What would you do if an unfamiliar person walks towards you and hugged you? If you go downstairs in the morning to find a stranger cooking in the kitchen? When you introduce yourself to someone, only to realize you’ve been their classmate for years?
We’ve all had incidents where we fail to recognize the people we’ve met before, and we somehow manage to continue the conversation without making it too awkward. But some people find it impossible to recognize faces because of a neurological condition called Prosopagnosia, also known as Face Blindness.
The term ‘Face Blindness’ sounds terrifying, but what it means is that the person suffering from this condition is unable to differentiate between faces and/or recognize people. The severity of this condition varies: some people struggle with new acquaintances, some find it hard to label their loved ones’ faces, while some fail to recognize their own faces in the mirror. This disorder isn’t related to one’s vision: people with face blindness can see and remember names perfectly, but cannot place a label over others’ faces.
The condition makes it difficult to form relationships with others and can lead to anxiety or depression. The famous neurologist, Oliver Sacks, described his own personal incidents with face blindness at length. He shares several instances in his life: once, he apologized for bumping into a bearded man, only to realize that it was himself in his mirror. Another time, while sitting on a sidewalk table, Dr. Sacks turned towards the restaurant window and began grooming his beard, only to realize that his reflection wasn’t grooming itself but staring at him oddly.
Jean Gilbert’s memoir, ‘The Picasso Mirror’ describes her experiences with the condition. She was born with the condition but didn’t know something was wrong with her until she watched a television program about face blindness. Most people suffering from face blindness assume that they are ‘absent-minded’ or ‘forgetful’, never chalking it up to a neurological disorder. Gilbert talks about how she focuses on a particular aspect of a person: like a scar, mole, or tattoo to recognize others. She notices their smiles, postures, and voices, and explains that noticing such things have become as natural as breathing to her.
Most people are born with this condition, and they learn to deal with the obstacles they face. Being face-blind feels like living in a world of strangers. Give it a thought: How challenging life must be for these people when they fail to recognize their co-workers, spouses, and family members when we’re so uncomfortable talking to a person whose name we don’t remember. While most people are born with this condition, this condition can be developed after forms of head injury.
While this condition isn’t ‘treatable’, there are various coping strategies. People with face blindness tend to focus on some visual and verbal characteristics of a person, like their hair, spectacles, voice, height, or certain mannerisms like their gait.
Author Heather Sellers says that her inability to recognize faces has served her well because it taught her to deal with uncertainty. She expresses how the disorder allowed her to engage with the world, and to communicate deeply and authentically with others. She summarizes her experiences with a meaningful quote: “Face blindness forces me to say right away the most vulnerable thing I could say to someone: I may not know you, but I want to.”
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