Why aren’t strong emotions, ardent convictions, and descriptive details enough to guarantee that a memory actually happened as we believe? Remembering references no dependable brain file folder or video image archive we can retrieve.
Each jogged memory continually reconstructs past events bit by bit. Just as jugglers constantly set their stance to keep objects in sight, memory recovery also reshuffles fragments to make our views and values fit. False memory is regularly recited as gospel, especially experts scouring their brains for answers, individuals trusting their creativity for associations, and citizens purposefully primed to remember what might have taken place. False memory combines apologetic assertions of detail deficiencies with equally convincing specific particulars, despite absent corroborations in every case.
False memory storytellers appear credible and coherent, consistently delivering tales and allegations with an authenticity of truly believing what’s recalled. Yet, factual happenings and false memories make abysmal partners, causing searches for truthfulness to be stalled. False memory involves imagining or simulating events that might, could, or should occur in ways supporting one’s personal view. This constructive nature of storing events is called autobiographical memory of what we say and do.
Remarkable childhood, school, work, and play experiences, crucible moments, haunting past visuals associated with overwhelming hurt, and serious matters such as abusive behavior are substances of our autobiographical knowledge base. Self-preservation nurtures false memory by pollinating our desire to positively protect our identity in every case. When events challenge our self-image, accurate memory of those happenings equates to zero. Yet we turn them into dogmatic details, akin to a phoenix rising from the ashes portraying us as a victim or hero.
False memory is a reconstructive process reassembling fragments of the past that creates a story we firmly BELIEVE… It’s a Funny Feeling to know false memory is a universal human behavior that in no way brings us the truth we earnestly seek to ACHIEVE…
Copyright 2018 Doc X MD and Audra RN Funny Feelings©