Book Review: Aphantasia An Essay About Nothing

This book surprised me because I was made aware that other people don’t have my ability to generate pictures and movies in their head.

When asked to imagine a ball rolling off a table, not only can I tell you that the table was a checkerboard of light and dark oak wood but the ball was made of the light oak and I can also hear it roll off the table. I can even pick the ball up off the floor and put it back on the table.

The example where the author told his wife he didn’t have the ability to play Chess in his head like Beth Harmon was what caught my interest even more. It made me question how much of an unfair advantage I have in Chess just because I can plan ahead and move pieces in my mind while my opponent is choosing their move.

And much to my surprise, the author was able to enjoy computer programming with his “highly abstract, pictureless brain”. I would have guessed this to be impossible without mental images of bits in a memory grid that I use when doing C or Assembly programming.

And the larger questions reading this book brought to my mind are how common it is for people to not have the abilities I rely on. How might teachers of all subjects benefit from understanding people like Peter Armstrong with Aphantasia and others like me with Hyperphantasia. Clearly different styles for learning are required for people to reach their full power in a skill.

In the second half of the book, Peter also talks about the lack of an inner monologue. I also have an inner monologue and can have entire conversations in my head that are loud enough to drown out people around me. There might be a connection between mental images and mental sounds.

I appreciate Peter for explaining this neurodivergence in an easy to understand way. The examples were chosen very well despite being done without imagination!