The Confabulating Mind

How the Brain Creates Reality

Second Edition

Armin Schnider

Gives an integrated and accessible introduction to confabulation and false memories
Includes numerous clinical case examples to benefit students of non-specialists
Integrates historical sources in German and French language
Access to a rich literature otherwise hidden for many
Each chapter concludes with a summary to enable rapid orientation

Highly Commended at the BMA Book Awards 2018

The Confabulating Mind

How the Brain Creates Reality

Second Edition

Armin Schnider

Description

Confabulations are recitations of events and experiences that never happened, ranging from incorrect responses to questions to a blatant confusion of reality. The Confabulating Mind provides the most up-to-date account of the causes, anatomical basis, and mechanisms of the phenomenon of false memories.

In this significant update on the first edition, the author analyses new and diverse examples of striking clinical cases, discusses children's sense of reality, and incorporates his research on a distinct form of confabulation that is characterized by a confusion of reality. The book also examines other forms such as deja-vu, paramnesic misidentification, and anosognosia; looks at false memories as they occur in healthy people; and considers how the brain uses orbitofrontal reality filtering to create reality. By re-tracing the history of confabulations and integrating the latest insights into the mechanisms of confabulations, it summarises current interpretations of confabulations before making recommendations for future study.

This book is important reading for neurologists, psychiatrists, neuropsychologists, cognitive neuroscientists, and other scientists and clinicians interested in the organization of memory and thought.

Highly Commended at the BMA Book Awards 2018

The Confabulating Mind

How the Brain Creates Reality

Second Edition

Armin Schnider

The Confabulating Mind

How the Brain Creates Reality

Second Edition

Armin Schnider

Author Information

Armin Schnider, Professor and Chairman of Neurorehabilitation, Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University Hospital of Geneva

Armin Schnider is Professor and Chairman of Neurorehabilitation at the University Hospital of Geneva. He completed his medical degree at the University of Basle, then went on to specialise in neurology in Bern, Zurich, and Los Angeles. His primary research interests are memory disorders, the neurobiological foundations of confabulations and reality control in thinking.

Highly Commended at the BMA Book Awards 2018

The Confabulating Mind

How the Brain Creates Reality

Second Edition

Armin Schnider

Reviews and Awards

Highly Commended in the Neurology category of the 2018 BMA Medical Book Awards

Reviews for Previous Edition

"An authoritative and challenging yet impressively accessible and enjoyable text for anyone interested in the neurobiology of cognition." - Daniel Schacter, Nature Neuroscience

"The Confabulating Mind is an up-to-date review of confabulation, ranging from its debated definition, aetiology, and anatomical bases, to neuropsychological mechanisms.... The result is impressive, with high historical and neuropsychological accuracy... clear, concise, and empirically based, with an excellent review of the literature... This book will interest a wide audience, including neurologists, clinicians, students, and researchers." - Elisa Ciaramelli, Lancet Neurology

"...an authoritative and comprehensive book on confabulation that will no doubt make experts wonder how the field has progressed thus far without it." - British Journal of Psychiatry

"This comprehensive and authoritative treatment of the remarkable phenomenon of confabulation ranges from rich clinical description to neurology, anatomy, and neuropsychology. It will be useful to clinicians, neuropsychologists, and other scientists interested in the organization of memory and thought." - Larry R. Squire, Ph.D., University of California San Diego