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False Memories

Mark Tully considers the consequences of mis-remembering the past. Why do people have different memories of the same event, and how can we remember things that never happened?

Mark Tully considers the consequences of mis-remembering the past. Why do people have different memories of the same event, and how can we remember things that never happened?

The programme includes ideas from American psychologist Elizabeth Loftus, who suggests that memory works a little bit like a Wikipedia page which you can change, but others can change too. She has warned against the dangers of certain therapies that lead to 鈥榝alse memory鈥 and unreliable accusations against innocent people.

In poetry, Ravi Shankar describes memories as the 鈥榳obbly beams鈥 on which we build our self-respect, and Carol Ann Duffy explores the dark side of a childhood misremembered.

Perhaps Jane Austen鈥檚 heroine in Mansfield Park puts it best, when Fanny Price proclaims, 鈥淭he memory is sometimes so retentive, so serviceable, so obedient; at others, so bewildered and so weak; and at others again, so tyrannic, so beyond control!鈥.

A Unique Broadcasting Company Production for 大象传媒 Radio 4

28 minutes

Last on

Sun 25 Jun 2023 06:05

Music Played

  • James Horner & London Symphony Orchestra

    Sons of Scotland

    • Braveheart Soundtrack.
    • Decca Music Group.
  • Ned Rorem

    To A Young Girl

    Performer: Susan Graham.
    • Songs of Ned Rorem.
    • Erato.
  • Robert Ward

    These Girls Never Saw A Spirit

    Performer: New York City Opera.
    • The Crucible.
    • Albany.
  • Maurice Chevalier & Hermione Gingold

    I Remember It Well

    • Greatest Musicals Double Feature.
    • Roslin Records.
  • Robert Jones

    Confabulation

    Performer: Jeff Funderburk.
    • Dialogs for Tuba and Piano.
    • Mark Records.

Readings

Title: The Drowned and the Saved
Author: Primo Levi 聽
Publisher: Michael Joseph聽

Title: Clip from Serial聽
Author: Sarah Koenig 聽聽
Publisher: serialpodcast.org

Title: We Remember Your Childhood Well
Author: Carol Ann Duffy聽
Publisher: Rogers, Coleridge & White in New Selected Poems聽

Title: Mansfield Park聽
Author: Jane Austen 聽
Publisher:聽Penguin Classics

Title: 颁辞苍迟谤补肠迟颈辞苍听
Author: Ravi Shankar聽
Publisher: Wordtech Communications聽

Broadcasts

  • Sun 7 Jun 2015 06:05
  • Sun 7 Jun 2015 23:30
  • Sun 25 Jun 2023 06:05