Brad Pitt Has Rare Condition That Makes Him Seem Aloof

Brad Pitt diagnosed himself with prosopagnosia, a rare condition that affects 2% of the population. Prosopagnosia, also known as face blindness, prevents people from recognizing and recalling faces.

Prosopagnosics have difficulty knowing whether they have seen a face before, and they often have problems recognizing faces they have encountered many times.

Prosopagnosics may result from brain injuries and is a neurological sign.

Pitt revealed his self-diagnosis in a GQ interview that came out today.

Pitt has talked in the past about a curious problem he has in social settings, especially at parties. He struggles to remember new people, to recognize their faces, and he fears it’s led to a certain impression of him: that he’s remote and aloof, inaccessible, self-absorbed. But the truth is, he wants to remember the people he meets and he’s ashamed that he can’t. He’s never been officially diagnosed but thinks he may suffer from a specific condition: prosopagnosia, an inability to recognize people’s faces that’s otherwise known as face blindness.

Pitt has also talked about his facial blindness condition as far back in 2013. He wanted people to know, hey, I’m not really an egotistical monster, I just have no clue who you are.

“So many people hate me because they think I’m disrespecting them…I took one year where I just said, This year, I’m just going to cop to it and say to people, ‘OK, where did we meet?’ But it just got worse. People were more offended. …You get this thing, like, ‘You’re being egotistical. You’re being conceited.’ But it’s a mystery to me, man. I can’t grasp a face, and yet I come from such a design/aesthetic point of view. I am going to get it tested.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Pitt says his acting days are numbered. That’s sad.

Facial blindness sounds perfect for those days you don’t feel like engaging with the world.