The lead actor in True Detective, Season 2 shaved his moustache mid-season, and I didn’t recognize him. Watched in complete confusion for 15 minutes. It’s almost like a disability I have.
Facial Recognition
Opinions, art, debate
Opinions, art, debate
The lead actor in True Detective, Season 2 shaved his moustache mid-season, and I didn’t recognize him. Watched in complete confusion for 15 minutes. It’s almost like a disability I have.
Clarissa's Blog 
Reply to “Facial Recognition”
I have a similar problem with most people’s faces. It seems to be a part of NVLD, Non-Verbal Learning Disorder.
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It’s definitely non-verbal. I retain words beautifully but everything that is visual is simply impossible.
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I have that problem as well. People at work change their hair and it sometimes takes me a very long time to recognize them. I’ve had issues with Halloween costumes as well. It’s like I know I should know this person but I can’t figure out who it is.
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” I didn’t recognize him”
I have a friend who’s the total opposite, he recognized an actress from the Danish series Borgen who had a small part on Game of Thrones even though her hair color was changed, there were no close-ups in GoT and she was speaking a different language….
I (barely) recognized her only because I’d read about her being cast…
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You’re not the only one! I have a ridiculously hard time keeping people sorted out, in real life, if they change hairstyle, makeup, or facial hair. As a kid, it was not unusual for me to get lost in shops because I thoughtlessly followed someone with hair similar to my mother’s.
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I have a colleague with face blindness. He doesn’t even try to recognize people passing him by. I believe he relies on voice and context to recognize people. He says that, to him, it’s not at all surprising that no one could recognize Superman when he put his glasses on and “disguised” as Clark Kent.
This is fascinating to me because I’m the opposite and have a really good ability to discern and memorize faces. I think it’s connected with the ability to draw.
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Yes, it’s a disability and it’s called prosopagnosia. I suffer from it too.
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I wonder, is it linked to the fact that we read too much and are very attuned to verbal cues (including but not limited to metaphor, simile, sound effects, phonetic and phonological idiosyncrasies, puns, semantic range, all this in multiple languages) while unable to distinguish even the most basic facial features?
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I’m also very sensitive to people’s emotional states. It’s a result of growing up in a chaotic family environment.
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You’ve said before you’re an INTJ, but …
… have you considered the possibility that you’re really an INFJ that’s been mistyped, and that all of the INTJ habits are over-compensating for the traits that people think you should have?
What you just described is so common for INFJs that it’s almost like a “Hello, my name is” sticker.
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I’m pretty good at remembering faces, but terrible at remembering names. It’s embarrassing. If only there were some way to make everyone wear name tags in public…
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“good at remembering faces, but terrible at remembering names”
I’m not bad at either but the longer I teach the more problems I have in combining them… that is I recognize names on emails or other messages but I can’t remember what they look like or I see them and recognize them but can’t put my finger on their name….
Occasionally a former student recognizes me and approaches and we have to talk for a couple of minutes before I remember them…
me: “Oh yes, now I remember, you were studying Arabic… what are you doing now?”
student: “Actually I live and work in China now, I’m just here for vacation”
(more or less an actual conversation I had once)
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