In that regard, I liked the simple description (p 71) that "[i]n exchange for shining a light on the disorder, prosopagnosia had made him an adult."
That also raises another question I would pose to my classmates: At what point does a person become an adult? What do you think Duchaine would have done with his life if he had never discovered Bill Choisser's website?
The essay suggests other important possible implications of the neurological phenomenon responsible for the way human beings process and remember visually identifying information about one another. Specifically, it implies that just as the basis of human facial recognition is a hard-wired physiological process, so may be the manner in which human beings respond to skin color. If that is true,...
The fact that components of racism me be hard-wired in humans does not excuse it, but it does suggest that it is not as much a function of socialization as we have always assumed. At the same time, social learning is clearly the biggest determinant of racial attitudes, but the phenomenon of hard-wired skin color recognition complicates the issue, both in terms of understanding the racist impulse and also in terms of understanding how to minimize it in society.
Finally, the most poignant aspect of the essay was that the disorder responsible for the inability of sufferers to recognize others or even themselves ultimately became the main source of identity for Brad Duchaine.
