flowers for algernon

charlie, the main character in the story, is a man with a psychological disorder. he is undergoing experiments that will hopefully modify his inabilities for the better, and the doctors working with him have him write a progress report every day, just to explain what's going on.

"March 21-- We had a lot of fun at the bakery today. Joe Carp said hey look where Charlie got his operashun what did they do Charlie put some brains in. I was going to tell him about me getting smart but I remembered Prof Nemur said no. Then Frank Reilly said what did you do Charlie open a door the hard way. That made me laff. Their my friends and they really like me." 

i read this passage and the first thing that came to mind was the 'ignorance is bliss' vs. 'knowledge is power' debate. charlie's complete unawareness of his co-workers making fun of him makes the reader feel pretty bad for him. it's gotta be embarrassing to be picked on and not even know it until probably later. but at the same time you've got to almost envy him, because he does prove the idea that ignorance is bliss. he lives a satisfactory lifestyle and is always diligently working to make himself smarter so that he can impress himself and everyone around him. he has no idea how hard it has to be for him, and he can totally live with that.

it's almost a curse in human nature that we are so aware of others around us and what others must think of us, and it's become a really important thing for us. i think it definitely hinders a lot of our potential as people.

so far, my questions are:

1) what kind of disorder is it that charlie has?

2) is it better to lack spatial awareness than to know what everyone thinks of you? (parallel to the debate over whether or not oedipus should know the truth about his wife/mother)