Face Blindness!

Summary

The web content discusses the experience of living with prosopagnosia, commonly known as face blindness, through a free verse poem and an explanatory note.

Abstract

The article titled "Face Blindness!" delves into the personal and emotional challenges faced by individuals with prosopagnosia, a condition that impairs the ability to recognize faces. Through a poignant free verse poem, the author describes the struggle of not being able to identify even familiar faces, the fear and confusion that accompanies social interactions, and the reliance on non-facial cues like voice to recognize people. The poem also touches on the author's personal journey of self-recognition, involving the tactile exploration of their own face and the creation of self-portraits to reaffirm their identity. An informative paragraph defines prosopagnosia and acknowledges the support from Dr. Mehmet Yildiz and the editors at Illumination.

Opinions

The author expresses a sense of alienation and discomfort when unable to recognize faces, including their own.
There is a reliance on non-visual cues such as voice to identify individuals, which brings relief in social settings.
The act of drawing self-portraits is presented as a therapeutic process for coping with face blindness and reconnecting with one's own identity.
The author conveys gratitude towards Dr. Mehmet Yildiz and the editors at Illumination for their support in publishing content related to this condition.

A free verse poem on the inability to recognize faces

i seem to know you, that face, those eyes, the meandering line of age criss-crossing through, but i hesitate to spell your name, a bit reluctant, a sense of fear bottling inside me, a strange confusion, engulfing my senses, as i decide, my brain tingling, i realize i cannot recognize your face, it mixes up, into numerous possibilities, and i just stare, trying so hard, to smile, to go with the flow, to not let you know, that, i do not know you until i hear your voice, and, heave a sigh of relief.

somedays,i know that i am me, but i do not know my face,a stranger, i caress my face, my fingers journeying across, the hilly landscape of the nose, the lips, the eyes, i draw,i keep drawing myself, my sketch, over and over again, i keep looking into it, my eyes keep looking into it,my drawing has gotten better, trusting my own two hands,i lose and find myself, slowly, continuing, until, i find the real me, lurking somewhere in the contours, of my self-portrait!

Prosopagnosia, also called face blindness, is a cognitive disorder of face perception in which the ability to recognize familiar faces, including one’s own face (self-recognition), is impaired.

Thank you so much, Dr Mehmet Yildiz and all the editors at Illumination for sheltering many of my stuff.