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Ing-Mari Tallberg investigates instances of confabula-tory speech in individuals with dementia from a linguistic viewpoint, and she draws parallels to cognitive models of memory and consciousness, as well as to the psychoanalytic concept of primary process. In doing so, the author builds on Solms's (2000) idea that in cases with brain dysfunction, implicit processes of the mind are revealed and that investigating the phenomenon of confabulation can provide insights into primary-process mental functioning. Tallberg states, quoting Solms (2000) and Turnbull, Jenkins, and Rowley (2004), that confabulations have qualities found in the special characteristics of the unconscious: tolerance of mutual contradiction, timelessness, replacement of external reality with psychic reality, and expression of an unconstrained activation of ideas.
The term “confabulation” has been used somewhat inconsistently in the literature, though it generally describes phenomena having to do with telling or acting upon false narratives or memories without intending to lie, and without awareness of these falsehoods (Gilboa et al., 2006). Confabulation has been observed and investigated in a number of different conditions, including dementia, Korsakoff syndrome, traumatic brain injury, or anterior communicating artery aneurysms (Hirstein, 2006).
In the present paper, Tallberg offers a linguistic definition of confabulation, stating that in confabulatory speech, the linguistic markers that serve to connect speech content to time, place, and person are used inadequately. The author links this definition to Tulving's (1985) concept of autonoetic consciousness, which allows individuals to be aware of their internal experiences over time, thus facilitating processes of episodic memory. In contrast, noetic consciousness allows individuals to think about something they know, and it is related to semantic memory. In addition, anoetic consciousness simply registers perceptions bound to the current situation.