Tag: sigmund

Memory Will Defraud You

Was reading a book by Sigmund Freud which had some classic experiments. Some times memory can fool you, so much so that what you can recall very clearly had never actually happened. There have been some real life instances where I have experienced this, and so I can confirm this truth (at least for myself). Some really unpleasant memories held by close relatives I know, also live to tell the same truth.

An excellent way to run ahead of your memory, and always be in time to catch it is writing personal diaries. It has been a long time since I have written into my diary (I used to when I was a kid – basically for logging whatever I used to do). Even though I might resume that, I have taken care to invent a script of my own to make sure that none but some extremely trustworthy people can read it. That said, personal diaries are meant only for the people who write them, and for those who are very near and dear to them.

Anyhow, the point I want to make is that I can clearly remember the years where I used to write diaries (though not regularly, but I kept as much track as possible). But there is a certain void in my memory for all these years I haven’t been writing, which to somewhat extent does mean that my memory might be fudged. The most interesting part is, the conflicts of whether a certain event happened or not are more during these unlogged years – even though it was only 6-8 months back. Still to read up more on Freud.