Why You May Never Know I Have Prosopagnosia
I find it cumbersome, unnecessary and awkward to make casual acquaintances aware of my problem. Maybe I'll never see them again and thus have no reason to tell them, or it has no bearing on the task at hand, or why should I get confessional to a 'casual stranger' ? Later, when you've 'known' someone for a long time confiding you don't really recognize them all the time is bound to hurt their feelings or be misunderstood as disinterest in them as an individual . I've only told a very few friends and relatives so far. Even those few times I've tried to explain my dilemma I got head-shakings and puzzled looks, "that's so weird...really ? Never heard of such a thing" I guess if they thought I was eccentric before, this confession only proved the point. (Nor did any of them seem to think PPG limits me in any serious way.)
This is a confounding affliction to have. I exhibit at least an ordinary intelligence and seem 'normal' in most respects . So it's complicated to explain that part of my brain is 'blind' to what others see. People expect those of us with PPG can accomplish the same tasks the same way that they do . When the work involves manipulating things, I'm as good as anyone . If it involves dealing with people I am at a serious disadvantage. More so, because nobody recognizes, imagines, considers, or works around this disability. Or worse, when you tell them, they don't believe you. They've never heard or read of such a malady, therefore it doesn't exist. Or you are generously given more credit for being higher on the 'can't remember faces' continuum ("you recognized me, didn't you?").
You know how bad off you are, how limited you are, how much this distresses you or affects your daily life, but since you've always used compensatory mechanisms those around you assume you can 'see' them, and 'remember' them just fine. That's like assuming a blind person couldn't really be blind, because they avoid objects by feeling them with their cane.
Most people empathize with an obvious disability, blind individuals get a good share of sympathy and understanding (as well they should). But excepting others who also share PPG, and the cutting edge researchers who have studied enough of us, I don't find much empathy for prosopagnosics . I get kidded a lot, laughed at for my blunders, provide lots of light-hearted moments and some minutes of belly-busting laughter, and/or provoke exasperation . But even my family doesn't totally understand the psychic pain I feel when my futile but earnest efforts to identify only leave me embarrassed, bring frustration, cause anxiety , and separate me from social activities . PPG hurts. Having PPG is akin to living a lifetime with an aspect of Alzheimer's . It CAN be humorous, but it isn't funny.
Not Another Pretty Face ! And Another, And Another
It's amazing how many faces people normally remember .Most people can 'recognize' thousands of others they've never met in person Most of us meet, interact with, and view hundreds of thousands of likenesses yearly, images of people on t.v. movies, magazines, other media. . Many of these images come on for just a second or more. Some likenesses are repeatedly drilled into us, flashcard style, as in the case of the 'famous'.
Evidently, nature built plenty of slack into the visual recognition system because until the 'modern era' generations of humans existed within much smaller groups and communities. They could count on a lifetime to 'learn' the people they interacted with and their capacity for facial recognition skills was under-utilized. Today's world is filled with more people 'to remember' than what nature may have intended. Still, most of us may not have reached the upper limit (if there is one) of our potential in this aptitude . The brain is extremely facile and processes visual input at lightning speed, filing, sorting, remembering. In fact it builds newer , better, richer connections when exposed to novel stimuli. But is there an 'overload' of information for some of us ? Do prosopagnosics have
a problem with sheer numbers to recall ? Conclusion unknown.
Is It Normal Or Is It PPG ?
The brain considers face recognition so important that it has allocated a large portion to just that task. Just how this sorting and mapping is done is still a mystery . This ability ,so effortless that society takes it for granted, is extremely complicated to teach a computer, but so innate even a baby makes use of it early on. So the majority of people 'know' someone's face from the minute they see it, and generally have a fairly accurate recall.
But if a friend says "I don't remember faces either " does he/she have PPG ? Well, it depends on how profound it is and how they are affected by it. Most people with PPG have known about their problem all their life and went through numberless instances where they made serious and unexpected errors in identifying individuals they should know . Does your friend fail to identify people much of the time? Is he/she reluctant to make introductions in a group ? Have you noticed how they seem to forget someone they've known ? Do you have to tell them who someone is when they should already know them ? The more they fit this kind of pattern the more it is likely you need to explore that possibility with them.
PPG fits no totally definitive pattern as yet . It varies in severity (of course) and in the compensating mechanisms adopted. But it often leads to mental/emotional stress, difficulty relating to others, and social avoidance/withdrawal .
Most people, moreover , are not blessed with a 'perfect' memory for faces. Everyone, at one time or another, has failed to recognize a friend or acquaintance. Anyone can occasionally forget what their dentist looks like, who that new co-worker is, and wonder if that could be their cousin whom they haven't seen for 5 years. Normal people vary in the skill of remembering faces. In the same vein, many people tend to forget a name once in a while . We can call that pretty normal. Just like someone who is badly myopic and doesn't know they see less than others, I grew up not realizing that I didn't 'see, learn , recall ' faces correctly. I didn't know I wasn't 'normal' that way.
Every facet of talent, ability, perception places people somewhere on the continuum/curve of that ability .Prosopagnosia is one extreme of the (facial recognition) continuum and thus is abnormal. 'Normal' is the common word for people who fall in the middle of any bell-like curve. Relative to the average/median/middle, I am way over to the 'left' (arbitrary direction). How far to the left is hard to say, there's evidently others worse off. Some people with extreme PPG can't recognize near relatives, parents etc. I mostly can. I suspect those of us at the extreme bottom of the curve didn't get there by grace of the natural variation in a species, but actually lack a necessary biological/physical component that allows us facial recognition skills, or that component is damaged and doesn't function quite as efficiently as nature intended .
From The Ridiculous To The Sublime :-)
On the other extreme of the bell curve there are those extraordinary people who can immediately recognize someone they met twenty five years ago . I hear some politicians are great at this. This is also a rarity and 'not normal'. This exceptional ability to store and flawlessly recall facial characteristics would definitely warrant a scientific name and scholarly study to see how these lucky (?) folks inherited/learned this faculty. I wonder if there are negative effects from such a fantastic ability ? Would I were so blessed :-)
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