Memory › Paramnesia (Distortion of Memory) › Distortion of Recall

Screen Memory

A screen memory is a recollection that is partly true and partly false, in which a less painful, substituted detail stands in for a piece of the real memory that is too distressing to recall directly. The overall memory is not invented from nothing, as in a false memory, but has had one especially painful element replaced with something more bearable.

This has traditionally been discussed as an opportunity, in appropriate psychotherapeutic settings, for careful exploration of the relationship between the screen memory, the person's other psychological symptoms, and related material such as dreams, though disentangling exactly which elements of any given memory are objectively true can be genuinely difficult.

Recognition features

• A memory that contains both accurate and inaccurate elements, blended together into one account
• The inaccurate element typically substitutes for something more painful or distressing than the version actually recalled
• Can be very difficult, in any individual case, to establish precisely which specific parts of the memory are objectively true
• May be relevant to both therapeutic exploration and, in some cases, to legal proceedings where the underlying facts matter

Eliciting it at interview

• Explore the memory gently and without leading questions, noting any detail that feels emotionally inconsistent with the rest of the account or that the person seems uncertain about
• Where the accuracy of the memory has practical or legal significance, seek independent corroboration rather than relying on the account alone
• Approach any deeper exploration of a suspected screen memory carefully, ideally within an appropriate therapeutic framework, given how emotionally sensitive the underlying material often is

Distinguishing features

• Differs from a false memory in that a real event genuinely underlies a screen memory, with only part of it substituted, rather than the whole event being fabricated
• Differs from retrospective falsification in involving a specific substituted detail protecting against a particular painful truth, rather than a general mood-driven colouring of memory
• Establishing which parts are true and which are substituted is often genuinely difficult and may require careful, gradual exploration rather than a single assessment

Common misconceptions

• That a screen memory is simply a lie; the substitution is generally understood to occur outside full conscious awareness, protecting the person from a more painful truth
• That the false element of a screen memory is always obvious; it can be subtle and deeply woven into an otherwise accurate account

Related phenomena

Distortion of Recall · False Memory

Practice this

A woman recalls a childhood memory of being comforted by her mother after a fall, but careful, gradual exploration later establishes that while the fall genuinely happened, it was in fact her father, not her mother, who was present and whose role in the memory has been substituted, apparently protecting her from a more painful truth about that day. What is this kind of memory called? · In therapy, a man's vivid memory of a happy family holiday is explored, and it emerges that the holiday did happen, but one detail he consistently recalls — that his older brother was present and cheerful throughout — turns out to be inaccurate, since his brother was, in fact, absent for most of the trip following a family argument. Before revealing the answer: what does this pattern suggest? · A patient's memory of a past event turns out, on closer examination, not to be entirely accurate. Before revealing the answer, decide what single question distinguishes a screen memory from a false memory. · You suspect a patient's account of a particular childhood memory may be a screen memory. Before revealing the answer, decide how you would approach establishing this. · Explain why establishing exactly which parts of a screen memory are true and which are substituted can be genuinely difficult, and why this matters clinically.

Illustration

In therapy, a 36-year-old man recalls being frightened as a child by a neighbour's dog, a memory he returns to repeatedly and with unusual intensity, and only after careful, gradual exploration does it become clear that the fear he associates with the dog more accurately belongs to a different, far more distressing memory from around the same period.

References

• Casey, P. & Kelly, B. (2019). Fish's Clinical Psychopathology, 4th ed. Ch. 5, 'Disorders of Memory'.