Pareidoliomania

A neurocentric version of pareidolification, treating facial recognition and form perception as mere neural misfires (fusiform gyrus overactivity, Bayesian priors). Pareidoliomania reduces all visual meaning‑making to brain glitches, ignoring that pareidolia is also the basis of normal face recognition, art appreciation, and reading. Critics argue it pathologizes a fundamental cognitive capacity. It is a form of reductionist one‑upmanship.

Pareidoliomania Example: “The pareidoliomaniac claimed that seeing a human face in a portrait is ‘just your fusiform gyrus firing.’ He forgot that same firing enables him to recognize his mother.”

Pareidoliomania by Abzugal Nammugal Enkigal June 5, 2026