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3 Comments on this article:

Report as: spam offensive panj on 6/05/07 at 3am

"Pinker says, “The conscious mind is a spin doctor, not the commander in chief.” The conscious mind is the great rationalizer, spouting off convincing (and false) reasons for why we do what we do."
This accounts for religion,then.

Report as: spam offensive Chiron613 on 6/05/07 at 11am

This is a fascinating topic. I personally don't find this sort of thing scary; I see it as a remarkable effort on the part of the brain to cope with what would otherwise be devastating disabilities. Even though in many of these cases the coping effort was misguided, I still find it more poignant than scary - quixotic, not diabolical...

Report as: spam offensive Anne Mills on 6/05/07 at 6pm

The book's description of Prosopagnosia is greatly in error. PAs can see faces perfectly well. Not all people with Prosopagnosia recognize the face of a close relative, but most do. PAs learn to cope, using other clues to recognize people and they are usually aware when they do not recognize the face they see, but still are able to discriminate between a human face and a fire hydrant or door knob. Fire hydrants and door knobs are not stored in the same area of the brain as faces, so the two could not be confused. The subject in the book may have had Prosopagnosia, but he also had other unidentified neurological problems as well. I was surprised at the patronizing, supercilious tone of the article. Accurate information about Prosopagnosia can be found at www. findaface. org




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