Somewhere and Nowhere: a memoir of no self

Aphantasia is the absence of a mind’s eye, a condition that affects around 2 in 100 human beings alive today, yet it is little understood or examined, even by many of those who have it. Mette discovered she has the syndrome as a thirtysomething and set about exploring what place it has in the construction of her identity and the way she ‘sees’ the world and how it illuminates her field of consciousness theory. In Somewhere and Nowhere she explores her own aphantasia by means of the latest neuroscientific discoveries about how memory, the senses and the self operate, and her own autocritical approaches to literature and ethics, identifying the consequences of the absence of autobiographical memory and a continuous self and the new neuroscience’s challenges to the ego.

“Mette Hoeg is a deep thinker and an enviably expressive writer. Her insights into the distinctiveness of her own mind - including its absences - will I am sure make for compelling reading. Her book will also do us all a great service by highlighting the surprising diversity in how we each experience the world, and our own selves. I will be excited to read Blind Mind.” 

Anil Seth, Director, Sussex Centre for Consciousness Science, University of Sussex; author of Being You