Identity Unknown: How acute brain disease can destroy knowledge of oneself and others

by Barbara Wilson, Claire Rytina, Joe Mole

This book gives a rare, poignant and in depth understanding of what it is like to live with the severe after effects of brain damage caused by a viral infection of the brain. It tells the story of Claire, a survivor of encephalitis, who was left with an inability to recognise faces, also called prosopagnosia. It describes our current knowledge of the condition, and offers a unique report on daily living with a condition which many of us have, for too long, known too little about. Identity Unknown will be essential reading for professionals working in rehabilitation settings, and will also be of great interest to people who have sustained a brain injury and their families.

168 pages, Hardcover

First published December 13, 2014

Reviews

[Kike Ramos · Rating 5 out of 5]

English/ Español

So, this was an amazing book. It's aboout prosopagnosia, well, more like about the life of a person with that problem. Prosopagnosia is the incapacity to recognize faces, but also you forget all the memories attached to those faces, so it's a pretty big deal. The first half of this book tells all the cognitive and neuroscience theory about prosopagnosia, and the second half is just Claire, an ex-nurse who has this problem. She says how this hs changed her life and how she has learned to deal with it. An amazing book for those who are interested in taking care and treatment of people who suffered a brain insult.

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Ok, este libro fue increíble. Es un estudio de caso sobre prosopagnosia. La prosopagnosia es la incapacidad para reconocer rostros, pero también se pierden las memorias asociadas a esos rostros, por lo que es un gran problema. La primera mitad del libro describe las teorías cognitivas y de la neurociencia que tratan de explicar este problema. La segunda mitad es el testimonio de Claire, una ex enfermera que tiene prosopagnosia. Ella describe cómo ha cambiado su vida y cómo ha aprendido a vivir con esto. Un libro increíble para aquellos interesados en el cuidado y tratamiento de las personas con lesión cerebral.