Aphantasia Is Not an Advantage in Long-Term Abuse: On the Trauma of Fleshbacks and the Myth of Coping and Defense Mechanisms

What if the core assumption about a non-visual mind and trauma is a catastrophic error? This thesis argues that it is. Challenging the prevailing consensus that aphantasia offers protection from the impact of trauma, this work establishes the concept of Panmodal Aphantasia—a total absence of simulated mental representation, including the inner voice (Anendophasia) and auditory recall (Anauralia). Through a longitudinal auto-phenomenological analysis of long-term abuse, it reveals that without the mind's representational buffers (the "Mind's Eye" and "Inner Voice"), trauma cannot be processed or distanced. Instead, it is concentrated entirely within the somatic system. Key theoretical contributions include: Fleshbacks: The body's relentless, non-representational replay of agony, distinct from visual flashbacks. Paraconsistent Facticity: The state of a conscious mind trapped as a helpless witness to its own physical suffering. The Law of Conservation of Traumatic Affect: A proposed principle demonstrating that trauma energy not processed representationally is conserved and compressed into somatic tissue. The body is not merely keeping the score; the body is the score. This is evidenced by clinical data on trauma-mediated conditions, including endometriosis and vestibulitis, presented within. This work concludes that Panmodal Aphantasia constitutes a state of structural vulnerability, demanding a paradigm shift in trauma theory and therapy.