Psychopathology of memory. Qualitative disorders (II/II)

2. Qualitative disorders

In this section, we refer to memory alterations related to oneself or others, consisting of distortions of memory. These can be paramnesias (significant changes in memory occur) and pseudoamnesia (These are alterations in recognition).

Paramnesias

 We speak of paramnesias when there is a distortion or significant alteration of memories. Depending on the type of distortion, they are subdivided into:

• Retrospective forgeries: Memory alterations occur in the present when we recall an event. The memory can be falsified in positive or negative details, depending on the current emotional state. For example, in depressed patients, the memory will be falsified negatively.
• Fantastic pseudology: This refers to distortions of memory, not so much due to an alteration of the memory itself, but rather the fact that the individual associates fantastical elements with it as if they had actually happened. It is common in people with mythomania and/or histrionic personality disorder.
• Conspiracies: We say that confabulation exists when we add elements to the memory we recall that didn't actually happen, in order to give consistency to the story. This isn't always pathological, since we all tend to do it to some extent. When it's normal, it's called genuine conspiracy. When a person believes their own fabrications, they are usually pathological and are called fantastic conspiraciesThere is an interesting aspect that can mislead the clinician: the more intelligent the subject who confabulates, the more credible their stories are. 
• Delusional significance of the memory: We say that a memory has a delusional significance when the subject reinterprets his memories based on the theme of his delusions.
• Memory hallucinations: This happens when the person remembers something as if it were absolutely true, even though it never occurred. It's not that the person invents or distorts the memory, but rather that they are convinced they are recounting something absolutely true.

Pseudoamnesias

These refer to errors in recognition. The subject either fails to recognize, or mistakenly believes they recognize, certain aspects of reality. We have the following situations:

• Already seen: This is a case of false recognition. The individual believes they have experienced or recognize something that they have absolutely never experienced or seen. This phenomenon can be normal or pathological. For example, it can occur in certain seizures.
• Jamais vu: This is a situation where the exact opposite of the previous one occurs. The person denies having experienced or witnessed something that we are certain they have experienced before. This phenomenon can be normal or pathological. It may be a process of denial due to negative emotional reasons associated with the moment when the unrecognized event took place.
• Verkenugng: Here it refers specifically to people. It can be in a positive sense (referring to having already met the person) or a negative sense (referring to not having met them before).
• Capgras syndrome: This is a case of false recognition of people. Individuals with this condition perceive one person as another's double when, in fact, they are the same person. It is not uncommon in schizophrenia and dissociative syndromes.

Here we have presented the classification made by Fernando Sarráis. However, Vallejo Nájera It presents another subdivision which, with some nominal variations, ultimately encompasses the same clinical phenomena:

 PSEUDOMNESIAS: 

• Conspiracies
• Delusional memories
• Hallucinations of memory
• Fantastic Pseudology

PARAMNESIAS:

• Reminiscences: The subject evokes a memory that he does not recognize and presents it as something new and original.
• Mnemonic illusion: the memory of an image is associated with false accidents.
• Illusion of what has already been seen/never seen.
• Reduplicative paramnesia (when the reduplication refers to the same experience).
• False recognitions/mistaken identity.