Alex,
There is a difference between saying that someone has a functional visual memory and a photographic memory.
It is my belief that you can appreciate that distinction.
Tell me, can you recite for me from visual memory every word from a page from a book you had read when you were, say, ten years old? Without a trance? Some people can.
I cannot. You may believe that this incapability is a result of beliefs, self-limitation. Perhaps you are right. I would like to see the difference, physically between the brains of those who have photographic memory vs. those who have what is considered a normal visual memory. I would wager the physical differences would be found to be substantial ... but I cannot say for sure.
I know one thing, the mental activity described in The Mind of a Mnemonist is very different from my own. I do not get confused if I am eating gyro sandwich while reading Terry Pratchett, as the mnemonist would be.
I will concede that visual memory for some details is very good in the common individual. This is especially true for facial recognition, and does happen very quickly ... our brains work faster than we think (as John LaValle likes to say). But in terms of remembering the written word ... mmm ... that one is hard to believe.
