19: Confabulation

Confabulation is the common practice of making up details to support a story. It is different to lying because the intention of the speaker is not to misrepresent the events that he is aware of, but merely is adding details to fill in the gaps in his memory.

(EN: Neuroscience suggests that this may also happen in the assimilation phase - not just in retelling. When a person perceives something that is incomplete, their mind fills in the missing details with plausible ones so that they may comprehend it. It's much in the same way as an optical illusion can cause a person to "see" a complete triangle when parts of the lines are missing.)

In the context of self-deception, confabulation requires that the subject accept the embellishments as truth, and that the details that are added don't merely complete the story, but alter its emotional significance to the subject.

Various medical conditions, such as amnestic states such as Alzheimer's disease (decaying of the brain) and Korsakoff syndrome (small hemorrhages in the brain), are often accompanied by this manner of confabulation.

The author mentions "recent studies" in which patients with Korsakoff syndrome are provoked to confabulate by being asked open-ended questions, but will truthfully answer yes/no questions - even when they have previously confabulated those details in the context of an open answer. This distinguishes unconscious confabulation from conscious.

(EN: Interrogation training uses much the same technique - of asking people pointed questions about seemingly insignificant details in a story to determine whether the subject is confabulating or attempting to be deceptive. If a person mentions in their "story" that a person was wearing a blue necktie, but fails or falters when later asked the color of the person's necktie, the detail is confabulated.)

The notion of delusion is also mentioned, which entails a person who believes in something that is untrue and irrational. A ready distinction is that a delusion has nothing to do with filling in the gaps in a true account, but is typically self-contained.