Prosopagnosia

A colleague of mine is face blind. If she meets someone that she knows out of context, she will not recognise them. This could be friends, or immediate family. When she watches television, she gets so confused about the characters that she has to be reminded of who is who.

I had that problem when I watched ‘The Departed’. To me Matt Damon and Leonardo DiCaprio look very similar. In The Departed they both play policemen, who are in a very similar situation. As Leonardo says himself “These characters are two sides of the same coin in a lot of ways. They come from different backgrounds, but they could have easily made choices the other character made.” To me they were ONE character.

I can watch the same actor in two films on the same day and have absolutely no idea that one man or woman is playing two different roles. I can spend hours with someone, but when they come up to me and say ‘hello’ in a different environment, I can fail to place them. Am I face blind? No. I am just plain stupid.

In doing a face blindness test, with the handicap of being interrupted by a telephone call mid-flow, I got 95% of the answers right. The average is 85%. I actually have great facial recognition skills.
Prosopagnosia Test

I think I just concentrate on character so much, that I fail to pay attention to the face before me. I must learn to stare!

“You haven’t got a spot on the end of your nose; I’m just trying to remember your face”.

Fabpants Recommends: The Strange Death of Liberal England - Forward March. I am revisiting it as I type. It's providing immense pleasure. A 2007 treat. They were amazing at Latitude too.