Radiolab: "Strangers in the Mirror"

Date: June 16, 2010
Hosts: Robert Krulwich, Jad Abumrad
Guests: Dr. Oliver Sacks, Chuck Close
Theme: Understanding face blindness (prosopagnosia) as experienced by two remarkable individuals: a renowned neuroscientist and a famous portrait artist.

Episode Overview

This episode of Radiolab explores the mysterious and often isolating neurological condition called face blindness (prosopagnosia) through a live conversation with Dr. Oliver Sacks and famed painter Chuck Close. Both suffer from the condition, but their approaches to life and adaptation differ starkly. The discussion, recorded at the World Science Festival, delves into the practical, emotional, and creative implications of not recognizing faces, even those of loved ones—or themselves.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. What is Face Blindness?

• Definition: A neurological disorder, often congenital, that impairs the ability to recognize faces—even familiar ones.
• Personal Experiences: Both guests recount lifelong challenges in remembering or identifying people by their face alone.

"When they look at a face for 10, 20, 60 minutes, the other guy's face just doesn't get in or stick into their heads."
— Robert Krulwich (02:32)

2. Learning They Were "Unusual"

• When Did They Realize?

  • Oliver Sacks: Realized as a child when he struggled to recognize friends except by distinctive features or movements.

    "If Jonathan Miller was brought in paralyzed and totally straight, would you know it was Jonathan Miller?" (04:29)
    "[...] when I have got to know someone well, then I will recognize the face. But it takes a long while." — Oliver Sacks (04:36)

  • Chuck Close: Only recognizes people contextually (e.g., if they enter his studio, he assumes they are meant to be there).

    "I can spend an evening talking to someone, looking at them across a table, and I see them the next day, I'd have no idea I'd ever seen them, nor do I remember their name." — Chuck Close (05:04)

3. Art, Memory, and Coping Mechanisms

• Chuck Close’s Artistic Process:

  • Driven by his disability, Chuck's method flattens and dissects faces into dozens of painted "cells," allowing memory and recognition through stillness and abstraction.

    "Everything in my work is determined by my learning disabilities. So face blind. I'm sure I was driven to paint portraits by being face blind." — Chuck Close (05:44) "If I can flatten an image out and scan it the way I work, I can commit it to memory. And I have almost photographic memory for things that are flat and still." (05:56)

  • Flatness vs. Movement:

    • Moving faces are new every moment: "You move your head a half an inch, to me, it's a whole new face I've never seen before." — Chuck Close (06:21)

  • Not Even Recognizing Themselves:

    • Oliver Sacks offers a humorous anecdote:

      "...several times I have started apologizing to large, clumsy, bearded people and realize that it's a mirror." — Oliver Sacks (06:30) He once mistook another bearded man for his own reflection (06:42–07:33).

• Emotional Recognition

  • Both report they can detect emotion in others, even without facial recognition:

    "I think I'm actually pretty good at that. ... I journey across that landscape like Gulliver's Lilliputians crawling over the face of a giant, not knowing that they were on the face of a giant..." — Chuck Close (07:57) "I think I'm as sensitive to emotion as you know, and little things, including little grimaces which indicate that someone is lying." — Oliver Sacks (09:02)

4. Cognitive and Social Adaptation

• Memory Strengths & Weaknesses:

  • Chuck Close: Severe trouble with numbers, required visual tools to add/subtract, never learned multiplication tables; had to develop elaborate coping mechanisms in school. He identifies as both face blind and deeply dyslexic (09:55).
  • Oliver Sacks: Excellent memory for facts, written material.

• Social Ramifications & Strategies:

  • Chuck Close copes through charm, humor, and openness about his disorder.

    "We have to prove to the people who we see that we care about them, even though we're not going to recognize their faces... you have to be charming... you have to be fast on your feet..." (10:35) "Oh yeah. Self deprecating humor will cover a great deal. And if you laugh at yourself, you're giving permission for other people to see it as less than the most tragic condition." — Chuck Close (14:08)

  • Oliver Sacks tends to withdraw and rely on his assistant to help avoid embarrassing social encounters.

    "I tend to withdraw. Well, it doesn't solve it. It often makes it worse." — Oliver Sacks (12:08)

• Finding Home in Other Spheres:

  • Sacks feels more comfortable with landscapes and animals than people; photographs scenery and plants when traveling. Recognizes neighbors' dogs in his building, not the humans (13:11–13:19).

5. Strategies for "Seeing" People

• Noticing Salient Features over Faces

  • Both rely on distinctive features (hair, ears, glasses) or context to deduce people's identities.

    "I'm better at recognizing caricatures than portraits because in a caricature salient features are exaggerated. And for me it's to some extent I have to make an inventory of salient features." — Oliver Sacks (14:56)

• Breaking Down the Problem

  • Chuck's incremental, cell-by-cell approach to painting faces mirrors his problem-solving strategy:

    "If you break it down into small enough bite size units, incremental units, then I make this big overwhelming problem into thousands of little more solvable problems." — Chuck Close (15:29)

6. The Visual Test & Gender Discrepancy ([22:25])

A live audience experiment challenges recognition:

• Removing Hair/Context: Celebrity faces are shown minus hair to see if people can recognize them.
• Outcome: Only a handful get all right—all are women.

  "They're all women. That's interesting." — Robert Krulwich (24:26)

• Discussion: Many have mild to moderate difficulty with faces; some may secretly experience a form of prosopagnosia.

7. Science, Genetics, and Prevalence

• Acquired vs. Congenital:

  • Face blindness can arise from brain injury/tumor, but lifelong, inherited forms exist—often under-recognized (21:01, 21:44).

• Genetics:

  • Often familial: "strongly familial, meaning genetic, perhaps." — Robert Krulwich/Oliver Sacks (21:50)

• Prevalence:

  • Severe forms: 2–3% of the population—6 to 8 million in the US (22:18).

8. Empathy & Connection Despite Isolation

• Through Art & Story:
  • Both celebrate human connection via creative work—narrative (Sacks) or visual (Close)—despite their neurological disconnect.

    "You celebrate your connectedness with humanity in a really important way. ... Empathy is the basis of, I think, the mortar that holds society together..." — Chuck Close to Oliver Sacks (20:01)

9. Coping, Acceptance, and Community

• No Known Cure:

  • "Is there any cure for this? Not so far as I know." — Oliver Sacks (19:32–19:40)

• Humor & Vulnerability:

  • Both emphasize the importance—and inevitability—of humor, self-deprecation, and advocacy for awareness.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• "You move your head a half an inch, to me, it's a whole new face I've never seen before." — Chuck Close (06:21)
• "Several times I have started apologizing to large, clumsy, bearded people and realize that it's a mirror." — Oliver Sacks (06:30)
• "One of the great quotes I've ever heard is from the great painter Robert Rauschenberg... 'you have to find other venues for your intelligence.'" — Chuck Close (10:35)
• "Self deprecating humor will cover a great deal. And if you laugh at yourself, you're giving permission for other people to see it as less than the most tragic condition." — Chuck Close (14:08)
• "Empathy is the basis of, I think, the mortar that holds society together..." — Chuck Close (20:01)
• "There are a lot of people who may be leading lives of embarrassment and partial disability and secrecy and shame." — Oliver Sacks (25:03)

Important Timestamps

• [02:32] Introduction to the idea of face blindness and guests
• [04:17] Early recognition of face blindness
• [05:44] Chuck Close explains how face blindness shaped his art
• [06:30] Sacks's mirror anecdote
• [07:57] Emotional recognition despite face blindness
• [09:55] Coping: Memory and learning disabilities
• [10:35] Social adaptation; using charm and humor
• [14:56] Using features/context to recognize people
• [15:29] Chuck Close's method of breaking down faces
• [16:11] Technical/artistic description of Close’s process
• [18:06] Sacks’s vision loss and its effects
• [19:32] No known cure for prosopagnosia
• [20:01] Empathy and creative connection
• [21:01] Face blindness: acquired vs. familial
• [22:18] Prevalence statistics
• [22:36–24:26] Live facial recognition test & gender observation
• [25:03] Social stigma and silence

Tone & Style

The episode is characterized by warmth, humor, and deep empathy, blending live audience interaction with personal storytelling and scientific explanation. The mood is reflective but never somber, punctuated by laughter, self-deprecation, and a celebration of adaptation through art and intellect.

Conclusion

"Strangers in the Mirror" offers a profound look at the inner worlds of two extraordinary men who cannot remember faces, even as they commit themselves to portraying and understanding humanity. Their stories illuminate not just the peculiarities of the brain, but the universal quests for connection, meaning, and self-acceptance amid profound difference. For listeners, the conversation is a reminder of both the challenges and creative potential that come with seeing the world differently.