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Imagination

loneaspie

loneaspie

Active Member
I have no clue where to place this thread! But on most NTs’ criteria, people with autism are generally said to be without imagination. Just from personal experience, I don’t think this is true. When I write or read science fiction, I can see characters and imagery almost as quickly as I can read — like a movie being played inside my head, and if it’s good enough, with music. And I can visualize anything like a VR set with 3D capability from a real or yet-to-be object or virtual engine, or a fictional world. Maybe it’s me, or maybe the “no imagination” generalization may just be wrong. I seem to believe that some of us have more imagination than what others (mainly typicals) may think.

How do you see imagination personally? And also... is there any scientific proof that autistics do have imagination?
 
loneaspie said:
I have no clue where to place this thread! But on most NTs’ criteria, people with autism are generally said to be without imagination. Just from personal experience, I don’t think this is true. When I write or read science fiction, I can see characters and imagery almost as quickly as I can read — like a movie being played inside my head, and if it’s good enough, with music. And I can visualize anything like a VR set with 3D capability from a real or yet-to-be object or virtual engine, or a fictional world. Maybe it’s me, or maybe the “no imagination” generalization may just be wrong. I seem to believe that some of us have more imagination than what others (mainly typicals) may think.

How do you see imagination personally? And also... is there any scientific proof that autistics do have imagination?
Click to expand...
I see it as a tool to help me destress,mainly when I'm colouring an image ,I think ,what Neuro typical's mean is ,we do not communicate and so they pervert that ,into a lack of imagination!
 
As a child, from what I have read, I played with toys "wrong". Barbie didn't have conversations with other dolls and that sorta thing. This seems to be where NTs get the idea of lack of imagination. Anyone who has seen my paintings knows if nothing else I have plenty of imagination, and a very peculiar one at that. Reading the threads on this forum shows how much imagination autistics have, just as much as an NTs. We just seem to have different priorities. And maybe we know how silly it is to have Barbie chat with other dolls.
 
I've always loved and then eventually taught physics. It was almost intuitive, mostly because I have an exceptional imagination. I can readily create and manipulate models in my head. I have also used plenty of creative visualisation in my complex PTSD recovery journey... I remember a psychologist suggesting I had Alexithymia, which also has a lacking imagination symptom on top of the emotional aspects, but I didn't agree. LOL She said that I was being difficult...
 
I believe I think in mostly pictures.

Words I read are creating images, much like animation or a film, in my minds eye.

I can’t always tell what’s going to happen when reading fiction though.

I speed-read.
A well written, fast paced book is a joy.
A book with too much description is hard work to keep the ‘film’ running in my mind.
(Have to keep pausing to make sure I’ve included everything the writer details or describes with an action, scene or character in my ‘film’)

Can I make stories up?
Not really. Not by myself.

Do I lack imagination?
I’m going to have to say for the most part, yes.
 
I don't think that aspies lack imagination. I've always been told that I have a rather vivid if non-conventional one. I think this is where it stems from. Different way of thinking, working on problems, imagining things.
 
I have stopped taking NTs seriously when they say stuff about us. Most of it is projection, and the rest is them wanting to believe they are are telepathic.

When they describe the "right" way of playing with dolls, they just describe copying the interactions we witness and pretending the dolls have them. What's imaginative about that?

As for literal imagination, mine is far too vivid. I can imagine things in great detail, as though I am really seeing them. That's pretty much why I stay away from the horror genre in books.

There is a theory (that I picked up from an Einstein quote) that the reason we sometimes speak late is that we think in pictures, not in words. Yes, you can say "we can't know for sure that Einstein was autistic", but I'd like to hear your argument that he was neurotypical. Because that one, I have been unable to imagine.
 
I have a good imagination but it's limited. I'm not good at coming up with stories to write for example.

When I see a movie version of a book I read, I realize I pictured things in a much simpler or incomplete way.

I'm good at daydreaming through.
 
I very definitely don't see pictures in my mind, but then I'm self-diagnosed with Aphantasia - essentially, the inability to picture things in my head.

There's a test for it here:
http://www.bbc.com/news/health-34039054

I can recall in grade 2, we were doing exercises where the teacher told us to close our eyes and picture such and such, and getting frustrated that I couldn't "see" what I was supposed to be picturing. Then, eventually, I decided that when the teacher told us to "picture" something, she actually meant that we should imagine it, that actually seeing it in our mind wasn't what she meant. And I went on thinking that "picturing" something had nothing to do with seeing it in my mind until last year.

Then last year I did this test, and didn't really understand what the questions meant. The questions are asking how clearly I can see something when I picture it. I can imagine something, but how can I describe how clearly I see what I'm imagining?

Anyway, I blundered through the test, basically answering the questions randomly and got an average score. But then, after doing further reading, I found out that sometime people with Aphantasia do see pictures in their mind, they just can't do it at will. And I can recall that sometimes I have, in fact, involuntarily seen real pictures in my mind, but never voluntarily. When I imagine something, or close my eyes and try to "picture" something, I'm not actually seeing any pictures in my mind at all.

So then I took the test again, taking the questions much more literally, actually trying to see images in my mind. And I score 8/40, the lowest possible score, very much consistent with having Aphantasia.


That said, despite being both officially diagnosed with ASD and self-diagnosed with Aphantasia, I do consider myself to have an imagination.Given the right conditions, I'm perfectly capable of coming up with very entertaining stories or performing other imaginative activities.
 
I have a very vivid imagination, but a pretty unconventional one. When I was small, I wasn’t always good at playing with other kids, because I didn’t like their fantasies. I got along great with subservient kids that didn’t mind playing along with my story though.
 
I can picture things in my mind - if someone says the word 'dog', a picture of a dog does come to mind, but not an imaginary dog - it's a specific dog, my dog. I have an imagination, but not a lot of creativity. I can draw quite well and acurately when copying, or manipulate images in my mind of items which are real, but I can't create my own. I'm not good at creative writing/making up stories, either.

I'm not good at abstract or emotional thinking either. Good at reading and understanding scientific texts with plenty of illustrations, but hopeless with poetry. This is one of the reasons why I often don't understand jokes and humour.
 
loneaspie said:
I have no clue where to place this thread! But on most NTs’ criteria, people with autism are generally said to be without imagination. Just from personal experience, I don’t think this is true. When I write or read science fiction, I can see characters and imagery almost as quickly as I can read — like a movie being played inside my head, and if it’s good enough, with music. And I can visualize anything like a VR set with 3D capability from a real or yet-to-be object or virtual engine, or a fictional world. Maybe it’s me, or maybe the “no imagination” generalization may just be wrong. I seem to believe that some of us have more imagination than what others (mainly typicals) may think.

How do you see imagination personally? And also... is there any scientific proof that autistics do have imagination?
Click to expand...

I am not sure where you got that information. People on the autism spectrum often are know to have high imagination. They can think in pictures, and often come up with brilliant solutions where no one else could. People with autism can be brilliant problem solvers, and for that require high imagination.
 
I think the "no imagination" stereotype may be based on the
theory of mind concept. Reduced inability to consider what
another person is thinking, even to the degree that one
supposes one's own thoughts must be what others
think themselves.

Theory of mind - Wikipedia
 
tree said:
I think the "no imagination" stereotype may be based on the
theory of mind concept. Reduced inability to consider what
another person is thinking, even to the degree that one
supposes one's own thoughts must be what others
think themselves.

Theory of mind - Wikipedia
Click to expand...


Had no knowledge of this! Thanks for the link!

Oooh, it’s very deep and hard to read this morning...especially since I have a migraine.
 
I have a big imagination and I can see things clearly in my head. This is why I enjoy writing fiction and have a particular interest in sci fi and fantasy. I imagine situations pretty much constantly. My “scripts” are formed in my imagination. I had an imaginary friend right up until year 8 (12 years of age) although I realised they weren’t real, it was kind of a coping mechanism for me.

I just read that autistic girls appear to have a big imagination. It was apparently in a study by Honeybourne. I tried to look it up to find out what they meant by “appear” but I can’t find it.
 
I am not really sure what 'imagination' is, so I can't tell with any certainty if I have it or I don't.

If it is the ability to see pictures in my head, then I have it because I can see pictures in my head, but I can only see pictures of what I already have seen. I can't make pictures of anything unknown to me, and when I have tried, I end up with just blankness.

In the past I have tried to write, but I can't make up characters or plot-lines or dialogue, so at best I have had to use actual people and real experiences. I can't create anything new, just reuse known things.

When I was a child, we had no TV, just a radio, and I would listen to plays and the like. I could hear the story being told, but the only time I could 'see' anything is if the sound effects were familiar enough that I could make a picture of what I'd experienced at some point. When I read a book, I don't see any images at all unless the words remind me of something I have already known.

Until recently, I thought this was very common, or even universal.
 
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