Lack of creativity/imagination?

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I've always been very creative and imaginative. I see things in my mind very vividly, be they stories, characters, the end results of craft projects, or even whole worlds. Sometimes, not always, I hear music and such along with some of this. I try to the best of my ability to translate those things I imagine into real form. I usually succeed to some degree.

However, the same kinds of people and the same situations keep popping up in the stories I create. I wonder how much of that is a lack of imagination, though, and how much of it is some underlying thing about me trying to work itself out through fiction.

Also, when I was younger, I used to draw cats constantly. I was obsessed with cats, and always drew them in the same position, with only slight variations of marking. I didn't really have stories for them, I just wanted to draw them because I needed something to occupy myself during class when everyone else was still struggling with week-old material. However, this was at the same time that me and someone else (also with Asperger's) were creating an entire world of characters, so it might've been that there was no lack there, either, just it was not manifested in visual form.

I consider myself to be artistically imaginative and creative...but art is subjective so others might not agree.

As others have pointed out, it's not included in the most commonly used diagnostic criteria for AS.

Also, it is important to keep in mind that these clinical descriptions are traditionally based on observations of people, not attempts to actually ask them questions.

For example, the traditional researcher watches a group of children. All of them are playing house together except for one, who is staring at the wall while rocking back and forth. This researcher concludes that the social group of children are engaging in imaginative play while the solitary one is not and therefore must lack imagination.

Now a more innovative researcher takes each child aside and asks what they are doing. The social children say, "We were playing house." The solitary child says (or writes if non-verbal), "I was making up a story. I was a dragon and I flew around the cities killing the bad people. Then I went back to my cave on a distant mountain and ate porcupines for dinner."

That's quite a difference. Too bad the second research method is still considered "innovative" and is not standard practice - otherwise clinical descriptions of AS would be more accurate. I think that interview-based research would suggest that people with AS are at least as creative, on average, as everyone else.

am do not have AS [classic] and also have a severe imagination and creativity impairment,it affects am on a day to day basis,it also affects things such as IQ tests which require ability to know what will happen next in something [one such IQ test/raven gave am IQ of 36].
am dont rate it as a really really bad thing,as am don't feel weakened by it-probably because am not in any form of education now,and have a lot of support who try to get around the difficulties.

I used to consider myself a creative person, until I took a really deep look at the way my imagination works. I have immense difficulty imagining anything that doesn't involve Hellsing and Trinity Blood in some way. And even when it does involve them, my fantasies are pretty rigidly structured and I tend to play the same scenarios over and over again in my mind rather than coming up with new ones.

That's why my 8th grade Creative Writing teacher got so frustrated with me - I took forever to do the assignments because I could never come up with original characters or an interesting plot. And in Art class, I always wanted to draw fan art of my favorite anime characters because I couldn't think of anything else to make. :/

I know, I got confused. I'm kind of new to AS and Autism, having only been diagnosed last year, so I'm still a bit fuzzy on it all. I'm sure I've read somewhere though that many people with AS have an impairment in creativity/imagination, or am I getting it confused again?



That's true, but I do have a severe deficit in creativity to the point where I honestly would call it a "disability", so the clinical descriptions aren't completely inaccurate.



That's interesting. I find it hard or impossible to know what's coming next in a sequence unless it's a very obvious pattern. Tests like the Raven test are difficult for me, too, beyond the first few questions.



Now my question is, if lack of, or impairment in creativity and imagination is associated with Autism and not Aspergers, and I have quite a severe impairment, where does that leave me on the spectrum?

Sometimes I dislike how AS and Autism are "spectrums" as I like to be very specific and I hate to fall somewhere inbetween, or be in a "grey" area. I like to have my place on something pinpointed exactly and that's not possible with AS/Autism.

I don't consider myself very creative. I can't come up with much stuff on my own, but give me a broad idea that sparks my interest and I can run away with it.

I am creative and imaginative in some ways, and in many ways I am not. When it comes to something like reading science fiction and fantasy novels, I can't get into them if they are too far off the realm of reality. I prefer reading historical fiction if I am going to read fiction. Otherwise, I prefer articles in scientific american, non-fiction books on religion and philosophy, adoption, cultural identity within multi-ethnic families(I have 3 adopted children who are are black or multi-ethnic). I play piano, but I can't improvise or deviate from the music. I have to play it how it is written.

However, when it comes to sewing, design, home decor and things like that, I am very imaginative and crafty. I sew clothing, stuff for the home, stuffed animals, make wreaths and floral arrangements, paint, stencil, many crafty things. I ccan envision the end result of my projects very easily and so I have this picture of what it will look like, and I ffigure out how to get there.

I am creative.

Who defines the rules of what is creative and what is not?

I didn't know creativity was supposed to be about how many other people were involved while you were in the middle of making a creation. If that is what creativity boils down to, then it seems that people are morphing terms to suit some social scheme rather than the reality of what something really is.

These are observations, separate from the actual diagnostic criteria. Similarly, clumsiness, auditory processing disorder, and syneasthesia are frequently reported to be associated with AS, and the autistic spectrum in general. That means that clinicians have noticed that these things seem to occur more frequently in the population on the autistic spectrum than in the general population. However, more research would need to be done in order to solidify these observations as anything more than hypotheses.

This is one reason why I take issue with the clinical descriptions of AS that are most prominent on the web - they tend to mention a few actual diagnostic criteria along with some casual observations without pointing out the difference between the two. What these description should do is to explain all the criteria for diagnosis and then perhaps briefly mention some of the phenomena that are reported to be associated.

Personally, I suspect that people with AS experience about the same range of creativity as the general population - from no creativity to a lot of it. But we probably tend to express it differently and/or experience it differently.

As far as I know, a lack of creativity is not considered a sign of pathology. I think it's more common to lack creativity than to be highly creative. I've known plenty of "normal" people who have gone through life faking creativity when necessary, and this seems to be common.

But maybe you are talking about something different, something that would be classified as something other than "lack of creativity". What exactly is disabling about your trouble with creative thinking?

To answer the question (if there was one), whilst I lacked pretend/imaginative play as a child, I can write a [short] story now with my own characters and events; they are usually revolved around a general interest, i.e., Sci-Fi, but that's more of a theme rather than giving me the creativity.

Gauging my creativity and imagination is rather hard. I know Im quite imaginative, my imagination flies places that many of my friends wouldnt and I didnt even realize that until people tell that some of the stuff I say is different. I come up with the most interesting questions. But when I was young, I didnt have an imagination until I was 9 or 10. I felt like I had a huge lack of creativity and that I was boring. When I was trying to write a paper, I had huge writers block. I dont know whether that was my severe shyness or really a lack of creativity.

I consider myself creative, not very creative, just creative.

My creativity flows better when I'm under pressure

Maybe I am talking about something else, I don't know. The only way I can describe these difficulties is as "lack of creativity and/or imagination". The reason why I left art college, dispite being told by my tutors that I was good at drawing, was because all I could do was copy. Whether that be copying a portrait, copying some objects on a table, or copying my friends' work. I had to resort many times to copying a friend's work as I couldn't come up with anything on my own, and everytime I asked the tutor for help he was never specific, which did me no good at all. It was ok the previous year, as my tutors would help me a lot and actually tell me what to do next. They were very specific with me, but once I was left to do it alone, or was only given vague suggestions, I couldn't think of anything at all. The first day of my second year, I had to copy my friend. That's not a good start. Once they stopped telling me what to do, I was stuck. It wasn't a case of being able to put something on paper, no matter how rubbish it looked, it was a matter of not being able to put anything on paper at all because your mind is completely unable to think up an idea.

It extends to things like socializing. I can't imagine what another person is thinking so I'm always doing things wrong. I can't think of any examples of the top of my head but I'll try to remember some so I can hopefully explain why it is such an issue for me.

Maybe I shouldn't have said "disability", either, as I was only trying use the word to imply the severity. I didn't mean to imply that I was "disabled" or that it is a "disability". I meant that it is severe to the point where if it was another problem with the same level of severity, people might call it a "disability", but not that this problem is a disability. I hope you understand what I mean and I hope I didn't offend you, or anyone when I said that as you seem slightly annoyed (but I might be reading your post wrong, I sometimes think people are annoyed when they're not, especially on the internet)

This isn't about me making something and saying "nah, that's not creative". This is about sitting down, with a major urge to draw. Picking up a pencil and tapping it on the paper for literally hours and still not having a single thing on the paper. That has happened to me many times and I love to draw, but I can't.

It extends further than drawing but that's the only way I can explain it. I don't know how else I can show you the issue without having you experience it for your self. I'm not good with words.

If you've ever been in a situation where you were so nervous that your mind went blank, completely blank, then that's what it is like for me when it comes to "imagining" or being "creative". Total mind blankness.

I'm not saying that I'm totally unable to be creative or imaginative and I hope I didn't imply that. I am occasionally able to be creative, altough it's very random when it happens. The lack of creativity in general is severe, even if I can occasionally be creative is what I mean.

(Ugh, I feel like I'm really not explaining this well at all )




I realise that now, like I said, I'm kind of new to AS and Autism and didn't completly know what was associated with what.

(I'm sorry this was so long. I was trying to explain it the best I could. I don't think I did a decent job)

No. I'm eighteen and I still have an imaginary friend. And when I close my eyes, visualize something, it is there.
I do graffiti and poetry.
I guess I don't have this particular bit of criteria.

As many others have already pointed out, there's a difference between imagination and imaginative play. I'm a champion daydreamer, but I don't act creatively in conventional ways. I think it's largely a coordination problem - I can imagine, but implementing in real life is a big problem for me.

Creativity is the norm for human beings - it's a kind of problem solving that comes with being able to imagine situations when they're not in front of you. If you aren't creative in conventional ways, think of it in terms of solving problems. Maybe you can't relate to the kinds of problems people normally think about? Maybe creativity for you means looking at situations unconventionally, or looking at different situations? So you're staring at a blank page, and can't think of anything to draw. Maybe that's the wrong question, though. Maybe drawing is a tool for problem solving, and it's the wrong tool for whatever problems are on your mind right now? Or maybe you're trying to use it to solve dilemmas you can't relate to, instead of applying it to something you care about? And drawing is highly technical. If you had just become acquainted with a new technique (e.g. perspective, or mixing colours), then you'd probably be curious about it and would be looking for opportunities to try it out.

A lot of the amazingly creative material we see out there isn't really that original - it's something someone else was familiar with applied to a new situation, or applied to the same old situation in a slightly new way. Creativity is something that generally evolves in increments. It may seem completely new to us, but obviously it isn't that new, because someone else knew how to apply it. Something that you do that doesn't seem that innovative to you may seem creative to others who aren't familiar with what you already know.