Face Blindness
Face blindness is condition that makes it difficult or impossible to recognize humans by face. Some people are born with the issue, and others suffer an injury or trauma that causes it, such as a seizure or a stroke. Even a mild case can be frightening and confusing.
Face blindness is a disability that runs on a continuum, just like dyslexia. I have a severe case. I cannot recognize even my own face, in a photograph or a video.
In my memoir, You Don’t Look Like Anyone I Know, I describe how I figured out I have suffered from face blindness for my whole life, and I write about the many challenges, and how I try to cope.
Essays and Interviews
One of my essays on face blindness, "Who Are You?" appears in the December 2022 issue of Notes and Records: the Royal Society Journal of the History of Science.
At Rockefeller University, Alexander Gelfand interviewed me for an article in Seek, "Beyond Recognition."
Susan Fitzgerald interviewed me for her piece in Brain & Life. You can read the full article here.
Learn More
If you think you might have face blindness or if you would like to find out more about the condition, here’s a good place to start your search.
How common is face blindness? Face blindness probably affects about 3% of the population. Read this interview with Dr. Joe DeGutis in Harvard Medicine magazine to understand more about current research and the crucial role face recognition plays in daily life.
In the Social Perception Lab at Princeton, researchers study exactly how we perceive and evaluate face information. Alexander Todorov’s book is of interest to the general reader: Face Value: The Irresistible Influence of First Impressions.
“What Life is Like When Your Brain Can’t Recognize Faces” by Sadie Dingfelder appears in the August 6, 2024 issue of National Geographic.