“Personally, I have often dismissed speculation about what causes narcissism (an abusive childhood, neglect, drug addiction, etc.) simply because I felt that there was no excuse EVER for such atrocious behavior.”

1) Recent research has shown that individuals with aphantasia do not differ on general levels of empathy.

2) Research indicates that grandiose narcissism is associated with extraversion on the Five Factor Model (FFM) of personality. Additionally, vulnerable narcissists are associated with higher levels of emotionality. In contrast, aphantasia is associated with higher levels of introversion.

The shoe does not fit.

We can agree to disagree. Thank you for writing….

Hi Alex, Emotion and relationships do not rely on mental imagery and it shows a lack of imagination to assume that they do. REALLY? EMOTIONS have almost everything to do with mental imagery and particularly with MEMORIES. Would you have an emotional reaction to a blank screen? When you THINK, you are conjuring up imagery 24/7. And RELATIONSHIPS have a very emotional dynamic or else why would we have them? If you can’t grasp that, then I suggest that it is you who lacks an understanding of emotions and relationships and you may want to check that. To say that emotions and relationships do not rely on mental imagery might be giving yourself away. And I actually DID do a deep dive into the topic of Aphantasia, reading as much as I possibly find of first-hand experiences AND I also discussed it with a relative who is a psychologist and who had, unbeknownst to me, already considered a possible connection to certain personality disorders. I notice in your post that you do not even MENTION the word narcissism WHICH WAS THE POINT OF MY ARTICLE and the QUESTION about the connection because bells certainly started ringing the deeper I dove.

I would say that you have got it right. If more of us asked a possible narc to visualize something, we’d be shocked with the response. This is all about out of sight, out of mind. Now I am not saying (because people like to jump on me for it) that this pertains to ALL narcs but I do believe it’s a big part of it. It actually DOES make it ALL make sense if it were indeed true.

I wondered why so may “words” visible and if it was related to “object constancy”. Appears it was. Sad to say. Hard to understand that.

It’s fine to come up with a theory, but irresponsible to suggest it’s true before thoroughly investigating it. To publish such a theory, you should at a minimum first do a deep dive into the research that’s already been done and speak with those familiar with the condition (both those with it and the practitioners who study it). If you had done that, you would have dropped your theory before you posted this.

As someone with aphantasia, the notion that we do not “particularly feel any emotions for those that are not within their eyeshot” is alien to my experience and everyone I know with the condition. Emotion and relationships do not rely on mental imagery and it shows a lack of imagination to assume that they do.

Not sure about your reasoning. I mean, didn’t psychologists think that homosexuality was a disorder? Why this knee-jerk reaction? It makes some sense after all. Out of sight, out of mind is a common saying. Maybe that saying was because the creator of that phrase met an aphantasia individual

Could it be that a person who has this condition maybe more predisposed towards a certain cluster of personality disorders? Just like the mad artist trope?
In addition, isn’t it the case that brain injuries have caused changes in personality? Our brains are what we are. If I damage one part – say memories – can’t I change a person? It’s just rewiring those pesky neurons. Or I could use drugs to play with their minds.

Now, I don’t think we should demonize or stereotype people with this condition. But perhaps, a certain cluster of conditions should be considered risk factors. Say… what if you met a person who had been sexually abused, neglectful or abusive parents, deprived childhood (say poverty)….where do you think that person will be when they are 18? We both know the chances this person will exhibit healthy behavior is close to nil.

I think we should be very very careful when dismissing conditions or normalizing them in our rush to feel safe. We know that other people are dangerous. We know that the world isn’t safe. But we see that people do react differently. we have morons who think that covid19 is a hoax because they don’t see it OR worse, they think that if it hurts blacks more or liberals more, it’s a good thing. Is that learned behavior or is there something innate within this group that cannot handle reality to put it bluntly. I mean, what is up with the Q freaks with this lizards and pizza basement child abuse or some strange global conspiracy? Because if it is learned behavior, we have a chance at fixing it with therapy. If it is innate, we have a chance of identifying and minimizing the harm to others. (Personally, based on how fat these proponents are and the lack of burial sites for these mass child murders… the only reasonable conclusion is that the fat Q freaks EAT children. Or… they’re crazy. I mean, any reasonable person would have asked about evidence and proof rather than breathlessly religiously believing this unrealistic lie.)

I think that the people who work in psychology do a great disservice by pretending that everything is hunky dory.

I blame your field for a lot of problems in this world. In your rush to normalize, you institutionalize your biases. For example, why is religious belief carved out from your assessment of delusions? Why is this magic considered acceptable but when somebody says “Oh, I’m Santa”, you’ll think in your head “There’s something wrong with that person”? Don’t you think that your profession should do some serious study into how religious beliefs can have a detrimental effect on the individual and the society. We have morons who think that fetus’ are real people but that women aren’t real people. Something is wrong with them that they can so easily dehumanize women. Religion teaches humans how to be inhuman.

Likewise, here you have this rush to protect the aphantasia ridden individual but all you do is say “How dare you? “” You didn’t bother to engage with this person’s hypothesis. You just shut her down. She’s not dehumanizing these people. She’s processing her experiences and making conclusions. Maybe you should design a study and see if people with aphantasia can have successful healthy relationships? I’d be very curious to see the results.

I always suspected my husband was a narcissist, and reading this blog has just blown my mind. Every single thing you write I recognize. Every thing I thought about what he thought (of only himself and what benefitted him!) is spot on. It makes me angry because he completely tricked me into marrying him. I had no idea who he really was until the mask slipped. It’s hugely comforting to read that other people have been through this, albeit awful and saddening at the same time.

Thank you!

Thank you for writing and clearly you are one of the many in this world right now who can not STAND hearing the opinions or even observations of anyone who doesn’t run with the OFFICIAL narrative. I have an adult son (32 years of age) who was diagnosed with child-onset schizophrenia at the age of ten so, based on our journey together, I am very well aware of all that consists with such illnesses. With all due respect, you will never convince me that a mental illness such as schizophrenia (which actually renders a person BRAIN handicapped) and PERSONALITY DISORDERS such as Aphantasia or NPD are on the same spectrum. Academia loves to combine the two so that they can generalize (and undermine) an entire demographic and it is wrong. In my article, I linked to the video documentary about Aphantasia that I watched that gave me pause. In the video, the people interviewed were discussing how they have no feelings whatsoever when they, say, break up with someone or if someone close to them dies UNLESS they are in the presence of that person or situation. THIS is the “symptom” of Aphantasia that caught my attention because of the “out of sight, out of mind” tendency of a narcissist that is so pervasive throughout their relationships and mind-boggling to the victims that become involved with these people. This similarity is too important to ignore. And, as you should know, the people interviewed did not consider themselves to be “brain handicapped” in any way and I would have to agree. This disorder does not render them “handicapped” by their own account so perhaps they might take offense to YOU referring to them as such. I, in fact, did no such thing nor did I bash anyone at any time. I was simply making an observation NOT that people with Aphantasia could be narcissists but that there seemed, to me, to be a possibility that SOME narcissists could have undiagnosed Aphantasia and THIS would explain why they (the narcissist) can not maintain attachments to people, places or things. For a personalized look at my opinion (if you can stand it), perhaps you could watch my YouTube video that went with this article.

I have to say that, for someone who boasts an MA in Clinical Psychology, your comment comes across as rather trollish and accusatory for no reason at all. Having said that, I will give you the benefit of the doubt based on the word “Clinical” in your title alone. I have found, through my research about narcissism, that those who base THEIR opinions solely on “clinical” findings will never be able to see the forest for the trees OR the greater picture and, in fact, do a great disservice to those clients they attempt to help. By definition, anything “clinical” can have NO HEART because it is based only on unemotional surface findings. In a classroom setting, this may be appropriate but in a real world situation, it has no place and will most often fail. This is why clinicians will always lump mental illnesses and personality DISORDERS in the same category and it is a damn shame. However, it is what it is and, therefore, we will have to agree to disagree. Thank you again for writing….

Hi Anton, where are the studies? I didn’t find anything that even mentioned a connection or no connection. I was simply making an observation based on a documentary and I still believe that the similarities are too much to ignore. I don’t care if I am the only one saying it…people barely speak of Aphantasia at all as it is let alone compare it to NPD. The thought has to start somewhere. I linked to a video in my article and maybe you should watch it. The people being interviewed clearly described their lack of feeling about much of anything EXCEPT when they were right there in the presence of the person or situation. Otherwise, they could break up with someone and not even care. A family member could die and they wouldn’t feel sad. I state in the article that, while I wasn’t saying these people were narcs, the “out of sight, out of mind” tendency of the narc and that lack of feeling which was stated by the persons with Aphantasia in the video were shockingly similar. It is what it is.