Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-27gpq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-29T10:27:40.869Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Confabulation: A Matter of Philosophy of the Mind?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 December 2005

John DeLuca
Affiliation:
UMD–New Jersey Medical School, Newark and Director of Neuroscience Research, Kessler Medical Rehabilitation Research and Education Corporation, West Orange, New Jersey

Extract

Brain Fiction: Self-deception and the Riddle of Confabulation, by William Hirstein. (2005). Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press. 289 pp., $35.00.

Why do some patients with brain damage construct seemingly false answers to questions, which they believe are true and accurate? Such confabulation is the topic examined in this book. Not only does Dr. Hirstein integrate the anatomical, neurological, and neuropsychological knowledge accumulated thus far on confabulation, but his training as both a neuroscientist and a philosopher provides a unique perspective on confabulation by integrating issues broadly related to the philosophy of the mind. What is also proposed in this well written book is the notion that elements of confabulation can be seen in healthy individuals and in persons with disorders less overtly neurological in nature than those with clearly documented neurological disorder.

Type
BOOK REVIEWS
Copyright
© 2005 The International Neuropsychological Society

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)