# Memories: How much can we control them?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memories-how-much-can-we-control-them/954381>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [November 15, 2021, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memories-how-much-can-we-control-them/954381 "2021-11-15T13:31:19Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![FairyChatMom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fairychatmom/32/21906_2.png) [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)\
**Post date:** [November 26, 2021, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memories-how-much-can-we-control-them/954381/21 "2021-11-26T16:39:27Z")

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My husband occasionally incorporates things that happened to others into his memories as if they happened to him. I recall telling him about something a coworker told me, and a year or so later, it became something that happened to him. It wasn’t anything significant - just the sort of thing one talks about when making small talk - but I found it weird that he co-opted the story. And I think he truly believes it happened to him.

I don’t bother correcting him unless it’s something that matters - like dates in his medical history. He thought his first spinal surgery happened 8 years before it actually did. Since he was talking to another surgeon, it mattered that the dates were correct.

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