[thaw13579]

Not a medical practitioner here, but it might be worth looking into prosopagnosia, or face-blindness. It more generally includes trouble recognizing faces, but maybe also what you describe. It's sometimes hard to diagnose too, since there are many non-face signals that are useful in identifying people, e.g. gait, hair, voice, context, etc.

[jayhuang]

Face blindness is really quite frightening. I'm not sure if it includes not being able to imagine one's face as opposed to not recognizing them in person, but there's a documentary on face blindness somewhere that show people waking up everyday unable to recognize their children, husband, etc.

As much as it's frightening for the family members, I can't imagine how much more so it is for the victim.

[tshadwell]

I might look into this. People are always surprised by how long it takes for me to notice them in a crowd