Thierry Lhermitte has admitted to suffering from the same disease as American actor Brad Pitt, which prevents him from recognizing who owns the faces he sees. A rare, extremely disabling neurological disorder. Explanations.
Invited to Europe 1 last December, actor Thierry Lhermitte admitted to having a rare neurological disease called prosopagnosia, also known as “cfacial ecity”. More specifically, it is a very disabling visual agnosia that makes face recognition impossible. People with this disorder see faces perfectly, but are unable to recognize or tell them apart, including when it comes to their loved ones. A person with prosopagnosia may not recognize their own face either.
Multiple causes for three types of disease
There are three types of prosopagnosia: congenital prosopagnosia which develops from childhood, progressive prosopagnosia which evolves gradually over time, often due to a neurodegenerative failure and so-called “acquired” prosopagnosia which occurs suddenly, often following a stroke, head trauma, encephalitis or even a brain tumour. The disease was first described in 1947 by German neurologist Joachim Bodamer who observed it found in two former soldiers following brain damage. The pediatric form was not described until later, in 1995.
Thierry Lhermitte’s disease was diagnosed 10 years ago. Now 67, he tells Franceinfo: “When for the third time, I introduce myself to someone who has already told me ten minutes before, ‘I’ve already seen you’, it’s horrible . So I put that down to joking. In fact, it was sincere“” Very rare, prosopagnosia would affect between 2 and 2.5% of the world’s population, including another celebrity: Brad Pitt.
“Where did we meet?”
The American actor made the revelation in the media in 2013, mainly to justify the fact that he can pass for someone pretentious who does not pay attention to the people he meets or crosses paths with. “There are so many people who hate me because they think I’m disrespectful. So I said to myself that this year, I was going to talk about it and tell people ‘OK, where did we meet?’. But it only got worse. People were more offended. They tell you ‘you are selfish, you are pretentious’. But the truth is, to me, it’s a mystery. I can’t memorize a face and yet I come from a design/aesthetic background.”
In 2015, British researchers developed a new test supposed to facilitate screening, but there is currently no treatment for this disease. Patients attach themselves to other details to recognize their loved ones such as the smell, the voice, a handshake or even the attitude, the gait.
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