I used the word ‘confabulation’ in a message to a friend this morning — incorrectly, it turns out.  I figured  I  should understand the word’s meaning and connotations better before bandying it about. So, looked  it up (or, to be precise, clicked it up). Finally! A useful word that explains the birthers, the Tea Partiers and perhaps Sarah Palin:

confabulation

A confabulation is a fantasy that has unconsciously emerged as a factual account in memory. A confabulation may be based partly on fact or be a complete construction of the imagination . . . (read on)

PS | Owning up to our own confabulations  – or even figuring out we have them -  and what they are, and how they warp a clearer-eyed view of our individual worlds is the stuff of therapy. And spiritual practice. And drug-taking, which can either lift the veil on our confabulatory natures or  create whole new meta-confabulations. Or maybe, “Matrix”-like, we are living inside one huge confabulation? Where is Toto when you need him?