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?
Many thanks Hope, I couldn't have put it better myself. My perception of others on the spectrum I've talked to would follow this line.
So why is part of the NAS website saying that it is difficult for people with autism to imagine things? It certainly isn't in most text books. There's no such hint in Attwood's Complete Guide, indeed the opposite.
It seems to crop up in clinical texts based around the Triad of Impairments, trying to read too much into that diagnostic. However Olga Bogdashina in "Sensory Perceptual Issues in Autism and Asperger Syndrome" p117-89 refers to classic studies arguing that high memory in inversely proportional to imagination.
What do other people on this forum think?
And please NAS, could you revisit that bit about adults anxiety being caused by lack of imagination.