One Vision Blog

There is a condition that can appear with eye conditions called Charles Bonnet Syndrome.

This causes your brain to fill in things you can’t see or hardly see.

This isn’t just the usual stuff us eye poorly people do come across regularly, it’s more extreme.

Myself recently was staring at a pram as I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. A dog in a pram, albeit a blurry one. This is normalish to me. My brain sometimes tries to fill in images and words that I cannot see properly. I’m very amused by it usually. CBS can be very frightening for some people though.

It is best to be aware of this if you have a sight problem, as it could trouble you and maybe make you think you are mentally ill if you haven’t heard of it. It’s completely normal. Your brain is trying to help you, apart from it’s not.

In 1760 Charles described a condition now called Charles Bonnet Syndrome  in which vivid, complex visual hallucinations (fictive visual percepts) occur in psychologically normal people. (He documented it in his 87-year-old grandfather, who was nearly blind from cataracts in both eyes but perceived men, women, birds, carriages, buildings, tapestries and scaffolding patterns.) Most people affected are with visual impairments, however the phenomenon does not occur only in those with visual impairments; it can also be caused by damage elsewhere in their optic pathway or brain.

Charles was 40 years old when he discovered this.

He was deaf from 7 years old, but also suffered from failing eyesight in later years.

Born in Geneva, he was interested in the natural world and science. His first published works on botany appeared when he was just 25. He then turned to be interested in psychology as his eyesight started to fail. It became more difficult to see the nature and all the beautiful wonders he loved so much previously. Which is why he became a naturalist.

I have a good friend Ross, who has this condition. Alongside his diagnosis of Diabetic Retinopathy, he is classified as Severely Sight Impaired.

He describes seeing flowers in place of peoples clothes.

He found about out it January 2022 after an eye operation due to bleeds on his eyes because of his diabetes. The blood vessels were starting to block out the sight.

His CBS doesn’t happen all the all the time. Now and again. Which is startling when he first experienced it. He doesn’t see it as much, but when he does it’s less of a shock now than at first, because he used to do a double take initially.