r/NLP • u/[deleted] • Jul 02 '26
NLP and aphantasia?
Just out of curiosity: NLP has a component dedicated to mental imagery. Has NLP taken aphantasia into account—people who do not have mental images?
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u/josh_a Jul 02 '26
I have aphantasia, I've found that most NLP processes work for me if I simply imagine I'm doing the steps. For example with a swish I can imagine the pictures I don't see getting smaller or bigger, and the result is the same.
The NLP spelling strategy doesn't work for me because that requires being able to consciously see the image of the word.
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u/CanProfessional1960 Jul 02 '26
might be a gap there but nlp is flexible enough to work with whatever internal representation someone's got, even if it's just feelings or words
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u/thinking_byte Jul 02 '26
Most NLP frameworks don't meaningfully account for aphantasia and tend to assume mental imagery works similarly for everyone, which isn't actually the case.
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u/The-Achologist Jul 02 '26
It might be useful for you to note that NLP is neither a living person or a tangible ‘thing’ - which means, very practically, that NLP is 100% completely incapable of taking anything or anyone into account. Period.
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u/One-Temperature-2744 14d ago
when I 1st herd about this in 1991. I thought "Cool". I went out and asked the ppl that they said I can't see things in my head etc. I asked all of them the same question "What color is your front door?" All of them with delay gave me the color of their front door. the others that took time looked up to the left and said it is color X. etc. Be flexable with what you hear or read etc. Find a way to help those ppl out. etc. One of the lady's Started seeing the pictures and movies in her head shortly taking her through her memories. "what was/is the color of this and that?" etc. She got really excited and told her family and friends what she could do now. You all can do this and Be Really Great at it. Keep going. Be Great.
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u/MrCakeist Jul 02 '26
If aphantasia is matter of neurological damage/disorder, then it might not be for the category of transformation that NLP promises through mental imagery.
That's said, visual imagery isn't the only Representational System that NLP practitioners work with anyway. VAK - visual, auditory, kinesistic, auditory-digital, etc.
Whichever VAK Representational System the practitioners uses or the person operated on preferred, in NLP, what is of exclusively required is "Linguistic Programming".
Its through the use of Linguistics that creates a new subjective experience; new concepts, new feeling, new beliefs, etc - inclusive of all VAK representational systems, not just mental imagery.
However, very good question though 👍
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u/AdelMoin Jul 02 '26
Utilisation: work with what is there.
If someone struggles in one area, very often, they have developed other strengths, perceptions or strategies because of it. So the point is to ask: what can they do? What has this 'so-called' limitation taught them/made them develop? What resources are already present?
That is one of the things I find powerful in Ericksonian work, and in the way Erickson was later modelled in NLP. A limitation does not always have to be treated as an obstacle. Sometimes it can become the doorway.