confabulation
/kən,fæbju'leiʃn/
Definition
- Noun:
- (Psychiatry) A plausible but imagined memory that fills in gaps in what is remembered: In psychology and psychiatry, a "confabulation" is a fabricated, distorted, or misinterpreted memory, presented as fact without the intent to deceive. It often occurs to fill gaps in a person's memory, typically due to neurological conditions.
- An informal conversation: A "confabulation" is also a formal or literary term for a casual, relaxed talk or chat.
Examples of Usage
Noun (Psychiatry):
- The patient's detailed story about a childhood trip was a confabulation, as hospital records showed he had never left the city.
- Confabulation is a common symptom in some forms of amnesia and dementia.
Noun (Conversation):
- They had a pleasant confabulation over coffee, discussing books and films.
- The senator was seen in a brief confabulation with the lobbyist before the vote.
Advanced Usage
- "to engage in confabulation": to have an informal talk or chat.
- The old friends engaged in a long confabulation, catching up on years of news.
Variants and Related Words
Confabulate (verb):
- (Psychiatry): To fabricate imaginary experiences as compensation for loss of memory.
- Patients with Korsakoff's syndrome may confabulate to cover their memory lapses.
- (General): To talk informally; to chat.
- We confabulated for hours about our future plans.
Confabulatory (adj): Relating to or characterized by confabulation.
- The patient's narrative had a confabulatory quality, mixing real events with invented ones.
Synonyms
- For "imagined memory": Fabrication, falsification, invention.
- For "informal conversation": Chat, talk, conversation, colloquy, chit-chat.
Related Phrases
- Confabulation effect: A term in neuropsychology referring to the phenomenon of producing confabulations.
- The confabulation effect was evident in her recall of the accident.
Noun
-
(psychiatry) a plausible but imagined memory that fills in gaps in what is remembered
-
an informal conversation
