Behind Cryptomnesia: Hidden Memory vs. Lack of Credit to Oringal Artist

Literally meaning "hidden memory", cryptomnesia is used to explain the origin of experiences that people believe to be original but which are actually based on memories of events they've forgotten. How does one recognize if these accounts are "deliberately fradulent or recollections of events that happened in this life but which she had forgotten...The first recorded instance of cryptomnesia occured in 1874 and involved William Stanton Moses, a medium who, during a séance, claimed to be in contact with the spirits if two brothers who had recently died in India. The deaths were verified, but further research showed that the obituary ran in a newspaper six days before the séance and all information in the obituary was given in the séance and nothing more was added."1

Does cryptomnesia relate to art in various forms? Yes and no and indirectly. I propose that a master taking credit for the work of an apprentice is a type of cryptomnesia. The masters claim the art as their own and they believe that the brush strokes came from their own hand. However, cryptomnesia is an abstract idea that dwells deep inside the mind. We cannot know definatly if the person is fabricating or truly believes it is orginally theirs. In the case of Rembrant, cryptomnesia is a possibility. According to "Stealing Into Print" by Marcel C. LaFollette acknowledges the"idea of genius" which gives credit to the master when apprentices are more likely to produce the art. Thus, the personality of each artist is now being explored to connect the works they actually created. This raises questions about a paintings authenticity and has created efforst to give the "correct" artist credit. 2

We do not know for certain whether cryptomnesia is an explantion for Rembrant's paintings, but we can imagine a man viewing his apprentices paintings and days, weeks, or years later reproducing it as his own. Will cryptomnesia ever be able to be scientifically proven? Or will we merely have to include it as a philosophy when exaiming various art froms?




1. Source: The Skeptic's Dictionary. http://skepdic.com/cryptomn.html
2. Source: Stealing Into Print. http://books.google.com/books?id=tR78UUu4uBsC&pg=PA99&lpg=PA99&dq=artists+apprentices+stealing+work&source=bl&ots=m0PlpZnF_F&sig=sNk4DtGMuvn8ui2KQ3uqz6yHEBo&hl=en&ei=skKkSYbCFpmMsQP5-tmrAg&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=2&ct=result#PPP1,M1