Facial Blindness aka Prosopagnosia

So, I've noticed since I was a teenager that I couldn't tell many female movie stars apart. There was a few popular ones back then like Goldie Hawn that I always recognized. And a few male stars that I never could remember properly.

About 30 years later, about 2 years ago, I found there's a name for it, Prosopagnosia aka Facial Blindness.

Mild cases you don't recognize people in really unfamiliar settings or with dramatic changes to their looks. More serious cases you don't recognize your own family's faces or pictures of yourself.

If you don't recognize someone with a haircut or who changed their hair colour until they speak, or often talk to a stranger then realize it wasn't the person you thought then you likely have it.

Personally with a mild case I recognize people by hair, general body shape and get it wrong occasionally unless I hear them speak or we are in an expected setting like work. I don't see myself in old photo's if its a large group unless I can eliminate a lot of the people in it.

Generally people with it try to avoid eye contact to pretend not to see people, otherwise they get shit on for not saying hi or lose friends without explanation.

 

I have that, though I just attribute it to me not giving fucks about people.

One does not receive fucks if one does not contribute to the fuck giving

 

I'm paranoid about this. I feel like about every two days my face is different when I look into a mirror. I try not to think about it because apparently that is a one way ticket to madness

 

It happened to me sometimes before

 

All humans look the same. So I don't blame you. If humans looked even 1% as supreme as cats, then maybe they'd be more recognizable.

 

That's OK. Even famous personalities like the Ezra Pound must hv had it. Why else would he hv written:
The apparition of these faces in the crowd: Petals on a wet, black bough.

 

I've seen numbers as high as 1/40 people have some level, so was curious how many replies yes/no I might get.

 

I give the obligatory "I'm probably going to walk by you in the future without recognizing that it's you and I promise it's not because I'm ignoring you" speech every time I meet a new friend.

(And I've done the 'didn't realize it was them until they called my name' so many times it is (thankfully) a running joke among my friends.)

 

Same with me. I have a hard time recognizing someone if their change is too drastic especially with heavy make up. I rarely look at my face properly so whenever someone said that my face resemble someone, I just give them a confused look.

 

I fail to recognize even family members if I'm in public when it comes to faces. It also takes a long time of frequent interaction for me to learn and remember names of people I meet. It isn't a medical condition I don't think but more a carelessness in my thoughts, literally my mind will often drown out names and faces whenever I'm not feeling the interaction which has led to a bunch of slightly embarrassing "first" meetings and family members thinking I'm avoiding them.

 

Saaaameeee.

 

I think the issue of not caring/laziness can be sorted from the medical condition by a simple test of looking at someone with different hair styles/colours and see how strongly you feel that they are the same person. Be it an actress, porn star, or what not.

I've looked at side by side comparisons of the same person, usually from different angles, in different clothes/hair styles, and not been sure.

 

I have it. Not in the extreme way of forgetting even family member's faces, but I've always noticed my difference to others. Example is when a cute guy/girl passes by and a friend would comment that the person was good looking. I have no idea who she's talking about lol. I had to 'manually' look at their faces, which soooometimes turns awkward.

Thats when I start to notice that my 'automatic' was to look at people's sillouhtte(fk spelling), their build, hair color/length (NEVER style for some reason), even their gait! I could recognize people from afar without my glasses with just these but I'd need a couple seconds close up. Like there's a loading bar in my head. I'm damn slow at individualizing people using faces.

On side note, reading had been VERY interesting for me when the book would describe people's look. I was mind blown at how many adjectives you can use to describe a face! Angular, strong jaw, tall nose, sharp cheeks? It was a feast of words!
(English novels only. CN/JP/KR novels s u c k e d in describing people. So damn done with jade, phoenix, white, and perfect like everyone have same mold!)

 

...I believe i have it but I'm not sure how severe it is. But one thing for sure I'm screwed because I also have a bad memory and tend to meet lots of people and family members. Even if I remember them I probably forgot their names or where we met. it often stress me out because there's so many terms to greet my relatives

 

Heavy make ups should be excluded,
Also people will have harder time differentiating someone from foreign race

 

Mild cases but as it gets more severe it is more obvious. One guy in a video mentioned he saw a hot girl walking down the street towards him and it wasn’t until she walked up and kissed him that he realized it was his girlfriend. Others can’t recognize their parents outside the house etc.

If I understand it right there is 2 parts of the brain that process recognition of shapes. One for human faces and one that tells the difference between a human and a house. The more damaged the first is the more the 2nd tried to kick in.

When I’m home from work I’ll see if there’s an example I can post.

 

Yeah but it was said by a person of the same race though.

 

Or you are a closet racist like me who has been around ugly Chinese instead of pretty Chinese
All the Hunan girls are so ugly since they are from a part of China close to Vietnam??... according to my Chinese friend of course.
I thought for a few months that Li Yi Tong was Li Qin





Also these Korean actresses I mixed up

https://wiki.d-addicts.com/Jo_Soo_Hyang

http://asianwiki.com/Shin_Hye-Sun

 

Wow. I've heard of it, but never met anyone with the condition you have. I'm short-sighted and can't see beyond an arm-length without blurriness. When I'm not wearing my contacts or glasses I usually recognize people I know through the colour configuration of outfits they wear regularly, their posture, their voices. I tend to avoid waving at someone I think I might recognize in public unless they're almost face to face with me. I regularly ignore people who smile at/wave to me unless they call my name, because I've made mistakes in the past.