Sociopath Community

In all honesty, I don't think I really know myself that well. I'm not very introspective. I mean, I know who I am to some degree and I certainly know what I'm not, but I don't believe I have a singular personality. I feel like I have two different personalities in one - a Jekyll and Hyde personality.

 "Hello, Santa Claus!"

by Daddy

http://www.ted.com/talks/elizabeth_loftus_the_fiction_of_memory.html

It brings up an interesting topic, the concept of memory plasticity. The fact that memories are not static, but are constantly being rebuilt and reshaped inside of our mind every time we "recall" them. This conversation can go in so many directions... What do you think?

 Very interesting.  And memory having such a shape-shifting effect surely means that we are chameleon-like,  all of us -  not just sociopaths.  Very interesting ...

 Love this topic. I started really paying attention to memory in others when I read The Invisible Gorilla.  It's talks about many of the same concepts, except more from an attention perspective. Like stage magic.

I was extremely interested in this topic when I first learned about it. I already don't really trust my mind, and that theory simply gave me more reason not to.

I've watched some people in my life systematically change their memories of stories to preserve their own ego and sanity. Not merely their stories, but their very memories of the events.

I only know that what I know are merely assumptions, subject to change for more reasons than just the empirical or the theoretical ones. It's why I take a lot of notes and prefer to look into things objectively, because my subjective thoughts are questionable.

I think this is very scary. I sometimes actually remember remembering things differently.

It kinda makes sense that our brain does that though.

 It is weird to think that the past doesn't exist in any way except in our memory. Makes me think that there is no objective truth about anything that has happened in the past, kind of liberating really. 

 I will have to do some searching, but I've read of the idea that memory is a function of quantum entanglement.  Whatever phenomena it is "recording" becomes the quantum correllate neurologically.  Of course, if the brain is like a quantum computer, or really anything in our physical universe, it is subject to decoherence and entropy.

What troubles me about memory is that I can sense a part that's missing.  I can remember forgetting.  The shape and general form of some part of a memory is distinct, so I remember enough that I should remember something.  Perhaps the coherence around the absent memory structure is enough to indicate the outline, while not coloring in the form.

There is a core within all of the layers we dress ourselves in.

It simply takes practice taking these layers off.

Some can not be removed, but they can be shifted so that the underlaying layers can be removed in turn.

Everyone is their own best puzzle they built for most of their lives and solving it usually requires mental energy that is too straining for the uncurious ones.

It's only when we die, that we are perfect and happy.

It's what we strive for.