Local Woman Has Rare Condition Called 'Face Blindness'

ROYAL OAK (WWJ ) - It sounds like a movie script, but it's real life for a local woman struggling with a rare condition that makes it difficult to remember faces.

Marcia Fishman of Royal Oak says she has a great memory for information, but has had something called "face blindness" all her life. Fishman tells WWJ's Sandra McNeill when she looks at someone's face, she sees what everyone else sees, but if she turns away there is no memory implanted of the person.

It comes up as an issue often in her job as executive director of SAG AFTRA, where she represents film actors. And it even happens with members of her own family: "I have on occasion walked by my father a few times when he was younger in a group of men and not picked him out so readily," Fishman said.

William Beaumont Hospital neurologist Dr. Sunitha Santhakumar says face blindness stems from a problem with connections in parts of the brain that recognize faces. It's sometimes usually brought on by a brain injury or a stroke.

But in Fishman's case, she was born with the condition. She said face blindness makes it difficult to even watch a movie.

"I would get confused who the good guys were and the bad guys were," she said.

Fishman said she compensates by memorizing body types and mannerisms and tells people up front about the condition so no one's feelings get hurt.

"I recognize people in my neighborhood because of their dogs," said Fishman.

"I'm meeting people everyday, and I know I should know them, but I don't ... it's like a puzzle in my brain coming together, until it forms the full puzzle," she said.  "I tell them right up front 'please don't be offended, if I don't know who you are the next time I see you because I have (face) blindness.'"