Someone in my family is suffering from "False Memory Syndrome" and I'm fairly sure it isn't me! My brother increasingly diverges in his versions of events which occured in our childhood, from the manner in which I recall those same events. It's been going on for the last few years and it's getting to the stage where he's trying to convince me that I'm the one who can't remember, when I know damn well my recollections are accurate.
However, he does suffer from bizzare dreams, which he then ties to real events. In other words, he thinks he's prophetic. So clearly, in my opinion, someone who intertwines dreams with reality in such a way, is far more likely to recall real events other than they actually happened.
For instance, I related to him certain things a family member had done (nothing too sinister I assure you), and his response was that he couldn't believe that such a person would have done those things. Fair enough. He clearly saw this person in a different light from me, but that was because he couldn't be objective, having a closer realtionship with that person than I have. So far, it's all fairly comprehensible, but then he took it up a notch.
I was talking about something that happened to me when I was younger, some major event, and he said that it had happened differently. I told him he couldn't possibly know because he wasn't there. His reply was that he was definitely there, it was me that wasn't there, and he was adamant about it. I was dumbfounded by this. It seems to me that he'd heard this story I'd probably talked about many times, and somehow made himself into the main protagonist. I guess my vivid description had allowed it to happen. That and his susceptibility to mental suggestion. I wonder if this is how False Memory Syndrome works? That combined with several obssessive compulsive behaviours he displays, suggests to me that it is indeed!
