Published on 12, July, 2020
Do we really lack imagination?
I see this so often in the literature
Looking at the web pages on "understanding behaviour" - "Anxiety in adults....." it says "To understand emotion you need imagination. One of the areas of difficulty for people with autism is not being able to imagine things"
But further on, under psychological signs, it has "thinking constantly about the worst outcome". How do we do this without an imagination?
It it more about type of imagination? Or too much imagination making subtle imagination harder?
I think that people with asperger's simply have a different type of imagination, rather than having a straightforward deficit in this area. I certainly lack the ability to intuitively know what someone may be feeling and to put myself in someone else's shoes, which is why I struggle to understand fiction and subtle innuendo. However, I see the world in a different way to other people: I do not think that I am so hemmed in by convention and the status quo, and I find that many neuro-typicals actually lack imagination themselves. For example, many people hold very bigoted views about minority groups and have certain prejudices. Because I know what it is like to be excluded and discriminated against, I can identify easily with other minority groups and I always see the individual behind the category.