Cryptomnesia: When Forgotten Memories Return as Original Ideas!

Have you ever proudly shared an idea or written something clever, only to later realize that you’d seen or heard it somewhere before? That moment of surprise, when something you believed was original turns out to be a hidden recollection, is known as cryptomnesia.

Psychiatrist Sims (1997) described it as “the experience of not remembering that one is remembering.” In essence, cryptomnesia happens when a memory emerges from the subconscious, but the person fails to recognize it as a memory. Instead, the brain presents it as something entirely new, may be a spark of creativity, a fresh idea, or an original insight.

Imagine a songwriter composing a tune that feels inspired, only to later discover it closely resembles a song they heard years ago. Or a writer penning a line they think is brilliant, unaware they’re subconsciously quoting something they once read. Such incidents are not acts of Plagiarism but examples of how subtly our memory can play tricks on us.

From a psychological perspective, cryptomnesia highlights the complex relationship between memory, creativity, and awareness. Our brain doesn’t store experiences in isolated boxes, but it constantly reorganizes, reshapes, and blends them. Sometimes, old impressions resurface stripped of their original context, tricking us into believing they are our own creations.

Interestingly, there’s no strong evidence linking cryptomnesia to any particular psychiatric disorder. It’s not considered pathological but rather a normal cognitive phenomenon that can happen to anyone. However, it may appear more often in people deeply engaged in creative or intellectual work like writers, artists, researchers, whose minds are immersed in vast amounts of information and ideas.

In a broader sense, cryptomnesia reminds us of how delicate and intricate our mental processes truly are. The mind doesn’t just record, it reconstructs.

Every thought we have is influenced, in some way, by what we’ve already absorbed from the world. Recognizing this doesn’t diminish creativity; instead, it deepens our understanding of how inspiration often arises from the unseen threads of memory.