lack of imagination?

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i read that the difficulty in empathy for aspies is because of a lack of imagination. this seems strange to me. is that a rule, a norm, or totally off? if you're dx'd, do you have an imagination?

Yes I have an imagination. I can make up stories and write them. I also fantasize about my life, and I did pretend play growing up.

I have the greatest imagination of all people I know.

I have an imagination, but I like to put it as a Blind persons imagination, in that I don't see things in my head but I can conceive of them. If that makes sense.

I have imagination in excess. I visualize darn near everything- words into pictures.

I'm diagnosed, and I have an imagination (albeit one that is highly derivative of things I've seen/heard/read).

I have too much of one, the things I write...is just sometimes too weird for even me to understand
my mind is always going, thinking about something strange I can record...

I've found that "lack of imagination" seems to be more a code phrase or misunderstanding that really means "likes to experience the same thing over and over". Such as:

"You have been listening to that same song over and over for the last 3 hours straight. Why not listen to something else?"

"Because I really like this song."

"You have no imagination."


Then there is the whole ASC/NT gulf where the problems with empathy are chalked up wholly to a lack of imagination on the part of the autistic person. EDIT: When really it can be very tough to imagine what the other side is like, from both ways.


P.S. It might also have some roots in the DSM-IV diagnosis text, which lists a lack of "imaginative play" as one potential diagnosis criteria.

ok! i didn't think that sounded right... i was pretty confused there. maybe it's just referring to an empathetic imagination specifically, in being able to imagine how others are feeling? or maybe that site's just trash.
thanks!

I have a very healthy imagination. In fact, most people i see on this forum seem to be more imaginative than most NT's I know. I think that's a flaw in the diagnosis. My mom also said, as a Guidance Counselor, that it's very normal to see a person good at math also be very creative and artistic.

I also think the empathy one isn't exactly right either because every Aspie I meet seems to have the most sincere intentions, and when they want to help people, they really seem to feel their pain better than most people I see. They may not understand it as well, but that doesn't mean they don't feel it.

We supposedly lack 'social imagination'. Don't confuse that with creativity and other forms of imaginitive thinking.

I can make up social situations in my mind but they are not real. I can decide how to make the other perosn feel and how to make them react and decide how they treat others, etc.

I have a very good and, in fact, often over active, imagination.

I think "lack of imagination" is a very misleading phrase. Clearly, many Aspies have amazing imagination, easily imaging things in completely different ways than the rest of the world does, and contributing some of mankind's greatest inventions.

What most AS seem unable to do, however, is move off a script of their own making, to experience and follow one of someone else's making. Once on a path, they often lock firmly onto it. Think of movie directors that the press have referred to as "tone deaf" towards criticism of their art. Or inventors who spark the great ideas, but can't run with them for want of a needed adaptation that they refuse to accept (why Bill Gates got rich but it all really was someone's idea to start with). Or why if plan A and plan B don't work out then you may as well give up, because you can't on the spot think up plan C. I guess all that is still appropriately called "imagination," but it is a very different kind of imagination than what creates amazing stories and invents new ideas. Maybe a better term would be adaptive imagination?

I have an acute imagination. Not easily accessed by others.