False Memories
A false memory is when someone has a recollection of an event that never happened or an untrue remembrance of what happened. False memories can be created through misinformation,which is when new and misleading information distorts one’s memory of an incident. Elizabeth Loftus’ research has demonstrated that false memories can also be induced by suggestion and misattribution, which involves combining elements of different events into one story, forgetting where you held a certain piece of information, or even recalling childhood events that you imagined and believing they actually took place.Therapists can insert false memories into your brain with therapy, hypnosis, etc. and lead you to believe that they were memories you repressed, when in reality, they never occurred to begin with.
The most a false memory has affected me that I could think of for myself would probably be something as mundane as thinking that I locked my front door when I left my house when I really didn’t. There was an episode of Law and Order that I watched where this troubled girl parents put her in therapy because she was depressed but the therapist ended up creating false memories in her brain that her father raped and molested her when she was younger, and the girl started to actually gain recollection of a memory that never even occurred. She confronted her dad about molesting her and he was left with the utmost confusion. She thought the memories of her being raped and moles...
