Serendip is an independent site partnering with faculty at multiple colleges and universities around the world. Happy exploring!

Reply to comment

eledford's picture

Confabulation = Construction of Construction of...

We didn't really discuss confabulation in class in great detail, so I tried to look into it more. When I researched the definition of confabulation, many theories came up often revealing it to be an extreme disorder of mixing true memories with fabrications; however, confabulation probably happens all the time to us. By this I mean that are memories are formed by an experience, yet also by other past experiences that had previously shaped our thinking or perceptions. When you recall a memory of a certain occasion as if it were yesterday, and your sibling recalls it with very different details, neither of you are wrong - they are both memories (just probably confabulated) and it shows that there are multiple truths. In the field of anthropology, life stories and memories have been called into question as to whether they are reliable and truthful resources, yet we can simply look at them as "constructed understandings of a constructed person's constructed point of view"... experiences and memories are not linear but something we repeatedly mull over and allow to evolve.  So does this count as confabulation? Am I on the right track?

Reply

The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.
To prevent automated spam submissions leave this field empty.
1 + 5 =
Solve this simple math problem and enter the result. E.g. for 1+3, enter 4.