On the "Terminology" page I wrote a short paragraph on prosopagnosia or faceblindness. The other day I was watching some YouTube videos on prosopagnosia and I only then realised how awful it must be if you can't even recognise your own family members or yourself.
I myself don't have such an extreme case of prosopagnosia but I do struggle with recognising faces and rely a lot on other characteristics like hair style or colour, clothing, voice, the place I meet them, ... For example, I can recognise without problem a bunch of the people that take the same bus as me everyday. Non of them by their face of course. But if I meet them at, let's say the supermarket, I'd probably have no idea they are the same person.
I find it really difficult to see the similarities between siblings. I wouldn't say I'm unable to see any similarities, it depends on how well I know these people and what situation I'm in at that point. When my flatmate brings home friends and I'm working at my computer in my room I will get up and say hello. But I'm usually still concentrated on my work, so the next morning I find a stranger in my kitchen. Or maybe I've even met them before but they look like completely new people to me.
The first time I had to teach a group class (10 students) I had to ask them to always sit in the same place, because otherwise I would mix them up. I'd learned the order they sat in by heart and whenever they changed places I would often get confused and call them another name.
Would you be able to describe what shape your mother's face is? I certainly can't. I also can't recognise my friends on pictures if they're not taken frontal. And my boyfriend stopped shaving off his beard because whenever I saw him without a stubble I would have trouble recognising him and wouldn't want to touch him. I am also completely unable to describe his face, I prefer hearing his voice over looking at his picture.
Do you know those to actors, Javier Bardem and Jeffrey Dean Morgan? I have no idea how to see the difference between them. I guess to people with very strong prosopagnosia the whole world looks like Javier Bardem...
I myself don't have such an extreme case of prosopagnosia but I do struggle with recognising faces and rely a lot on other characteristics like hair style or colour, clothing, voice, the place I meet them, ... For example, I can recognise without problem a bunch of the people that take the same bus as me everyday. Non of them by their face of course. But if I meet them at, let's say the supermarket, I'd probably have no idea they are the same person.
I find it really difficult to see the similarities between siblings. I wouldn't say I'm unable to see any similarities, it depends on how well I know these people and what situation I'm in at that point. When my flatmate brings home friends and I'm working at my computer in my room I will get up and say hello. But I'm usually still concentrated on my work, so the next morning I find a stranger in my kitchen. Or maybe I've even met them before but they look like completely new people to me.
The first time I had to teach a group class (10 students) I had to ask them to always sit in the same place, because otherwise I would mix them up. I'd learned the order they sat in by heart and whenever they changed places I would often get confused and call them another name.
Would you be able to describe what shape your mother's face is? I certainly can't. I also can't recognise my friends on pictures if they're not taken frontal. And my boyfriend stopped shaving off his beard because whenever I saw him without a stubble I would have trouble recognising him and wouldn't want to touch him. I am also completely unable to describe his face, I prefer hearing his voice over looking at his picture.
Do you know those to actors, Javier Bardem and Jeffrey Dean Morgan? I have no idea how to see the difference between them. I guess to people with very strong prosopagnosia the whole world looks like Javier Bardem...