“Behind a dark curtain”: The lived experiences of aphantasia

Aphantasia is the inability to generate visual imagery when awake. To date, research on aphantasia has mainly focused on its sensory and cognitive features. Recently, interest has turned towards emotional processing and mental health correlates, including a qualitative account of the mental healthcare experiences of aphantasic people. Still, a systematic presentation of what it is like to live with aphantasia is lacking. We gathered the data of 52 aphantasic adults (mean VVIQ [Vividness of Visual Imagery Questionnaire] score = 16.5, age range = 16 – 81, 14 women, 20 UK residents and 18 USA residents) from a larger sample of 6436 online survey respondents, and thematically analysed their answers to the survey’s open-ended items alongside additional unprompted testimonies provided via email. We identified 4 main themes: (1) Communicating and Understanding the “mind’s eye” in a world of visualisers; (2) The diverse experience of knowing without seeing and search for imagery; (3) The protective & disruptive ways that aphantasia shapes life and thoughts; (4) The search for meaning. The study draws on the voices and experiences of aphantasic people to explore the psychosocial correlates of aphantasia. We describe how the absence of mental imagery is not merely a perceptual variation, but a significant dimension of human difference with implications for clinical practice, education, creativity, and self-understanding.