When Sadie Dingfelder moved to Berkeley Springs in March 2021, she said she promised herself that she’d tell absolutely everyone she met about her “weird” neurological disorder — prosopagnosia, also known as faceblindness.
“I can see faces just fine. My problem is that I forget them the moment I look away. One time, I accosted a random man in the grocery store because I thought he was my husband. I’ve failed to recognize my own parents and even myself (in group photos),” said Dingfelder.
Her book, Do I Know You? A Faceblind Reporter’s Journey into the Science of Sight, Memory and Imagination, came out in June.
“You’d think this level of impairment would be obvious, but I had no idea that I was faceblind for most of my life. I only found out in 2019, right before my 40th birthday,” Dingfelder said. “Without realizing it, I had learned to cover for my ignorance — by being super friendly to everyone, for instance, and never using proper names.”
Dingfelder said these coping mechanisms had to further adjust when she moved to Morgan County.
“While these tricks might fly in big cities, they were not going to work in a small town. So, after moving to Berkeley Springs, I started telling everyone about my disorder — and many of my new friends had to sit through my spiel multiple times,” she said.
Her friend Linda was in this category.
“Whenever she mentioned that she’s from Tampa, I’d say, ‘Really?? I’m from Tampa!’ I was starting to think that everyone in Berkeley Springs was a Florida transplant — but, luckily for me, Linda got into the habit of preemptively telling me her name,” Dingfelder said.
It felt weird to her to talk so much about her disability, she said. But that problem fixed itself when, in 2022, she got a book deal.
“I got paid by a ‘Big Five’ publisher to write about my late-in-life diagnosis, and how it helped me solve a lot of long running mysteries in my life — such as, why I have never, ever been asked out on a date. (A moot point, since I am now married, but a mystery nonetheless.),” she said.
While writing the book, Dingfelder said she found out that the problem isn’t just that she is bad at face recognition — it’s that most people are very good at it.
“If you’re like 99% of the population, you can chat with someone for 20 minutes at a party, and recognize them the next day. I bet you can’t do that with, say, a rock,” said Dingfelder.
“This is not just because rocks are notoriously introverted — it’s because you have two olive-sized chunks of brain devoted specifically to face recognition. They are located above your ears. This kind of specialization is unusual in the human brain.”
is available for sale at all major booksellers, and signed copies are on offer at Fairfax Coffee House and Creekside Provisions in Berkeley Springs.
The Morgan County public library also has a few copies and there is an audiobook version of Dingfelder’s book as well.
“I’m so grateful to Berkeley Springs for being a great place to put pen to paper, and also for all the friends I have made here — many of whom make cameo appearances in my book. If you see me around, don’t hesitate to stop and chat. Just be sure to tell me who the heck you are, or you may end up sitting through an impromptu lecture about face recognition. Again,” said Dingfelder.
