My dad has always been a very talented artist, brimming with imagination, creating sculptures, jewelry, and paintings even as he enters the second half of his eighties. As child, he survived the holocaust; he starved; he lost family and friends in WWII and in the Cold War that followed; and he is a refugee. He now has dementia. His art started changing some years back, perhaps one of the early symptoms of his failing mind. My dad’s older brother was also very creative and artistically gifted, even as he pursued science as opposed to art as his professional career. My uncle too succumbed to dementia some years back. So I’ve been cogitating on imagination and dementia. In particular, I’m thinking a lot about the wast diversity of cognitive differences that make up humanity. Do these cognitive differences manifest different dementia symptoms? How can they not, right? Aphantasia is inability to “see” images in one’s mind’s eye. 1% of the population has this condition. While those of us who don’t have it might be shocked by such lack of ability, there are some advantages: it’s easier to move on from loss and trauma. People with aphantasia are less prone to PTSD…
