I wish to present my work with a patient who discovered she had developmental prosopagnosia(facial blindness) after several years of psychoanalysis. Though as much as 2% of the population may have this, there is little if anything in the psychoanalytic literature about this condition, or it’s effects on development or treatment. I wish to highlight that many patients are unaware they have this condition or their therapist, including myself, don’t consider it.
我想呈报一个我的个案,案主在与我进行了数年精神分析工作之后察觉到自己患有发展性面部失认症[1](脸盲)。尽管有近2%的人口患有这类疾病,但精神分析文献中却很少提到这一点,也很少提到它对发育或者治疗的影响。我想强调的是,很多病人没有觉察到他们有这种情况,甚至他们的治疗师也没有察觉,这其中也包括我。
[1] 失认症(agnosia)这个术语正是由Sigmund 创造,取自希腊语a-(“没有”)和gnosis(“知识”)。失认的意思是提取知识或再认的失败。(译者注。Michael S. Gazzaniga (2015),《认知——关于心智的生物学》第三版,北京:中国轻工业出版社,p.179.)
Facial blindness or developmental prosopagnosia (DP), was considered extremely rare in my training and as recently as the 2003 review by Kress and Daum (1). Since then there has been a surge in research findings that have greatly expanded our understanding. It is now estimated that 1.5 to 2% of the population is affected. An example is a 2008 study with Hong Kong medical students by Kennerknecht and Wong(2), showing a 1.9% distribution, demonstrating the universality of this condition.
在我的受训背景中,脸盲或称面部失认症是很少被提及的,这一点正如Kress和Daum在2003年的综述中提到的那样。自那以后便涌现了大量与此相关的研究,这极大地拓展了我们对此的理解。目前的估计是约1.5-2%的人口受此影响。例如香港医学院学生Kennerknecht和Wong 所做的研究显示有1.9%的流行率,这说明这一疾病有一定的普遍性。
Numerous publications in the popular press have appeared. Several prominent people have reported to suffer from it, Oliver Sachs (3), Brad Pitt, and the artist Chuck Close, to name a few. Jane Goodall, the famous chimpanzee researcher, describes her own experience as follows: I used to think it was due to some mental laziness, and I tried desperately to memorize the faces of people I met so that, if I saw them the next day, I would recognize them. I had no trouble with those who had obvious physical characteristics—unusual bone structure, beaky nose, extreme beauty or the opposite. But with other faces I failed, miserably. Sometimes I knew that people were upset when I did not immediately recognize them—certainly I was. And because I was embarrassed, I kept it to myself. (Goodall and Berman1999).
相关的书籍报道大量出现。一些杰出人士也报告说他们遭遇此类疾病,例如奥利弗·萨克斯,布拉德·皮特和艺术家查克·克洛斯。Jane Goodall, 一位著名的黑猩猩研究者,就描述过她的亲身经历:我曾经以为这是心智惰性导致的,我试图拼命地记住我曾经遇到过的人的脸,这样我下次再见到他们时就可以认出他们。对于那些有明显生理特征的人——比如有不同寻常的骨结构,鹰钩鼻,特别漂亮或非常丑的人我是可以记住的。但可悲的是,对于其他脸我就完全不记得了。有时候我知道那些我没能马上认出的人是不高兴的——对此我也不高兴。我因此而感到尴尬,因此只能把这件事当做一个我自己的秘密。
The author Heather Sellers has written a well-received book “You Don’t Look Like Anyone I Know: A True Story of Family, Face Blindness, and Forgiveness” describing her own experiences. The observed effects on children’s behavior is described and well expressed in the title of Dalrymple and Duchaine’s paper (4)“A room full of strangers every day”.
作家Heather Sellers写过一本很受欢迎的书《你看起来不像任何一个我认得的人:一个关于家庭,脸盲和原谅的真实的故事》,书中描述了她的亲身经验。Dalrymple和Duchaine合著的的《一个每天都充满陌生人的房间》一文,就将此病对于行为的影响进行了详尽描述。
Facial recognition is a complex phenomena, that apparently involves several cortical areas. Some recent work suggests the defect in DP involves reduced connections between the occipital and visual areas. It appears to run in families and involve multiple genes. I defer to those better qualified in understanding this complex and now extensively studied area of cognitive research. See a current review by Bates and Tree(5).
面部识别是一个复杂的现象,它涉及到好多个大脑皮层区。近期的一些工作表明发展性面部失认症与枕叶和视觉区的联系减弱有关。它似乎与家族遗传有关并且涉及到很多。在此,我听从那些在这个热门的认知研究领域里,更有资格理解和研究这一现象的人的意见。可参见Bates 和Tree近期的综述。
I want to present a patient, who discovered she had DP in the course of a long standing analysis, surprising us both, and forcing some new understanding of our work together.
我想呈报一个病人。她在经历了长期的分析之后发现自己实际上患有发展性面部失认症, 这一点令我们双方都很吃惊,并促使我们对于我们共同的工作有了新的理解。
The pt. L is African American single professional woman in her late 50’s. She has been in some form of ongoing therapy most of her adult life. I remember my first impression of her as she came for her initial session. She was referred to me by another analyst, who was relocating out of state. She was a tall, awkward woman with masculine gestures yet still attractive, with a shy smile like a little girl trapped inside, her manish gestures and bearing. Her presenting symptoms were depression, difficulty in relationships, sexual preference, and episodes of transient dissociation described as “spacing out”.