"Reversing" things in your memory (parent, aunt, people)
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Is anyone aware of a phenomenon where a person would reverse things in his memory?
In my case, I have a memory of a town I visited TWICE as a young child:
1. In reality, we drove into the town from the north and turned right (west) to get the house which faced east if you were sitting on the front porch.
2. In my memory, we drove into town from the north, which is correct. But when we got to the town we turned left (east) and you would have been facing west sitting on the porch.
Another example from my teens:
My family visited a city and I remember correctly where the hotel was created. But one day, we drove to a restaurant, and my memory of where that was located is in the exact reverse location from where the hotel was. Like a mirror image. I remembered it being northeast from the hotel, but in reality it was southwest. The strange thing is that it is in a very logical route that is really easy to see on a map.
If anyone knows anything about what would cause this, I would appreciate any information.
EDIT: I said the memory was like a mirror image, but that's not accurate. It was more like the places were turned around.
Last edited by OzzyRules; 07-18-2018 at 07:51 PM..
I looked up the question online and found one possibility: DYSLEXIA. Or some form of it. Dyslexia of mental picture memories?
I've never experienced dyslexia before in the traditional sense. But it's as if it's happening in my mind for certain past events, random events that other people I know can't even remember.
Don't see why you want to give yourself a disorder for some occasional memory lapses. If you had such a disorder I would think it would be a lot more pervasive in your daily life than that. Honestly what you described sounds like....wait for it....a plain old ordinary memory. If an event was traumatic or extremely good, chances are better you'll retain more accurate details. When I think back to pivotal moments in my life I can recall many very specific things including physical orientation, colors, odors, sounds, movement, minute details about the surroundings decades later. Ordinary life events not so much. They weren't important then or now.
I also think your memory was created through the eyes of the person you were (maybe a young child), but that won't necessarily jibe with the older more experienced person who is recalling the same event. Consider memories of people or places you thought were huge because you saw them through a small child's eye. Now when you revisit those places or see those people you get surprised by how much smaller they seem.
I have an auntie who has this problem.. she gets an idea in her head and no matter what anyone says or disagrees in her mind shes right about the past... I think she forms ideas of what she would like the past or memories to be and sticks with it....its not only sad but dangerous to others and some might believe her.
I don't think of it as a "disorder". Like I said, some people even older than myself don't recall anything about these places. That would make their lack of memory a greater disorder in comparison, which is obviously not the case.
I'm just curious about the *psychological* reason that would turn things around in a person's mind. For example, in the teenage memory I would have had to turn around more than one mental memory that should have been so clear. Because that memory sort of stayed with me all the time for several years after that.
What kid ever knows what is west or east or whatever when it comes to a building in a town?
Unless the kid is growing up in Manhattan, maybe.
I remembered another example where our family went to an annual picnic in a park in a nearby town several years in a row. The last time was while I was in high school. In my memory the park was north of the highway. But in reality it was south.
To me it's just really bizarre. And the fact that it occurred several times to me should have reinforced in my mind the true location.
This isn't quite the same thing, but it's related. There's a highway exit about 40 minutes north of where I live, which is near the border of two towns. I've been to that area numerous times over the years for various reasons.
Well, after many years it finally occurred to me that, because the exit ramp is a complete U-shape, everything in that neighborhood is on the complete opposite corner of the highway than I always visualized it. (In other words, my brain imagined the positioning of all of the landmarks as though the exit ramp was a straight line.)
Even having known this for a while, it still seems wrong to me when I go there!
This isn't quite the same thing, but it's related. There's a highway exit about 40 minutes north of where I live, which is near the border of two towns. I've been to that area numerous times over the years for various reasons.
Well, after many years it finally occurred to me that, because the exit ramp is a complete U-shape, everything in that neighborhood is on the complete opposite corner of the highway than I always visualized it. (In other words, my brain imagined the positioning of all of the landmarks as though the exit ramp was a straight line.)
Even having known this for a while, it still seems wrong to me when I go there!
Yes, I think it is kind of similar. The weird thing about my last one though is that the small town doesn't have any kind of U ramp or cloverleaf ramps. Just a normal small town.
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