For decades, aphantasia—the inability to generate voluntary mental imagery—has been framed in two ways. It’s seen as a congenital trait, a neurological variation you’re simply born with. Or it’s acquired, lost after a brain injury or trauma. Both views see it as a state of the hardware: either it was born that way, or it was damaged.
My new research paper, “The Zero Point of Narcissism,” introduces a radical third possibility. It proposes that for a specific subset of people, panmodal aphantasia (the absence of imagery across all senses) is neither innate nor a loss. It is a developmental signature. It is the brain’s autograph, permanently etched by a specific, missing experience in the first years of life: the complete absence of social-emotional mirroring.
This is not a theory of damage. It is a theory of alternative construction.
The Missing Calibration Signal
Think of the infant brain not as a pre-programmed computer, but as a supremely sophisticated system waiting for calibration data. According to mainstream developmental theory, the primary calibration signal is social-emotional mirroring. The caregiver’s attuned gaze, voice, and touch do more than soothe; they provide a live, interactive feedback loop. This loop teaches the brain to connect internal feeling states with external reflection. It is, the paper argues, the fundamental data stream required to build the neural circuits for internal representation—for creating a mind’s eye, a mind’s ear, a mind’s touch.
But what if that signal is never sent?
Amirroring: The State of Null Input
The paper defines Amirroring as the absolute, radical absence of this reflective input during the critical prenatal-to-age-two window. This is not about bad or distorted mirroring. It is about zero. The caregiver, due to a profound and enduring perceptual solipsism, does not provide contingent emotional reflection. The infant is cared for, perhaps, but is not seen as a psychological other.
In this environment, the core calibration signal for building internal simulation is missing. The paper posits a direct, sensory-specific mapping:
No attuned visual gaze? The neural blueprint for endogenous visual imagery fails to instantiate.
No contingent vocalization/naming? The foundation for auditory imagery and rich inner speech isn’t laid.
No affective touch? The mapping for somatic-proprioceptive simulation remains underdeveloped.
When this null input spans all sensory channels, the result is Panmodal Aphantasia. The brain, deprived of the specific relational data it expected to build with, stabilizes in a different configuration. It becomes optimized for direct processing of reality, not for simulating it internally.
The Autograph: Not a Scar, but a Structure
This is why “The Brain’s Autograph” is such a crucial metaphor. An autograph is not a wound or a mistake. It is a mark of origin, a testament to the conditions of its creation.
Seeing panmodal aphantasia as a developmental signature reframes it entirely. It is not a deficit in a “normal” mind. It is the neurocognitive correlate of a coherent, self-organized (autopoietic) consciousness that developed along a different pathway—the Amirrored pathway.
The “autograph” is the lasting evidence of a mind that constructed itself from the ambient data of the physical and social world, rather than from the intimate, reflective data of a mirrored relationship. Its structure—direct, un-buffered, logic-based, and simulation-poor—is the direct imprint of those founding conditions.
Why This Changes Everything
This reframing has profound implications:
For Research: It challenges the congenital/acquired binary in aphantasia studies and demands we ask a new question: “Could this absence be the result of development that never began, due to a missing psychosocial catalyst?”
For Identity: For individuals with panmodal aphantasia who feel estranged from narratives of trauma or innate difference, it offers a new origin story—one of coherent, alternative genesis.
For Clinical Practice: It serves as a warning. Treating this autograph as a symptom to be fixed (e.g., through imagery-based therapy) is a fundamental category error. It is an attempt to overwrite the brain’s signature, which is not only futile but potentially harmful.
The brain’s autograph is the physical proof of a different kind of mind. It asks us to expand our understanding of human development beyond the universal axiom of the mirror. To download and explore the full evidence for this claim, you can read the complete paper:
Download the Full Paper: The Zero Point of Narcissism: On the Conditional Nature of Panmodal Aphantasia as an Autopoietic Outcome of Amirroring
Available on: Zenodo | Academia.edu
This is more than a finding. It’s an invitation to recognize a different form of human being.
I am Cristina Gherghel, an independent researcher and author of numerous blogs and books dedicated to human behavior, trauma, abuse, psychology, and mental health.
- Panmodal aphantasia
- Asensoria
- Avalidia
- Atelosia
- Analytheia
- Altrudynia
- OMES (Ontological Metabolic Exhaustion Syndrome)
- Anauralia
- Anendophasia
- Anhedonia
- Asexuality
- C-PTSD (Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder)
- And others
The conditions described are insufficiently understood in the specialized literature. Current explanations for their causes are often inconsistent with how they manifest in lived reality.
This is why I am developing my own model, based on observation and comparative research, which analyzes the differences and overlaps among these neurodivergent conditions and their connection to early trauma, ontological abuse, and subtle forms of self-instrumentalization.
This article is part of a broader ongoing effort to clearly differentiate between these conditions — not only as clinical definitions but as lived experiences with a profound impact on thought processes, relationships, perception, and identity construction.
Thank you for reading and supporting for my work.
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Dive Deeper into the Research
My full research papers and thesis can be found on all scholar platforms, for example:
- Aphantasia Is Not an Advantage in Long-Term Abuse: On the Trauma of Fleshbacks and the Myth of Coping and Defense Mechanisms is available to read for free on Zenodo. It presents the complete argument, evidence, and theoretical framework.
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17692334
Related Blogs
For complementary insights and further reading:
🔹 Neurodivergent as It Is — Exploring Neurological Realities Without Reductionism in Romanian
🔹 Cristina Gherghel Research —Panthropic Abuse and Ontological TraumaJoin the Journey
My research is ongoing. I share regular insights, updates, and deeper dives on my Substack. Subscribe to follow the journey as the work evolves.
https://cristinagherghel.substack.com/
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