Make Stuff Up As I Go

The first time I ran into the idea of fabricating memories was back in 5th grade when I was arguing with my mother over whether or not I had put away my laundry. My mother claimed that I did not put away my laundry; I argued that I did. Someone was clearly making something up. However, the first time I actually ran into the concept from a more academic perspective was recently when I started to take the AP Psychology class. Our teacher, Mrs.Forshey, told us that anyone is susceptible to falsely fabricating memories. This came to me as a small suprise. Afterall, it seemed that it could be easily possible for people to imagine things of their past with simple suggestions. It seemed like it wasn't much of a deal, like that time I argued with my mother.

Until, I hit The Crucible.

The play included a few characters who had fabricated memories. Mary Warren, for example, fabricates memories of witchcraft upon pressure and accusations from Abigail and the girls. Her only natural instincts to survive points out into Proctor's direction, saying that it was him who had forced witchcraft upon her. They both end up behind bars. Unsuprisingly, the entire hysteria began with a similar situation, when Tituba falsely confessed of worshipping the Devil.

The play completely changed my view on psychology and how much power it can yield upon an individual. The power of suggestion is a phrase that demonstrates how much suggestion can affect another person, espercially in recreating a memory. For example, an unskilled psychologist would ask their patients to think of a time when they had a traumatic experience, such as sexual abuse. The patient naturally desires to appeal to those in authority (psychologist in this case) and imagines the memory that matches what the psychologist says. A step further from such actions is the False Memory Syndrome, in which a person strongly believes that a traumatic experience that never happened did happen, and centers their lifestyle around such falsely constructed memory. This is the exact phenomenon that fuels the hysteria in The Crucible. The townspeople construct false memories of witches, and start to accuse others for the sake of it.

The human memory such a strong yet fragile thing. It provides the ability to store information, yet it is so weak that it can be easily manipulated by a bunch of doctors asking questions.