Living with Aphantasia
Practical strategies, career success, and the surprising advantages
Aphantasia is not a limitation – it's a different way of thinking. Many successful people in creative and analytical fields have aphantasia. Here you'll learn how they navigate daily life and what advantages they experience.
Daily Life Strategies
Instead of creating images, aphantasics describe things verbally in their head. This works just as effectively – just differently.
Notes, lists, and photos as external memory. This is not a weakness but an effective strategy.
Thinking abstractly and fact-based instead of visually. In many areas, this is actually an advantage.
Aphantasia is no barrier to success – even in 'visual' professions. Ed Catmull, co-founder of Pixar, has aphantasia. He emphasizes: visualization and creativity are not the same thing.
- Ed Catmull – Co-founder of Pixar, computer graphics pioneer
- Blake Ross – Co-developer of Firefox
- Glen Keane – Disney animator (The Little Mermaid, Tarzan)
Explaining aphantasia can enrich relationships. Partners understand why you remember differently: less 'I can still see it clearly', more 'I know it was like that'. This is not less real – just different.
- Less susceptible to traumatic flashbacks and intrusive images
- Objective, fact-based thinking without emotional 'image distortion'
- Less distraction from daydreams and unwanted imagery