Confabulation

Confabulation is a medical disorder that produces inaccurate memories.  It occurs in people who have sustained damage to the basal forebrain and the frontal lobes through an aneurysm, vascular constriction and/or head injury.  Oxygen doesn’t make it to every nook and cranny, so the cells die.  That loss or degeneration can cause an unusual phenomenon, the ability to fabricate stories that are perceived by the teller as being the absolute truth.

An example.  My mother mentioned to me the other day that she had been to see a new doctor, a man named Dr. Deitz.  My husband and my father had taken her to this appointment.  His office is in a “modern high-rise building.”  When I asked what kind of medicine Dr. Deitz practices, the answer was clear:  “He’s a general practitioner.  And I quite liked him.  So did Robert.”  The addition of Robert’s opinion gave her tale authenticity, a nice touch.  But none of it was true.  My mother didn’t go to a new doctor with or without Robert and my father is not alive.  But if one didn’t know these factual details, her story would be quite convincing.

 

She mixes accurate reports with imagined incidents and thus keeps us guessing.  Did her friend from Savannah really visit with her grown son?  Did the doctors remove her from certain strengthening exercises because of a strained muscle?  Did someone in a nearby room really fall last night, awaking her from a sound sleep? The stories about the visits to Athens or the late-night parties are fairly easy to dismiss, but often there a moments in which we have to wonder about the accuracy of a statement or reported event.  It is odd to not know, to be distrustful, to have to verify things before you believe your own mother.