Can't remember names
In this New York Times article, a condition known as prosopagnosia is described. Basically it is "face blindness" or the inability to recall persons by their faces.
Prosopagnosia is described as some people's inability to distinguish facial characteristics, but a complete ability to recall phone numbers, books, or other pieces of fact.
I have the opposite problem. I recall faces right away… but I don't remember people's names. Both situations lead to awkward moments and I feel embarrassed whenever I recall someone's face, but not their name. This even happens with celebrities and movie stars.
So is there a name for my condition? Am I the only one who can read an entire book and never be able to recall the main character's names? I'll be able to tell you the whole plot in generalities and expunge on the moral or undertones. What is it that I lack in my medical make-up that prevents me from recalling names easily?
Are we developing whole conditions for small individual differences? Is "face blindness" a real condition in the same way schizophrenia is a condition?
The article talks about different ways that those with the condition learn to remember people. They cite people's mannerisms or clothing. But isn't that useful to each of us without prosopagnosia as well? Is it a condition simply because we can measure a specific amount of the population to share the characteristic in common?
Does labeling it a condition elicit sympathy or the desire to change the situation… to "better" the person afflicted?
I'm not sure the answers, so I ask the questions.
Prosopagnosia is described as some people's inability to distinguish facial characteristics, but a complete ability to recall phone numbers, books, or other pieces of fact.
I have the opposite problem. I recall faces right away… but I don't remember people's names. Both situations lead to awkward moments and I feel embarrassed whenever I recall someone's face, but not their name. This even happens with celebrities and movie stars.
So is there a name for my condition? Am I the only one who can read an entire book and never be able to recall the main character's names? I'll be able to tell you the whole plot in generalities and expunge on the moral or undertones. What is it that I lack in my medical make-up that prevents me from recalling names easily?
Are we developing whole conditions for small individual differences? Is "face blindness" a real condition in the same way schizophrenia is a condition?
The article talks about different ways that those with the condition learn to remember people. They cite people's mannerisms or clothing. But isn't that useful to each of us without prosopagnosia as well? Is it a condition simply because we can measure a specific amount of the population to share the characteristic in common?
Does labeling it a condition elicit sympathy or the desire to change the situation… to "better" the person afflicted?
I'm not sure the answers, so I ask the questions.
1 Comments:
Remembering names is as easy as pie if you can picture people's faces.
What you have to do is to turn the person's name into a picture or series of pictures, then link those pictures to a facial feature that stands out.
Here's a short article I've written on the subject:
Here's the technique:
You can see the person's face, so you'll be able to picture it in your mind easily. What you need to do is pick the person's most notable facial feature - it doesn't matter what it is: big nose, beautiful blue eyes, bushy eyebrows - whatever strikes you first when you see this person.
For example, let's say the person has bushy black eyebrows, and let's say his name is John Smith. All you have to do is turn his name into a picture or a series of pictures, and attach those pictures to his notable facial feature.
Here's how you do it. To turn his name into two very distinct pictures is really easy. If I asked you to picture John as an object, what would you picture? Most people would answer that they would picture a toilet, for which john is a slang term. Now for Smith what would you picture? How about a big, burly blacksmith?
Okay, so now we've got a picture of John Smith's main or most notable facial feature: his bushy eyebrows, and we've turned his first name and surname into pictures. What we need to do now is to attach or link the pictures that make up his name to the image of his bushy eyebrows.
Picture this in your mind: See John Smith with his bushy black eyebrows, and as you look at him, imagine a large, purple toilet growing up out of his left eyebrow. It grows out and it's sitting there in his eyebrow, and it starts flushing itself over and over again!
Now imagine that a big burly blacksmith with his hammer climbs out of John's right eyebrow. Picture it: the blacksmith climbs out of John's right eyebrow and he's really annoyed that this ridiculous purple toilet is flushing itself over and over again. So the blacksmith takes his hammer and smashes the purple toilet into a million pieces all over John's bushy black eyebrows!
Now the next time you see John, you'll notice his bushy black eyebrows and what will you remember? You'll remember the purple toilet (john) growing out of his left eyebrow and flushing itself over and over, then getting smashed by the big burly blacksmith that climbed out of the right eyebrow. You'll see in your mind's eye that little scenario when you see John, and you'll never forget his name again!
And there you have it! Just employ this simple technique, and you'll never forget anyone's name ever again!
Now I know it sounds crazy, but it really works! You can use this technique to memorize anyone's name, and practicing the technique really helps to improve your memory overall. All you have to do is turn their name into a picture. Here's a hint: use your imagination!
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