From Mars to Oprah: Cryptomnesia as Hidden Memory and Unconscious Plagiarism Open Access

Walsh, Kira Marie (2013)

Permanent URL: https://etd.library.emory.edu/concern/etds/gx41mj42t?locale=en
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Abstract

From Mars to Oprah: Cryptomnesia as Hidden Memory and Unconscious Plagiarism is a cultural history of the concept of cryptomnesia through a series of case studies from 1891-2006. Cryptomnesia, literally hidden memory was originally used to describe creative reinterpretations of forgotten memories by Spiritualist mediums (i.e., that reported encounters with the supernatural were everyday experiences remembered out of context and attributed to the fantastic). In experimental psychology and literary criticism, cryptomnesia has come to be used almost exclusively to mean unconscious or accidental plagiarism. I argue that the narrowing definition of cryptomnesia from the strange, ghostly, and creative realms of hidden memory towards the more prescriptive and ethically charged accidental plagiarism is reflective of a cultural resistance towards unconscious explanations of mental processes.

Table of Contents

Introduction Stolen Stories.............................................................................................2 Chapter One

The Invention of Cryptomnesia…………………....................……………………………………….15

Chapter Two

Haunting Houses: Cryptomnesia as a Psychoanalytic and Psychological Concept….52

Chapter Three

Cryptomnesia and the Book in the 21st Century……………………...……...……….......…….98

Conclusion Stolen Affects……………………………………………………………….…………...........................132 Bibliography………………………………………………………………...........................……...……142

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