I have partial facial blindness which makes it hard to picture faces that aren’t super familiar and I can’t create new faces in my head. I end up picturing faces of people I know and celebrities.

It becomes frustrating when I’m reading as the faces morph constantly into my head. I constantly stop to get the faces right. Sydney Sweeney ended up as 2 characters when I read “Bunny” lol. I also get a biased view of the characters this way. It makes it really hard to enjoy reading nowadays. Any suggestions? Different strategies for picturing or reading without picturing?

  • Objective-Name-1802@alien.topB
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    11 months ago

    I don’t have facial blindness but I don’t usually picture faces either. Characters are like background figures in a painting, reduced to only their most striking features which can still be captured at the scale of a small brush stroke. It would be like asking me how to imagine the specific grain on a wooden floor board, that level of detail would just never occur to me.

    • BroderUlf@alien.topB
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      11 months ago

      Same. And I don’t realize I’m doing it. It feels like they’re completely there, but if I suddenly had to nail down the details, I would realize it’s just a vague idea.