Memory is the mental faculty of retaining and recalling past experiences. A repressed memory is one that is retained in the subconscious mind, where one is not aware of it but where it can still affect both conscious thoughts and behavior. When memory is distorted or confabulated, the result can be what has been called the false memory syndrome. A condition in which a person’s identity and interpersonal relationships are entered around a memory …showed first 75 words of 1366 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1366 total…in people’s minds by suggestion. The mind does not record every detail of an even, but only a few features we fill. For an event to make it to long-term storage, a person has to perceive it, encode it and rehearse it – tell about it – or it decays. Otherwise, research finds, even emotional experiences we are sure we will never forget will fade from memory, and errors will creep into the account that remain.