Oliver Sacks has face blindness! Comments on interview link

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Check out this discussion between Dr. Sacks, Chuck Close (photorealist painter specializing in faces who is also faceblind) and Robert Krulwich. Intelligent discussion about how they deal with it. What are your comments? My comment: I think Dr. Sacks and Chuck Close chose their professions because of face blindness. Link to mp3: RadioLab- Face Blindness

Wow, good program!

That whole series is pretty cool, actually. I just listened to the one about the contageous tumors.

I am glad to hear you liked it. I liked hearing how such intelligent and articulate people deal with being different. Are you familiar with Oliver Sacks? He is the person who Robin Williams' character in the film "Awakenings" is modeled after. He wrote some fascinating books about people who are not NT, including "An Anthropologist on Mars." It has a segment about Temple Grandin.

That series, RadioLab is my favorite podcast. It often deals with some pretty fundamental subjects. Always thought provoking, and entertaining. There was a recent one about deception which I thought was relevant to discussions here on WP. I just found a link to a thread here on WP about that one: http://www.wrongplanet.net/postt114466.html

Here is another link to a thread I made quite a while back (with a link to the podcast) referring to a RadioLab episode about someone with ASD and his family. Link[url=http://http://www.wrongplanet.net/postt114466.html]

Last edited by Rocky on 25 Jul 2010, 8:34 am, edited 2 times in total.

Oh yeah, I heard that one too. I was skeptical when I downloaded it, but it turned out to be fascinating.

This is really interesting. I didn't know Oliver Sacks was faceblind. I'm faceblind myself (apparently it's quite common with people on the autistic spectrum) - and I also love drawing portraits, so I can totally relate to what Chuck Close is saying. I see all the details of faces, and the angles and ratios, but I don't recognise the whole. And only the other day I thought I saw some awkward woman with long hair and glasses walking towards me in a shop, and it turned out to be me in the mirror!

I am glad you enjoyed the podcast. I found what Chuck Close had to say equally interesting. When I was a kid, I would constantly draw. I was good at reproducing the details, but the proportions were often not accurate. I would apparently focus on part of the drawing and lose sight of the rest of it. BTW I really like your avatar. Did you draw it? It looks a little like some drawings I have seen by John Lennon.

Thanks. Yes, I drew it. It's not the kind of portrait I normally draw, because I usually use pencil or charcoal, but I wanted something colourful to use on the internet, so I used coloured pens.