If we take seriously what bereaved people tell us, then it seems the brain can persist in two mutually exclusive beliefs. On the one hand, we have the clear knowledge that a loved one has died, and on the other, the simultaneous magical belief that they will return. When a loved one has died, we have a memory of learning that they died. This memory might be of the phone call informing you that your brother died, etched in your mind with lots of detail—where you were in the dining room, what you were cooking, how hot it was in the room, the smell of onions. These are what we call episodic
...more
