CONFABULATION

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What is confabulation?  This is a new word for me.  I heard it, and looked up its meaning, and just had to write on it.  Let us take a look at the meaning of confabulation in our Webster Dictionary.

Confabulation-1.  engage in conversation;  talk.  2.  fabricate imaginary experiences as compensation for loss of memory.

Daily Wisdom Word Definition of Confabulation-filling in conversation with things that are not necessarily true although the person sharing memories with you, does not realize they are not being truthful.

Mental illness and brain injury can cause confabulation.  We see confabulation in someone who is repeating memories that they believe really happened.  This may be a way that an individual copes with tragedy or trauma.  They need a coping mechanism in order to deal with what happened to them and the injury that it caused to their brain.  see:  https://www.brainline.org/author/celeste-campbell/qa/what-confabulation-and-how-does-it-relate-brain-injury to learn more about the individual mental illness that can bring about confabulation.  Brain injuries are one of these things.

Usually confabulation occurs when the frontal lobe of the brain has been damaged in some way.  Confabulation is fascinating to watch from another individual because these people are not intentionally lying so whatever they are telling you is very believable.

“There are two categories of confabulation.  Provoked and spontaneous.  A provoked confabulation is when a patient invents an untrue story in response to a question.  These types of confabulations tend to be quite common among patients with amnesia or dementia.  A spontaneous confabulation is a more rare occurrence and involves the telling of an untrue story with no apparent motivation.”

“Confabulations may also be classified as verbal or behavioral.  Verbal confrontations are more common and only involve talking about false memories.  Behavioral confabulations on the other hand, occur when the patient acts on these faulty beliefs.”
“Confabulated memories almost always occur in one’s autobiographical memory which is the memory system of an individual’s own life experiences which are brought to awareness in episodes or segments.  There are many theories regarding the origin of confabulations but ultimately they are thought to be caused by neurological problems.”
See:  Psych Central for more information
Thanks so much for reading about confabulations today.  I would love it if we could start a conversation about confabulations, beneath this article in the “join the discussion” area here, on our daily wisdom words website.
Thanks so much,
Samantha

 

1 thought on “CONFABULATION”

  1. Hey Samantha!! Love this word, although never heard of it! I have, thru my own brain injury, heard of many forms of fabricating a story to deal with a tragic injury. When asking to recall an accident not remembering what had happened and making up a story that one believes. My doctor explain it to me. I found it quite interesting. Looking forward to write about this tomorrow.

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