Psy as a Nat Sci
Dave Hall
Textbook Journal Chap. 8/Cryptomnesia
Cryptomnesia is a concept that I am wrestling with daily. According to the text, cryptomnesia is quite prominent throughout our society. Such publicly occurring instances have happened to the likes of Helen Keller, Sigmund Freud, Friedrich Nietzche, Eddie Murphey, and George Harrison. It has also been known as unintentional plagiarism. What is it exactly? Cryptomnesia is the word for the thoughts that you have that you believe to be original when in fact they are not. This is the opposite of Déjà vu in which something new seems old.
I struggle with this daily myself. I am looking to work in the film business. When I write scripts, form opinions about something Ive watched, or witness something that I try to integrate into film format, I have to think hard about the ways its been done before. Usually it takes you to actually incorporate the idea into what you are working on before it becomes clear where it came from.
A good example of this is was an idea I had when sitting around drinking Pabst Blue Ribbon with my buds. We started thinking about moves to put on girls at parties, something that would be funny and smooth and suave all at the same time. I came up with this one that involved the song Magic Man by the band Heart. We all thought it was hilarious and even wrote it into a script we were working on at the time. I even tried it on my girlfriend, although she wasnt impressed. About four months later, my friend Bearded Jon called me.
You know that move? He asked, Its from Swingers.
My response was pure disbelief.
No! The whole thing?
Yep. Magic Man and everything. Im watching it right now
I couldnt believe it. I was so proud of this cheesey idea that I didnt even know I had ripped it off from Swingers, a movie Ive seen about forty million times. Well, about 70 or 80 times really.
All of a sudden my friends thought I had set them up. They were saying, Why did you do this to us and I tried that move the other day! I felt really bad. I had lost all my credibility, and worse my friends didnt trust any idea I had anymore. They said "Go Away!"
Anyway, you get the idea. I think this affects the majority of the population. Time and time again I hear of a situation similar to the one above. The only difference is that its not as comical.
I get Cryptomnesia every time I listen to the new Handsome Boy Modeling School album. Like then one time when had were drinkin Pabst . . .
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