Do We Lie to Ourselves? Making Sense of the Past through Inaccurate Memories

Abstract

The paper covers various areas linked to autobiographical memory and how one remembers one’s personal past. It discusses the need, often brought about in clinical psychology, to lie about one’s past in order to maintain a positive self-image. The concepts of lying and truth telling are examined first, both from a philosophical and from a more mundane point of view, and are linked to the naive idea that memory is a truthful representation of one’s past. A brief review of the literature on human memory, and more specifically on autobiographical memory, reveals the ease with which false memories are created and reported. It is claimed that memory is not just about remembering but it is in essence simply trying to make sense of experience. False memories are thus the not uncommon result of normal cognitive functioning, similar to errors in other types of cognitive processes. It is concluded that lying to oneself happens rather often, but it should not be conceived as an intent to deceive. Rather, it is a necessary component of remembering one’s past.