We have all experienced reading a good novel and being transported by the author into scenes and activities that we visualize with remarkable vivacity. The author uses words to paint a picture in our imagination. Brain-imaging studies reveal that effective writing can actually cause activation of visual cortical areas involved in the perception of objects, colors, motion and space. Normally, this activation when reading is substantially less than the activation when actually perceiving. But for one person in 20,000, the activation when reading can exceed the activation when actually perceiving.

This condition is called logophrenia. It causes trouble in distinguishing reality from imagination, even though the logophrenic knows that their perceptions are triggered by the act of reading. Logophrenia can also occur if the words are spoken rather than read, particularly if there are many vivid adjectives in the discourse. In this case, the logophrenic generates compelling visual experiences that become more difficult to distinguish from reality as the discourse becomes more florid. The result is sufficiently disconcerting for most logophrenics that they often avoid social situations, and thus appear to be antisocial. What few friends they do have must be careful to use simple, plain language when speaking with the logophrenic.

In the case of JW, for instance, his friends learned never to use phrases like "it's raining cats and dogs", as JW would immediately see prowling bobcats and growling doberman pinschers falling from the sky, running in panic for cover. Similarly, the phrase "bone-chilling cold" conjured visions of icy skeletons. Some people cover their eyes in a movie when a scene gets too gruesome; JW covered his ears when the conversation became too descriptive.