False Memory

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False memories are distorted recollections of events or recollections of events that did not occur. In the context of psychology, this term is often used as a critical description of recovered autobiographic memory, though the concept is not recognized in a diagnostic context. In this case, "false memory" usually refers to artificially induced or "implanted" memories that a person can not distinguish from accurate memory, with the creation of said memories usually ascribed to a therapist.

Dissociation and Memory
There are several models on how autobiographic memory is stored and processed in the brain, and an ongoing debate on how memory is stored, repressed, recovered, and similar. Fully processed memory is not rigid and details may change over time.

Traumatic memory, however, is theorised to be distinct from non-traumatic memory in that it is not processed but stored dissociatively, making the mechanisms and experience of recall different from that of processed memory, as well as not being affected by the same malleability.

Related Terms
Pseudomemory is often used as a synonym, though false memory has additional controversial connotation due to its history.

Exomemory and paramemory also describe memories that are not autobiographically accurate, though they do not carry the connotation of being induced or of being indistinguishable from accurate memory.