceNew) March 27, 2024
Through a comprehensive review of 50 recent studies, it's become clear that aphantasia affects not just the visual domain but also influences autobiographical memory, facial recognition, and even one's capacity to imagine… pic.twitter.com/82oJRLq8q3
Can we just stop with mental disorders? When I was in the service, PTSD was a thing that only a few dudes got diagnosed with. That was around 2006-08. Then my peers started getting out of the service and transitioning to civilian life and more began to receive the diagnosis. Not to mention it was all over entertainment media; every crime procedural, every romance or drama T.V. show had a broken veteran episode or two, giving a ‘picture perfect’ example of what PTSD ‘looks like.’
Then, suddenly, everyone had PTSD, “it’s not just for soldiers,” would be a headline in the news: “PTSD is affecting people outside of the military. More at eleven!” That was 12 years ago. Now there is C-PTSD, or “compound post traumatic stress disorder.” You can pick these people, the civilians with this diagnosis, out of a line up; blue hair, overweight, nose ring, tech-neck, and usually a Star-Wars fan.
All of a sudden having a mental issue, or even an uncommon, rare, or newly-minted medical diagnosis, became a fad. CPTSD, PTSD, GAD, BP1, BP2, etc., they’re worn like Boy Scout badges. People carry pill bags around like rabbits’ feet or rosaries, like the pills protect them against the demons. It was, and probably still is (I don’t get out much these days for obvious reasons), cool to be broken.
And now we have aphantasia. “I literally can’t even imagine things,” congratulations, the NPC meme has become real. Couple aphantasia with the people with no inner monologue (apparently a staggering 30-50% don’t have it) (https://eccentricemmie.medium.com/only-30-50-of-people-have-an-internal-monologue-b75125ca5694), and you’ve got a real-life Skyrim NPC.
“How in the actual fuck is this occurring?”, I hear you ask. Well, I figure it’s probably one of two things; we’re either devolving as a species or the propaganda, endocrine disruptors, seed oils, microplastics, et al., are working on us just as planned.
Or, and stick with me here because this one isn’t believable, the affected are just making shit up. “Look at me guys, I’m so special I can’t even imagine things! I don’t even have a voice in my head!” There are probably ways to measure brain activity with EEG and what not. Hook one up to someone and tell them to imagine an apple and see what lights up, right? Unless the test subject, instead of thinking of an apple just doesn’t think of anything, tricking the test into creating data for a disorder. Or maybe these people really do exist.
The staggering part is that, according to the article, only 30-50% HAVE an inner monologue. So 50-70% of people (voters, teachers, workers) have an inner voice. I don’t know about you but my inner voice is where I find rationality, it’s where I figure out the morality of a given thing, its…it’s my inner monologue of experience, it’s what I draw upon for guidance. The inner monologue is literally a voice in your head that is composed of all of your recorded experiences and knowledge. How does an individual not have this? I’d venture to say that people with no inner monologue are barely human. The same goes with aphantasia. (The irony) Imagine not being able to imagine things or talk to yourself in your head. Can you? I can’t.
And these people are among us. VOTING. Good Lord. Honestly, I don’t know what is worse, that these people exist, or that there is a high degree of probability that these people are making it up for attention. There are people making up the fact that they are the most boring people on the planet, mentally, and that that somehow makes them SPECIAL. Worse still is that “scientists” are “investigating” it. Probably goobermint-funded scientists, funded with taxpayer money, to investigate something we already know- some people are absolutely brain-dead husks and shadows of humans, devoid of the Divine Spark of Life. I could go on about the religious, spiritual, and paranormal aspects of this, but it would be a novel. It probably already is a novel.
For fuck’s sake, not having an inner monologue is akin to NOT THINKING. And we’re expected to accept this, and that these people somehow got through school? How can you get through school without thinking? Without being able to create an image in your head?
This is either a giant hoax or a terrible genetic malfunction.
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