Human memory is completely unlike a videotape and does not clearly record all previously occurring events. There is such a thing as "false memory." This means that a person has some unreal experience in his memory, he remembers things that never happened to him.
Research history
Memory is a person’s ability to remember things that happened to him or his environment. The brain itself constantly analyzes any information received, but at some point a malfunction may occur, and the process of memorization is disrupted.
The effect of false memory has been studied for more than one year, but to this day it has not been possible to clearly explain why this is happening. For the first time, a doctor from France, Florence Arnault, described his visual sensations associated with an outbreak of false memories, and called them “deja vu”. However, such an effect happens both from something heard and from a new smell, that is, a person may think that he had already heard some text or a certain aroma.
American psychologist Elizabeth Loftus also conducted research in this direction and came to the conclusion that the phenomenon of false memory can build confidence in a particular person or organization. The most striking example is the influence of the media on the consciousness of the masses.
Age-related “bouts”
Most often, people aged 16 to 18 years old and from 35 to 40 years old come across with deja vu attacks. At a young age, false memory acts as a protective force against everything new and unknown. At an older age, the condition is associated with nostalgia, the consciousness tries to protect the brain from life realities and establish a balance between them and the expectations of youth.
Simply put, deja vu is a protective mechanism against nervous stress.
Memorization process
A person perceives the surrounding world with the help of smell, touch, hearing, vision, taste. All these feelings are interconnected. The process of memorization can occur on the basis of emotional, verbal and logical analysis, figurative and motor facts.
False memory is formed according to the same principles, therefore it is divided into auditory, visual and so on.
Rare pseudo-memory attacks that do not affect a person’s life are not considered dangerous. However, if this happens on an ongoing basis, then this is an additional confirmation that unhealthy processes occur in the brain and / or psyche and, possibly, the patient has already developed a false memory syndrome. If this significantly affects the lifestyle of the individual, then doctors call this condition paramnesia.
Types of Paramnesia
One of the manifestations of false memory is pseudo-reminiscence. A person who has experienced a great resentment in the distant past, constantly remembers her and after some time begins to perceive her as a recent occurrence. This condition is characteristic of middle-aged people.
Stabilization or implausible stories is a very similar state to pseudo-reminiscence, but everything that happened in the past is diluted with fictional stories. This condition is typical for alcoholics and drug addicts, for people who take psychotropic drugs or have a diagnosis of schizophrenia.
Cryptomnesia or fantastic dreams is a condition characteristic of impressionable individuals. The plot of a read book can become part of the life of a person who gains confidence that everything described has happened with him.
Causes
Where does false memory come from, and why can't memories be trusted? In fact, it has not yet been possible to establish the exact cause of the pseudo-memory. Most often, such a problem is faced by persons with damage to the front of the brain, frontal lobes.
The provoking factors include:
- head injuries;
- Korsakov's syndrome;
- acute cerebrovascular accident;
- malignant neoplasms in the brain;
- senile dementia;
- epilepsy;
- Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's, Peak and other ailments.
Severe intoxication with drugs, alcohol, psychotropic substances quite often cause memory problems.
Life examples
If we do not talk about extremes, the so-called gray zones of memory are present in every person, and some non-existent facts are perceived throughout life as real. For example, Marilyn Monroe in many interviews claimed that at the age of 7 she was raped. However, each time she called a different name for the rapist.
Similar memories were in Marlene Dietrich. She was sure that at 16 she was raped by a music teacher, and she clearly always spoke the same name. However, journalists after a thorough check found out that such a teacher really existed, but at the time when Marlene was 16 years old, he did not even live in Germany.
There are many more cases involving false memory. Some stories even ended in litigation. One thing is clear: if a person constantly persuades himself that an event has occurred, then over time it will become a reality for him. And this is quite successfully used by political strategists and marketers.
Pseudo-memory on a global scale
What is the effect of false collective memory called? The second name of the phenomenon is “Mandela effect”. The story is really connected with Nelson Mandela. This happened in 2013, when information appeared that the President of South Africa had died. Search engines were overloaded with queries about this event. This is due to the fact that most of the world's population was completely sure that this person died back in the 70s of the last century. Indeed, Mandela in these years went to prison, where he spent more than 25 years, but after his release he continued his activities to protect human rights and even became president of the country.
Many researchers became interested in this fact, but failed to find a rational explanation for this phenomenon.
Russian examples
The manifestation of mass false memory is quite common in history. In our country, it is customary to blame that Alaska belongs to America, Catherine the Great. In fact, she has nothing to do with the sale of this part of the continent. Alaska was sold by Alexander the Second, who came to power almost 100 years later.
Another common myth is that the poem, which begins with the words "I am sitting behind bars in a dungeon damp ..." was written by Lermontov. In fact, this creation belongs to Pushkin.
From recent history, the most striking example is associated with Yeltsin. Many are sure that before leaving he said the following phrase: "I'm tired, I'm leaving." Although, in fact, he delivered only the second part of the sentence.
Almost everyone remembers the film “Watch Out for the Car,” and the phrase that became winged: “Boy, get away from the car.” In fact, she sounded in a completely different film - "Secret to the whole world."
Persons who studied in Soviet times remember that they were always taught at school that Hitler had brown eyes, which was considered a real mockery, because a true Aryan cannot have eyes of this color. However, if we analyze the records of Hitler's contemporaries, his eye color was still blue. Where such a stable and untruthful opinion came from is not clear.
Conclusion
False memory is a poorly understood phenomenon. Nevertheless, modern media, political strategists, and marketers quite successfully use it, imposing an opinion that is beneficial to them. In the modern world, the political struggle is being built on the Mandela effect, a new ideology is being formed. But few people think that the consequences of such an intervention can affect society and the life of an individual completely unpredictable.