personality synesthesiae
Synees who have personality response synesthesiae perceive personality traits from things that don't have a personality. Most personify objects, letters, numbers, and colors. To someone with OLP, the letter A might be a bossy teen, the number 9 a serial killer, or the number 4 a sweet little girl. To someone with OP, a flashlight, a tree, or even an entire house might have a personality.
Object personification (OP)
Even though for synesthetes with OP, objects have human characteristics, there is a common misbelief that they perceive them as real living beings. OP synees know perfectly well that those objects don't breathe, feel or think, yet they feel that they "remind" them of a certain personality. Non-synees might experience the same thing with some objects.
Now, for non-synesthetes, these experiences are determined by common associations, forms and maybe color. A black object is usually perceived as depressive or sinister, compared to a yellow one which radiates happiness. A more playful design is used to represent serenity and childishness while a formal design evokes a sense of seriousness or stiffness. The same logic can be applied to synesthetes, which are usually under influence of the same logic. But the synesthetic take this to another level. Objects which are obviously bad and cruel to a non-synee might be percieved by synees as very dear, helpful and friendly entities.
Some synees personify not only objects in the strict sense, but everything of any visual value, such as microbes, atoms, dust or cracks in the wall.
Ordinal Linguistic Personification (OLP)
OLP synesthetes most often personify letters, numbers from 0-9, days of the week, months and rarely also numbers beyond 9. They usually don't only have personalities, but also interact with each other. Letters might be married, have kids, work together, bully other letters and so on. The number 10, when personified, often represents a king-like character, who rules over the other numbers. For some synnies, the gender of numbers depends on whether it's an odd or even number, but this is the exception.
For a long time, this type of synesthesia was ignored, because it doesn't include any of the five senses and the synesthetes (even if they knew about their other types of syn) would attribute it to their vivid imagination. The term Ordinal linguistic personification was introduced in 2006 by researchers of the University of Edinburgh after proving that it follows the rules of synesthesia (involuntarity and consistency, among others).
The life of a personality is usually frozen in a moment in time, which represents the consistency of this type of syn. If a number has a secret crush on another number, it will never get the chance to confess its love. It's going to stay a secret forever. Similarly, friendship, rivalry, marriage and other relationships will never break apart in the world of OLP.
Although OLP is consistent, the personalities may expand over time. A young synesthete might know some information about a letter, it's attitude, who's it hanging out with, how do other letters respond to it and so on. But, as the synesthete grows, he/she might "find out" the profession of the letter, it's sexuality, its musical and political preferences and other things a child doesn't know much about. So, in some way, synesthetes get to know their graphemes, days and months better over time.
Some synees also have personalities for other graphemes, such as musical notes.
For a long time, this type of synesthesia was ignored, because it doesn't include any of the five senses and the synesthetes (even if they knew about their other types of syn) would attribute it to their vivid imagination. The term Ordinal linguistic personification was introduced in 2006 by researchers of the University of Edinburgh after proving that it follows the rules of synesthesia (involuntarity and consistency, among others).
The life of a personality is usually frozen in a moment in time, which represents the consistency of this type of syn. If a number has a secret crush on another number, it will never get the chance to confess its love. It's going to stay a secret forever. Similarly, friendship, rivalry, marriage and other relationships will never break apart in the world of OLP.
Although OLP is consistent, the personalities may expand over time. A young synesthete might know some information about a letter, it's attitude, who's it hanging out with, how do other letters respond to it and so on. But, as the synesthete grows, he/she might "find out" the profession of the letter, it's sexuality, its musical and political preferences and other things a child doesn't know much about. So, in some way, synesthetes get to know their graphemes, days and months better over time.
Some synees also have personalities for other graphemes, such as musical notes.
Concept personification
There are synesthetes which personify a number of concepts. Numbers, letters, days and months are all concepts, so "concept personification" might serve as an umbrella term. Concept personification is not a type of syn which is acknowledged, yet there are many synees who reported such experiences with concepts that don't fit into the ordinal or linguistic kind. The most common are personified geometrical shapes and left and right sides.
The object/concept dilemma
There is a debate open whether to call certain things objects or concepts. A large number of synesthetes, for example, personifies body parts, which can be considered objects, as they are part of the material world around us. However, usually it is not a certain thumb that is cheerful, but rather thumbs in general. This makes the cheerful thumb a concept. Cutlery is probably the most often personified object. If one would ask synesthetes to describe the personality of a spoon, they wouldn't hesitate to tell every detail of it's psyche, but describing THE spoon, not any spoon. If you show them two spoons of entirely different designs, they might suddenly have two entirely different personalities for each, and neither would have to do anything with the original description of THE spoon. Therefore, it is likely that some things can be perceived, in synesthetic terms, as objects and concepts at the same time. Furthermore, some argue that fingers (which are the most common personified body parts) can be considered ordinal units, as they are subject of lining up.
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