In a somewhat bizarre "serendipity", I was watching Law&Order last night 
(SVU). The "Shrink" (Dr. George Huang played by B.D. Wong) diagnoses 
Munch's uncle with some strange depression-related dementia. When 
comparing it to alzheimer's he said that alzheimer's patients forget 
things, and then confabulate their stories to fill the missing gaps. The 
depression related dementia patients don't forget things, they just get 
buried, and can be recovered with anti-depressants....

got no idea about the medical/psycological side of things, I just found 
it interesting that the term has appeared twice this week, in very 
unrelated areas.

http://www.google.com/search?q=define%3A+confabulate

Rolf

Russell McMahon wrote:
>> saying. Until fairly recently it was seen simply as a neurological
>> deficiency - a sign of something gone wrong. But now it has become
>> apparent that healthy people confabulate too - the implications of
>> which could be profound - not only for witness testimonies but also
>> for the way we view the world...more
>>     
>
>
> Not being any neurologist or brain specialist, this corresponds fairly 
> well
>
>   
>>  ... The more we reconstruct the event in our minds, the more real 
>> it seems and possibly
>>     
> more key frames are "saved" based not only on the real event but also 
> on the
> "made up" reconstruction.
>
>   
>> This is not a fact, just my view on it...
>>     
>
> This generally corresponds to what's accepted by many on the subject. 
> Also not "a fact" but what experts seem to believe :-).
>
> Seems to work when utilised as  a tool.
> An alibi becomes much more unshakeable when the story told is wlaked 
> through mentally and veiwed in the mind as if real, with supporting 
> details added. Harder to trap a person in a lie when this has been 
> done. Still has to match reality at the interfaces though :-).
>
> "Recovered memories" were much used a decade ot more ago as the great 
> new way to find out what had happened in a person's past. In mant\y 
> cases it was found that the "facts" were being manufactured by the 
> interview and 'discpvery' process. Hesienburgs psychological 
> unbceryainty principal :-).
>
> The "art" of 'Psychocybernetics', developed by a plastic surgeon who 
> noted that some of his scarred patients recovered theier self inage 
> after surgery while others didn't, builds on this foundation. Seems a 
> very useful and practical concept. His book worth reading. He is very 
> practicla despite the fancy title to the process.
>
>
>         Russell
>
>
>
>
>
>
>   

-- 
http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive
View/change your membership options at
http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist