False Memories

A Study of False Memories: The Maintaining and Creation of False Memory Syndrome The research of false memory syndrome was a newly emerged field of study in the early 1900s. Recent studies have established the proneness of the brain’s ability to misconstrue information to fit what relates to an individual's surroundings. Although psychologists have already confirmed the malleability of the human mind, the question arises of how and why false memories are created (Laney & Loftus 2013). False memory syndrome describes “a condition in which a person has an apparent recollection of an event that did not actually occur” (Dictionary). The conflicting ideas on the creation of these false memories has created a divide in psychologists since the mid 1900s (Laney & Loftus 2013). Through years of minimal studies, experimental methods have focused on the influence of hypnosis in the creation of memories. As studies have progressed however, the focus has moved to an individual's past traumatic events along with their cognitive fantasy proneness
(Laney & Loftus 2013 & Finkelstein 2017). Through the analysis of an individual’s false memory syndrome, hypnosis techniques, fantasy proneness, and histories of sexual abuse are potential factors leading to the creation and maintaining of false experiences.
Review of Literature Neurologically, the human mind is capable of creating an imaginative state of experiences that the individual never encountered. Although the human mind alone can create such experiences, psychologists link the creation of false memories as a reaction to therapy and hypnosis. Of the estimated 3.7 million recorded individuals who have experienced cases of false memories, psychologists suggest the reaction of hypnosis and therapy is a common cause of not only the initial creation of the false experiences, but also the maintaining of them (Clark, S.E, & Lotus 2004). False memories are rarely spontaneously recovered (Finkelstein 2017).
Most individuals suffering from false memory syndrome initially describe experiences of possible hallucinations, nightmares, and accounts of missing time (Clark, SE, & Lotus 2004). The unexplainable accounts leads the individual to seek help through therapy. Therapists and hypnosis experts struggle with feeding into the fantasy of the false memory. By creating the role of victim for a patient, the false memories become more of a reality and more difficult to treat. “Often, abductees seek out hypnotherapists who accidently implant detailed false memories of the abduction into the mind of the abductees while attempting to ‘recover’ repressed memories of the abduction” (Finkelstein, 38). In a therapist’s attempt to recover and explain the unknown experience, the specific false memory (alien memory, sexual abuse, out of body experience) is created (Finkelstein
2017).
The analysis of personality and fantasy proneness has been a focus for psychologists to pinpoint a cause for the false memory phenomenon (Mirandola & Cornoldi 2015). While looking at false memories, they are categorized into two main groups, negative memories (a false memory that scares or emotionally harms the individual) and positive memories (a memory that inspires or intrigues the individual). After a false memory has been created, psychologists have connected individuals with higher anxiety levels to cases of explicit negative memories. “It may be hypothesized that anxious individuals do not only have enhanced memory for negative-threatening information, but also higher tendency to incorporate associated non-present information into their memories” (Toffalini & Mirandola & Coli & Cornoldi, 1). In contrast, individuals who do not show a history of anxiety show lower levels of negative memories, but show the same levels in fantasy proneness (Toffalini & Mirandola & Coli & Cornoldi 2015).
The overall mental health of individuals suffering from false memory syndrome shows little to no difference from the general population (Finkelstein 2017). What tends to be different however, is an individual’s fantasy proneness, magical ideation, and dissociative identity connected to their personality (Finkelstein 2017 & McNally & Clancy 2005). In McNally and Clancy’s 2005 experiment, individuals suffering from false memory syndrome along with a control group are evaluated on the dissociative, absorption, and magical ideation scale is the When evaluated by a professionals individuals are shown to be subject of specific phobias,