Last night at a party I was explaining that I have a mild form of prosopagnosia -- face blindness -- where it is difficult for me to remember faces (names too, which may or may not be related). When meeting new people, I often will not notice any physical characteristics at all. Ive often had whole conversations with a person, only to turn away and not remember a single physical characteristic -- whether they were old, young, tall, short, even what race! The only reason Ill remember any particular characteristic is if it had a specific effect on me -- like Ill remember needing to look up if Ive met someone very tall, though I wont remember anything else. BUT I will remember the entire conversation in strong detail. A few years ago I learned that this is an actual condition -- and that there are ways to work with it that I had picked up over the years and which, not surprisingly, other prosopagnosics also use. Note this video where a woman can only recognize a photo she just took of her own MOTHER based on the shirt the mother is wearing! youtu.be/vwCrxomPbtY Thankfully, in my case, I have good facial retention after six or seven encounters with a person -- but it can be distressing until the recognition clicks. I have to make a strong conscious effort to remember a person and will usually look for specific identifiable cues -- which are not always facial. So last night I was explaining that I had to make mental notes about this new group of friends: It was, Gretchen with the cool glasses or Bennett with the long goatee or Stuart with the wide beard or Jeff with the red shirt. If you take off your shirt, I told Jeff, I wont know you at all! which he found amusing. At the end of the night, he walked up to me and stretched out the hem of his shirt. Jeff with the red shirt! I said. And then added, You know, the next time I meet you, if you just stretch out your shirt that way I will recognize you -- no matter what color it is.
Posted on: Sun, 22 Jun 2014 17:00:32 +0000