ERRORS of memory are distinguished from forgetting and false recollections through one feature only, namely, that the error (false recollection) is not recognized as such but finds credence. However, the use of the expression "error" seems to depend on still another condition. We speak of "erring" instead of "falsely recollecting" where the character of the objective reality is emphasized in the psychic material to be reproduced - that is, where something other than a fact of my own psychic life is to be remembered, or rather something that mat be confirmed or refuted through the memory of others. The reverse of the error in memory in this sense is formed by ignorance.
In my book The Interpretation of Dreams, I was responsible for a series of errors in historical, and above all, in material facts, which I was astonished to discover after the appearance of the book. On closer examination I found that they did not originate from my ignorance, but could be traced to errors of memory explainable by means of analysis.
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