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Synesthesia

Mon Jun 15, 2009, 9:35 PM
Apparently I have synesthesia, meaning that there's a bit of a mix up between my senses. In my case, it's grapheme -> colour synesthesia, so that letters and numbers trigger colours, as well as ordinal linguistic personification, where numbers, letters, days, and months are associated with personalities, to the point of seeming like people. Numbers are stronger for me than letters - some letters are tricky. N switches from orange to purple depending on the surroundings, and G switches from green to purple. I also have colour -> touch, about which I can find no information except for a brief mention in a list of synesthetic types - but it means that different colours feel different to me, and also skew my perception of the feel of an object. For example, I've been known to pet colour swatches, and they feel like their respective colours, not like the same, shiny material which I know, logically, that they are.

I'd known about synesthesia for a while, but only in terms of sounds -> colours and names -> tastes, not like this. I think that either of those would be a more interesting kind than this, but it's certainly still nice. I looked into it further after a discussion with my mom that started with me commenting on how it was too hot, then acknowledging that it was probably just because of the mustard colour in the room, which felt sticky and warm. That led into the realisation that she didn't feel colours, her random announcement of "five" (she does things like that when she doesn't know what else to say), me saying "is orange, and has nothing to do with this," and her deciding I was insane. Somewhere in there I referred to five as "he" instead of "it," and she thought I was schizophrenic. To prove her wrong, I googled around for colours and numbers and eventually found synesthesia. Since then, I've taken an online battery and scored positively for grapheme -> colour.

Also of interest, it's been discovered that the majority of the population has very mild synesthetic associations. For example, if you are shown two shapes - one pointed all over, like a star, one rounded like an amoeba - and you are asked to name one Kiki and one Bouba, what do you choose? It's amazing how many people agree on it - 95-98%.

  • Mood: Optimism
  • Listening to: Tapping fingers.
  • Reading: Book of the Dead by Preston and Child.
  • Watching: Letters.

Devious Comments

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:iconbrat-innocenty:
Heh, this kind of association is actually quite natural- the shapes of the repeating letters and objects are very similar, not to mention the sharpness/ softness of the vowels and consonants :) I'm not even sure if calling it mild synesthetic associations isn't going a bit too far :aww:
As a side note, glad to hear you'd managed to persuade your mom ^__^ It was one dangerous conclusion she was jumping to!
Also, your journal reminded me of something I've read recently- I'm not sure if you've heard of Solomon Shereshevski, but given he seemed to have a similar way of perception to yours, I thought his story might be interesting to you! :D

--
You don't believe in it? It's OK. What really matters is that it believes in you :)

It's good to have a sharp mind, but the real trick is to know how to keep it sheathed
:iconvfirefalcon:
Hmm... I remember reading a BBC article which called those associations mildly synesthetic, and that those associations, found in the majority of people, can therefore lead to the conclusion that most people are to some extent synesthetes. I think that's where I got that phrase from. Though I agree that associations are different from synesthesia.

I hadn't heard of him, but the article was very interesting. I always like to hear about what other people hear, see, feel, or otherwise sense with their synesthesia. Especially with how contradictory they are with my own ideas - instead of a fat woman, 8's a fairly respectable, if boring, man, very English. And dark, dark blue.

--
If you expect the unexpected, and the unexpected becomes the expected, then you can no longer expect the unexpected because there is no more unexpected to expect, and then you are not expecting the unexpected, so the whole thing is pointless.
:iconbrat-innocenty:
Well, Shershevski lived in the USSR for most of his (documented) life, so I guess it makes sense his associations would be far different from yours :) I'm not even sure if he had a good, close image of a typically English person to build his images on! :aww:
I brought up this article, though, more because of his incredible memory :nod: Since you're a synesthete yourself, I thought it might be nice to mention some possible pros or up- sides of it- it's for sure he wouldn't be able to develop a perfect recall like that without synesthetis :D

--
You don't believe in it? It's OK. What really matters is that it believes in you :)

It's good to have a sharp mind, but the real trick is to know how to keep it sheathed
:iconkuromu:
I associate days of the week with colours, number, genders - my sister does it too, but that because we have Aspergers.
:iconvfirefalcon:
Interesting... I didn't realise the two were related.

--
If you expect the unexpected, and the unexpected becomes the expected, then you can no longer expect the unexpected because there is no more unexpected to expect, and then you are not expecting the unexpected, so the whole thing is pointless.
:iconkuromu:
I think finding irrelevant references to deal/cope with certain elements of life that people dislike it quite a strong trait in autism. xD

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