TEORETICKÉ POZNÁMKY K POJMU MEMORÁT V KONTEXTE PSYCHOLÓGIE SPOMIENOK

In this article psychological knowledge of the functioning of autobiographical memory is confronted with folkloristic theories associated with the concept of memorat, which designates narrations of personal experiences with supernatural beings and phenomena. Human memory is not a vessel in which static information is deposited and later retrieved. It is a dynamic process of repeated construction and reconstruction of memories, which is subject to outside influences. This knowledge corresponds to folklorists’ findings: that the elements of traditional ideas are already part of narratives about personal experiences and they are not inevitably a mere result of the changes in stories during their further transmission. The author links the findings of the folklorist Lauri Honko (1964) with the present-day knowledge of psychology concerning so-called false memories. Subsequently, using the results of his own research focused on memorats, he documents this connection.