Identity Unknown

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.

Barbara A. Wilson is a neuropsychologist and founder of the Oliver Zangwill Centre for Neuropsychological Rehabilitation in Ely, UK. She has worked in brain injury rehabilitation for over 35 years and has published 21 books, 270 journal articles and chapters and 8 neuropsychological tests. Among her many awards she has an OBE and two lifetime achievement awards. She is the editor of the journal Neuropsychological Rehabilitation, which she founded in 1991. Claire Robertson is a nurse, mother, wife and friend. She qualified as a State Registered Nurse, a Sick Children's nurse and a nurse for Special and Intensive Care of the Newborn. She survived Herpes simplex encephalitis in 2004, which left her with a very severe loss of knowledge of people and their identity. She regularly gives talks about her difficulties and the experience of life after brain injury. Joe Mole is a psychology assistant at the Oliver Zangwill Centre for Neuropsychological Rehabiliation in Ely, UK. He is currently involved in research into the neuropsychology of face recognition, navigation and time perception.

PART ONE 1. Encephalitis 2. An introduction to visual perceptual disorders and to the agnosias 3. Theoretical Accounts of Prosopagnosia 4. The Self and Identity PART TWO 5. Life before the illness: Claire's account 6. Calling my husband Stephanie 7. Kissing a cauliflower 8. Together we can 9. The red group - 'learning to belong to my own life' 10. A face is not a person 11. Strategies that have helped 12. Can you believe your eyes? Sight difficulties following encephalitis 13. 'Metallic not sour' and pieces of the jigsaw 14. Paddling through the river and stepping on stones: An Overall Summary of my Life Since Encephalitis 15. Final last thoughts