Memory Distortion: How Minds, Brains, and Societies Reconstruct the Past

Book Overview

Hypnosis, confabulation, source amnesia, flashbulb memories, repression--these and numerous additional topics are explored in this timely collection of essays by eminent scholars in a range of disciplines. This is the first book on memory distortion to unite contributions from cognitive psychology, psychopathology, psychiatry, neurobiology, sociology, history, and religious studies. It brings the most relevant group of perspectives to bear on some key contemporary issues, including the value of eyewitness testimony and the accuracy of recovered memories of sexual abuse.

The distinguished contributors to this volume explore the full range of biological phenomena and social ideas relevant to understanding memory distortion, including the reliability of children's recollections, the effects of hypnosis on memory, and confabulation in brain-injured patients. They also look into the activity and role of brain systems, cellular bases of memory distortion, and the effects of emotion and trauma on the accuracy of memory. In a section devoted to the social aspects of memory distortion, additional essays analyze the media's part in distorting social memory, factors influencing historical reconstruction of the collective past, and memory distortion in religion and other cultural constructs. Daniel Schacter launches the collection with a history of psychological memory distortions. Subsequent highlights include new empirical findings on memory retrieval by a pioneer in the field, some of the foremost research on computational models, studies of the relationship between emotion and memory, new findings on amnesia by a premier neuroscientist, and reflections on the power of collective amnesia in U.S. history, the Nazi Holocaust, and ancient Egypt.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0674566769
• ISBN13: 9780674566767
• Release Date: September 1997
• Publisher: Harvard University Press
• Length: 436 Pages
• Weight: 1.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.3" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

Good Interdisciplinary Look at Memory Breakdown

Memory is a central issue for so much of human life - whether it be questions of identity, autobiography, or belief. In this volume, edited by the expert on memory and belief Daniel Schacter of Harvard, we have an innovative interdisciplinary examination into the question of memory, why it fails, and what happens when it does.The volume is divided into the following sections by discpline: 1) Cognitive Perspectives, 2) Psychiatric and Psychopathological Perspectives, 3) Neurophyschological Perspectives, 4) Neurobiological Perspectives, 5) Sociocultural Perspectives, 6)Concluding Reflections.The articles, each by a different contributor, are not the easiest to jump into, especially for those without a scientific background. In fact, the overall emphasis is very much on science with the social sciences rather underrepresented (in my opinion). This is the reason why I give it 4 stars instead of 5. However, those with a scientific inclination, yet also philosophical or social science inclinations towards questions of identity, autobiography, belief and fantasy will find this book of great interest. I would advise you to also look at the much more recent volume (2000) by Schacter entitled 'Memory, the Brain and Belief', which may in fact be more up to date.