Sigmund Freud believed that “remembered” events that never happened could
control those that actually did. He also saw memory as benevolent and
liberating, whether the events remembered were real or not. A more destructive
view of memory emerged with the controversy surrounding false memory syndrome.
In Real Events Revisited (Virago, £12.99, ISBN 1 86049 263 0), Ann Scott
tries to reconcile the two by asking just what “real” means when it comes to
remembered events.
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