Nick Dearling

Last week, by chance, I listened to a program on the radio about aphantasia. To my enormous surprise I thought ‘this is me - this explains a lot’. I have always known that I think differently to most people. I took the test to confirm it and asked my wife what she saw when she imagined a horse. She could describe it in detail. I can not get over, that at the age of 75, I had no idea that people could actually imagine pictures. I have passed the information on to my son and daughter. My daughter is the same as me and my son slightly less so. The interesting thing is that all three of us have, or had in my case, very good jobs that rely on processing factual information, creativity and solving problems. It seems probable that our careers are successful due to this condition, so I see it as a great benefit. One thing that puzzles me at the moment is, as I cant imagine a face, how am I able to pass comments such as ‘He is looking older’. Could it be that the information is in my brain and available to use, but I can’t see it, only the result.