I’ve been skimming some posts and article about aphantasia since learning about it, and I’ve mostly been curious about how it might or might not feed into the executive function issues that come with being actually-autistic. Art Kavanagh’s thoughts on executive function and motivation and productivity were sort of helpful.
Many reports on the condition include a common bit: the surprise by aphantasciacs that when people say they imagine or visualize things they aren’t being metaphorical or hyperbolic. This certainly matches how disconerting it was for me yesterday.
Weirdly, I found a post by an aphantasic sewer to be more interesting, especially as she relates things such as having developed a “style and colour scheme so that most of my clothes go together” to compensate for “not being able to visualise what clothes I already have in my wardrobe, how a new piece of clothing or style will go with everything else in my wardrobe”.
It has me wondering about the extent to which the various ways in which autistic rigidity and recipe-following happen might interweave with the aphantasia. Instructions and lists and recipes allow for people who can conceptualize but not visualize nonetheless to accomplish things.
I’m curious whether or not any other actually-autistic people also have aphantasia and whether or not they’ve examined how the two might interrelate, but so far I’m not getting much response.