roughbarked said:

Cymek said:

Cymek said:

I wonder if people who lie and the lie is obvious if they truly believe it and are delusional or know they are lying.
If its a personality disorder or just outright deception.
Are their versions of events real to them

I have family members whose recall of events is quite different to what happened backed up by witnesses.
They are insistent and never vary that their recall of events is true.
So are they lying or did it unfold in their mind the way they recall due to personality problems.
It makes it very hard to support them when you aren’t sure if what they say happened did and you yourself aren’t there

Eye witnesses often have different stories.

It may be neither lying or personality problems.

Memory isn’t like a recording that you replay. We reconstruct memories every time we recall them. When we recall an event, the brain starts with the overall meaning or feeling (the gist) and then fills in the details afterward. The details of a memory can shift over time to better match the person’s interpretation of what happened.

Every time someone recalls a memory, it actually becomes unstable for a moment and then gets “stored” again. During that process (called reconsolidation) the memory can be updated, changed, or mixed with other information without the person realizing it.

Two people can experience the same event and end up with genuinely different memories of it and both can feel completely certain they’re right.

It’s important to note this applies to you as well as your family members, Cymek. It also applies to the witnesses you have who back up your memory of the events.