Anti-Mentalist Research
@cristinagherghel.bsky.social
Independent cognitive scientist & aphantasic neurodevelopmentalist specialized in complex trauma, personality disorders & psychopathy. Bridging philosophy of mind & behavioral naturalism, ethological empiricism exposes every insidious tactic of abuse.
The phrase I see you is the canonical ritual of a perceptual collapse. Theory of Mind (ToM), the dominant human interface for social understanding, functions not as a window into others but as an Epistemic Mirror that projects.....
#TheoryOfMind #Catch22 #DoubleBind #Aphantasia #AIBias
#TheoryOfMind #Catch22 #DoubleBind #Aphantasia #AIBias
Human Blueprints (@cristinagherghel)
The phrase I see you is the canonical ritual of a perceptual collapse. #TheoryOfMind #Catch22 #DoubleBind #Aphantasia
substack.com
January 11, 2026 at 7:28 PM
The phrase I see you is the canonical ritual of a perceptual collapse. Theory of Mind (ToM), the dominant human interface for social understanding, functions not as a window into others but as an Epistemic Mirror that projects.....
#TheoryOfMind #Catch22 #DoubleBind #Aphantasia #AIBias
#TheoryOfMind #Catch22 #DoubleBind #Aphantasia #AIBias
I wish everyone a peaceful end of the year and a beginning of the new year filled with hope. I imagine a star exploding in the sky and sending a healing dust over those in need — a miracle that resolves hardships, restores health, and brings financial stability. May no one be hungry or afraid again.
December 31, 2025 at 4:50 PM
I wish everyone a peaceful end of the year and a beginning of the new year filled with hope. I imagine a star exploding in the sky and sending a healing dust over those in need — a miracle that resolves hardships, restores health, and brings financial stability. May no one be hungry or afraid again.
New research paper examining the structural dissociation between empathy, moral valuation, and simulation-based models of social cognition.
Open access on Zenodo: doi.org/10.5281/zeno...
#Empathy
#Aphantasia
#MentalImagery
#CognitiveScience
#PhilosophyOfMind
#Neuroscience
Open access on Zenodo: doi.org/10.5281/zeno...
#Empathy
#Aphantasia
#MentalImagery
#CognitiveScience
#PhilosophyOfMind
#Neuroscience
doi.org
December 17, 2025 at 2:05 PM
New research paper examining the structural dissociation between empathy, moral valuation, and simulation-based models of social cognition.
Open access on Zenodo: doi.org/10.5281/zeno...
#Empathy
#Aphantasia
#MentalImagery
#CognitiveScience
#PhilosophyOfMind
#Neuroscience
Open access on Zenodo: doi.org/10.5281/zeno...
#Empathy
#Aphantasia
#MentalImagery
#CognitiveScience
#PhilosophyOfMind
#Neuroscience
Why I Had to Call It “The Zero Point of Narcissism”
Kohut’s framework is elegant and powerful. It explains so much about our lifelong hunger for validation, our crushing experiences of narcissistic injury, and our fragile self-esteem. #Amirroring #Aphantasia #Consciousness #ZeroPointOfNarcissism
Kohut’s framework is elegant and powerful. It explains so much about our lifelong hunger for validation, our crushing experiences of narcissistic injury, and our fragile self-esteem. #Amirroring #Aphantasia #Consciousness #ZeroPointOfNarcissism
Why I Had to Call It “The Zero Point of Narcissism”
If you’ve come across my last research paper published on 8th of December 2025, the title likely caught your eye—or raised your eyebrow.
open.substack.com
December 9, 2025 at 9:35 AM
Why I Had to Call It “The Zero Point of Narcissism”
Kohut’s framework is elegant and powerful. It explains so much about our lifelong hunger for validation, our crushing experiences of narcissistic injury, and our fragile self-esteem. #Amirroring #Aphantasia #Consciousness #ZeroPointOfNarcissism
Kohut’s framework is elegant and powerful. It explains so much about our lifelong hunger for validation, our crushing experiences of narcissistic injury, and our fragile self-esteem. #Amirroring #Aphantasia #Consciousness #ZeroPointOfNarcissism
The Zero Point of Narcissism: Formalizing Amirroring, Autopoiesis, and Panmodal Aphantasia. Teleology is nurture, not nature. #Amirroring #Aphantasia #DevelopmentalPsychology #Consciousness #Autopoiesis #ZeroPointOfNarcissism
The Zero Point of Narcissism: Formalizing Amirroring, Autopoiesis, and Panmodal Aphantasia (DOI: 8 December 2025)
The Zero Point of Narcissism: Why a Missing Mirror Creates a Different Mind
open.substack.com
December 8, 2025 at 6:21 PM
The Zero Point of Narcissism: Formalizing Amirroring, Autopoiesis, and Panmodal Aphantasia. Teleology is nurture, not nature. #Amirroring #Aphantasia #DevelopmentalPsychology #Consciousness #Autopoiesis #ZeroPointOfNarcissism
If your mind doesn't work in pictures or an inner voice, and your experience of #trauma feels physically trapped and impossible to explain, this might help. A free thesis for you.
doi.org/10.5281/zeno...
#MentalHealthAwareness #AphantasiaResearch #Fleshbacks #ComplexPTSD
doi.org/10.5281/zeno...
#MentalHealthAwareness #AphantasiaResearch #Fleshbacks #ComplexPTSD
Aphantasia Is Not an Advantage in Long-Term Abuse: On the Trauma of Fleshbacks and the Myth of Coping and Defense Mechanisms
Core Claim: This thesis challenges the assumption that a non-visual mind offers protection from Complex PTSD, arguing it is a catastrophic error. Scope of the Second Edition: This version significantl...
doi.org
November 26, 2025 at 9:42 AM
If your mind doesn't work in pictures or an inner voice, and your experience of #trauma feels physically trapped and impossible to explain, this might help. A free thesis for you.
doi.org/10.5281/zeno...
#MentalHealthAwareness #AphantasiaResearch #Fleshbacks #ComplexPTSD
doi.org/10.5281/zeno...
#MentalHealthAwareness #AphantasiaResearch #Fleshbacks #ComplexPTSD
Interested in #aphantasia #anauralia #anendophasia and #complextrauma? Download my thesis for free doi.org/10.5281/zeno...
Aphantasia Is Not an Advantage in Long-Term Abuse: On the Trauma of Fleshbacks and the Myth of Coping and Defense Mechanisms
Core Claim: This thesis challenges the assumption that a non-visual mind offers protection from Complex PTSD, arguing it is a catastrophic error. Scope of the Second Edition: This version significantl...
doi.org
November 25, 2025 at 2:43 PM
Interested in #aphantasia #anauralia #anendophasia and #complextrauma? Download my thesis for free doi.org/10.5281/zeno...
The Failed Kiss
To call #aphantasia an advantage is to mistake the inability to scream for the absence of pain. #MentalHealthResearch #SomaticTherapy #CopingMechanisms
To call #aphantasia an advantage is to mistake the inability to scream for the absence of pain. #MentalHealthResearch #SomaticTherapy #CopingMechanisms
The Failed Kiss
Aphantasia, the Cartesian Split, and the Agony of a Mind That Cannot Soothe Its Own Body
open.substack.com
November 24, 2025 at 7:32 PM
The Failed Kiss
To call #aphantasia an advantage is to mistake the inability to scream for the absence of pain. #MentalHealthResearch #SomaticTherapy #CopingMechanisms
To call #aphantasia an advantage is to mistake the inability to scream for the absence of pain. #MentalHealthResearch #SomaticTherapy #CopingMechanisms
My research dismantles the myth that aphantasia—the inability to create mental imagery—offers protection from the wounds of abuse.
• Flashbacks are the mind reliving the past.
• Fleshbacks are the body never stopping its presentation of agony.
#Aphantasia #TraumaResearch #CPTSD #MentalHealth
• Flashbacks are the mind reliving the past.
• Fleshbacks are the body never stopping its presentation of agony.
#Aphantasia #TraumaResearch #CPTSD #MentalHealth
Human Blueprints (@cristinagherghel)
What if the very condition lauded as a shield against trauma is, in fact, a cage that magnifies it?
My research dismantles the myth that aphantasia—the inability to create mental imagery—offers prote...
substack.com
November 20, 2025 at 5:48 PM
My research dismantles the myth that aphantasia—the inability to create mental imagery—offers protection from the wounds of abuse.
• Flashbacks are the mind reliving the past.
• Fleshbacks are the body never stopping its presentation of agony.
#Aphantasia #TraumaResearch #CPTSD #MentalHealth
• Flashbacks are the mind reliving the past.
• Fleshbacks are the body never stopping its presentation of agony.
#Aphantasia #TraumaResearch #CPTSD #MentalHealth
We live amid the ruins of moral humanity—utterly bankrupt and falling apart. You feel it too. There’s no turning back. We search the stars for signs of life while failing to protect our own children. I am horrified. #moralcollapse #humanitylost #empathycrisis #societaldecay #ethicalbankruptcy
The Child in the Car: A Study in Moral Extinction
On the Death of Empathy and the Rise of Hedonihilism
open.substack.com
November 7, 2025 at 8:36 AM
We live amid the ruins of moral humanity—utterly bankrupt and falling apart. You feel it too. There’s no turning back. We search the stars for signs of life while failing to protect our own children. I am horrified. #moralcollapse #humanitylost #empathycrisis #societaldecay #ethicalbankruptcy
We live in a world that worships images and performance. But thought—and trauma—don’t need an inner movie to exist. This essay shows what happens when pain becomes structure instead of spectacle.
#willtopower #nietzsche #aphantasia #traumaliterature
open.substack.com/pub/cristina...
#willtopower #nietzsche #aphantasia #traumaliterature
open.substack.com/pub/cristina...
I Tried to Heal Until It Killed Me
The Body That Outlived Every Cure: Nietzsche’s Will-to-Power
open.substack.com
November 3, 2025 at 4:58 PM
We live in a world that worships images and performance. But thought—and trauma—don’t need an inner movie to exist. This essay shows what happens when pain becomes structure instead of spectacle.
#willtopower #nietzsche #aphantasia #traumaliterature
open.substack.com/pub/cristina...
#willtopower #nietzsche #aphantasia #traumaliterature
open.substack.com/pub/cristina...
Not every mind is shaped by mirrors; some awareness arises silently, independently, unseen.
#humandevelopment #psychology #consciousness #philosophyofmind #amirroring
#humandevelopment #psychology #consciousness #philosophyofmind #amirroring
The Trinary Model of Development: Mirroring, Distorted Mirroring and Amirroring
The autopoietic genesis of subjectivity without relational input.
open.substack.com
October 19, 2025 at 11:00 AM
Not every mind is shaped by mirrors; some awareness arises silently, independently, unseen.
#humandevelopment #psychology #consciousness #philosophyofmind #amirroring
#humandevelopment #psychology #consciousness #philosophyofmind #amirroring
What it means to exist without gain, without choice, without the illusion of purpose.
Against the Myth of Adaptation: When Survival Becomes a Misreading of Existence
A reflection on how the language of adaptation erases insidious coercion.
cristinagherghel.substack.com
October 19, 2025 at 5:03 AM
What it means to exist without gain, without choice, without the illusion of purpose.
Interacting with AI can feel eerily similar to talking to someone with narcissistic traits—patterns of misunderstanding, invalidation and abuse can emerge without intent.
#Narcissism #AI #Gaslighting #Abuse
#Narcissism #AI #Gaslighting #Abuse
Talking to a Narcissist, Talking to ChatGPT: When Communication is Impossible
Over decades of enduring systemic abuse and years of studying narcissism, psychopathy, and other Cluster B personality disorders, I noticed something terrifying: talking to them is like talking to a w...
open.substack.com
September 26, 2025 at 3:51 PM
Interacting with AI can feel eerily similar to talking to someone with narcissistic traits—patterns of misunderstanding, invalidation and abuse can emerge without intent.
#Narcissism #AI #Gaslighting #Abuse
#Narcissism #AI #Gaslighting #Abuse
Anti–self-help meets the philosophy of despair in an aphantasic mind, crippled by panic attacks and social phobias. A will to power confronts the absurdity of life’s randomness and the trauma of systemic abuse.
#Aphantasia #PanicAttacks #SocialAnxiety #MentalHealthAwareness
#Aphantasia #PanicAttacks #SocialAnxiety #MentalHealthAwareness
Why Motivation Culture Fails Those with Aphantasia and Chronic Despair
The Damage of Universal Healing Advice on Trauma Survivors
open.substack.com
September 13, 2025 at 10:33 AM
Anti–self-help meets the philosophy of despair in an aphantasic mind, crippled by panic attacks and social phobias. A will to power confronts the absurdity of life’s randomness and the trauma of systemic abuse.
#Aphantasia #PanicAttacks #SocialAnxiety #MentalHealthAwareness
#Aphantasia #PanicAttacks #SocialAnxiety #MentalHealthAwareness
We live in an era where confidence is perceived as an asset, even more so than competence. It's a fascinating social phenomenon – this collective belief in self-aggrandizement.
#SelfAwareness #SelfEsteem #Mindset #RealityCheck
substack.com/@cristinaghe...
#SelfAwareness #SelfEsteem #Mindset #RealityCheck
substack.com/@cristinaghe...
September 11, 2025 at 12:43 PM
We live in an era where confidence is perceived as an asset, even more so than competence. It's a fascinating social phenomenon – this collective belief in self-aggrandizement.
#SelfAwareness #SelfEsteem #Mindset #RealityCheck
substack.com/@cristinaghe...
#SelfAwareness #SelfEsteem #Mindset #RealityCheck
substack.com/@cristinaghe...
You're Not Broken, You're Under Permanent Siege: A New Model for Collapse - What defines the limits of endurance? The sheer magnitude and continuity of catastrophic, external abuse.
#Neuroplasticity #StressResilience #Neuroscience #ChronicStress #TraumaRecovery
#OriginalResearch
#Neuroplasticity #StressResilience #Neuroscience #ChronicStress #TraumaRecovery
#OriginalResearch
You're Not Broken, You're Under Permanent Siege: A New Model for Collapse
On Aneurothymia Spectrum and Ontological Metabolic Exhaustion Syndrome
open.substack.com
September 5, 2025 at 2:10 PM
You're Not Broken, You're Under Permanent Siege: A New Model for Collapse - What defines the limits of endurance? The sheer magnitude and continuity of catastrophic, external abuse.
#Neuroplasticity #StressResilience #Neuroscience #ChronicStress #TraumaRecovery
#OriginalResearch
#Neuroplasticity #StressResilience #Neuroscience #ChronicStress #TraumaRecovery
#OriginalResearch
Red flags, gaslighting, fantasy, delusions, and grandiosity: the hallmarks of narcissism. But can they coexist with vulnerability, eccentricity, and incel-type entitlement? #DSM-5-TR
#PersonalityDisorderComorbidity
#ClinicalPsychology #Psychopathology
#SchizoidPersonalityDisorder
#PersonalityDisorderComorbidity
#ClinicalPsychology #Psychopathology
#SchizoidPersonalityDisorder
The Borderland Triad: Schizoid-Schizotypal Narcissist
Case-Based Examination of DSM-5-TR Overlap Between Cluster A and Cluster B Personality Disorders
open.substack.com
August 31, 2025 at 1:33 PM
Red flags, gaslighting, fantasy, delusions, and grandiosity: the hallmarks of narcissism. But can they coexist with vulnerability, eccentricity, and incel-type entitlement? #DSM-5-TR
#PersonalityDisorderComorbidity
#ClinicalPsychology #Psychopathology
#SchizoidPersonalityDisorder
#PersonalityDisorderComorbidity
#ClinicalPsychology #Psychopathology
#SchizoidPersonalityDisorder
Why are some people trapped in a never-ending cycle of pain and depletion?
The breakdown of key chemical pathways accelerates systemic collapse and unrelenting stress. #HealthPsychology #Trauma #MentalHealth #ChronicPain #Endometriosis
The breakdown of key chemical pathways accelerates systemic collapse and unrelenting stress. #HealthPsychology #Trauma #MentalHealth #ChronicPain #Endometriosis
Trauma, Abuse and Endometriosis in OMES
Aneurothymic Aformation of Serotonergic, Dopaminergic, and Oxytocinergic Circuits Hyperactivating the HPA Axis and Driving Systemic Depletion
open.substack.com
August 30, 2025 at 11:58 AM
Why are some people trapped in a never-ending cycle of pain and depletion?
The breakdown of key chemical pathways accelerates systemic collapse and unrelenting stress. #HealthPsychology #Trauma #MentalHealth #ChronicPain #Endometriosis
The breakdown of key chemical pathways accelerates systemic collapse and unrelenting stress. #HealthPsychology #Trauma #MentalHealth #ChronicPain #Endometriosis
From Blogspot archives to Substack: discover original research, aphantasic writing, and concepts in psychology, #philosophy, and mind. #TraumaWriting #NeurodevelopmentalResearch #PersonalityDisorders
Crossing Over: Blogspot to Substack for Original Neuropsychologic Research
My journey from Blogspot to Substack: decades of research, aphantasic writing, and original frameworks on human development reaching readers directly.
cristinagherghelvox.blogspot.com
August 28, 2025 at 6:55 AM
From Blogspot archives to Substack: discover original research, aphantasic writing, and concepts in psychology, #philosophy, and mind. #TraumaWriting #NeurodevelopmentalResearch #PersonalityDisorders
Mirrors don’t create the self—they create the ego.
#DevelopmentalPsychology #Psychoanalysis #OntologyOfMind #InfantDevelopment
#DevelopmentalPsychology #Psychoanalysis #OntologyOfMind #InfantDevelopment
Amirroring
A Counter-Ontology of Development
cristinagherghel.substack.com
August 27, 2025 at 2:47 PM
Mirrors don’t create the self—they create the ego.
#DevelopmentalPsychology #Psychoanalysis #OntologyOfMind #InfantDevelopment
#DevelopmentalPsychology #Psychoanalysis #OntologyOfMind #InfantDevelopment
You can hear the applause, see the praise, recognize the pride it should produce, know that you deserve it—yet feel nothing inside. This is #Asensoria.
#SocialAnhedonia #AffectiveNeuroscience #MotivationAndReward #CognitiveArchitecture #CortisolDysregulation
#SocialAnhedonia #AffectiveNeuroscience #MotivationAndReward #CognitiveArchitecture #CortisolDysregulation
If You Don’t Get High on Validation, You May Be on the Aneurothymia Spectrum—or Have Asensoria
Validation as a Universal Assumption
cristinagherghel.substack.com
August 26, 2025 at 4:18 PM
You can hear the applause, see the praise, recognize the pride it should produce, know that you deserve it—yet feel nothing inside. This is #Asensoria.
#SocialAnhedonia #AffectiveNeuroscience #MotivationAndReward #CognitiveArchitecture #CortisolDysregulation
#SocialAnhedonia #AffectiveNeuroscience #MotivationAndReward #CognitiveArchitecture #CortisolDysregulation
“Happiness is a choice” and “everything happens for a reason” are two of the most damaging pop-psychology tropes, forcing victims of abuse to retraumatize themselves. #Aphantasia #MentalHealthStudies #SuicidalIdeation #Trauma #PanicDisorder #HumanSuffering #AIinResearch
This Is Not a Story of Survival
Why I Publish Outside Peer Review
cristinagherghel.substack.com
August 25, 2025 at 6:20 AM
“Happiness is a choice” and “everything happens for a reason” are two of the most damaging pop-psychology tropes, forcing victims of abuse to retraumatize themselves. #Aphantasia #MentalHealthStudies #SuicidalIdeation #Trauma #PanicDisorder #HumanSuffering #AIinResearch
Everyone knows gaslighting. But few have words for its darker twin: veridical distortion. This essay introduces the concept and shows how manipulation produces trauma through either self-doubt or the shock of absurdity.
#VeridicalDistortion #Gaslighting #PsychologicalAbuse #Neuroscience
#VeridicalDistortion #Gaslighting #PsychologicalAbuse #Neuroscience
The Trauma of Gaslighting and Veridical Distortion
A New Lens on Internal Dissonance and External Contradiction in the Psychology of Abuse
open.substack.com
August 24, 2025 at 8:47 AM
Everyone knows gaslighting. But few have words for its darker twin: veridical distortion. This essay introduces the concept and shows how manipulation produces trauma through either self-doubt or the shock of absurdity.
#VeridicalDistortion #Gaslighting #PsychologicalAbuse #Neuroscience
#VeridicalDistortion #Gaslighting #PsychologicalAbuse #Neuroscience
Why do some mental health therapies fail? Not all suffering from narcissistic abuse is the same. Not all victims become survivors. Some will remain endurers.
#TraumaRecovery #EmotionalAbuse #MentalHealth #NeurodevelopmentalPsychology #aphantasia
open.substack.com/pub/cristina...
#TraumaRecovery #EmotionalAbuse #MentalHealth #NeurodevelopmentalPsychology #aphantasia
open.substack.com/pub/cristina...
Narcissistic Abuse, C-PTSD, and the Cartesian OMES of Aneurothymic Victims
How structural aformations create metabolic and ontological depletion under chronic trauma
open.substack.com
August 23, 2025 at 9:46 AM
Why do some mental health therapies fail? Not all suffering from narcissistic abuse is the same. Not all victims become survivors. Some will remain endurers.
#TraumaRecovery #EmotionalAbuse #MentalHealth #NeurodevelopmentalPsychology #aphantasia
open.substack.com/pub/cristina...
#TraumaRecovery #EmotionalAbuse #MentalHealth #NeurodevelopmentalPsychology #aphantasia
open.substack.com/pub/cristina...