The Malleable Mind: How Our Present Self Rewrites The Past
We all have our own Patronus.
In the Harry Potter universe, when the terrifying Dementors, the creatures that suck out all joy and hope, approach, there is only one way to chase them away: by evoking the happiest, most comforting memory, the one that brings you instant peace.¹
For a long time, I thought I knew exactly what mine was. It always found me in the middle of sleepless nights. The image was of me, as a child, spending long summer days in the pool with my best friends. No set time to leave, no commitments, no worries. A sense of eternal vacation.
But one of those nights, something hit me. Were those days always snapshots of a picturesque “eternal vacation?” How many times, in that same pool, did I not argue with those very same friends? How many times did a subtle comment hurt me so deeply that I couldn’t enjoy the rest of the day? Or I had to begrudgingly leave a game to care for my little sister, while the others kept playing? And yet, this memory, which seemed so solid and so perfect, always showed up without a single crack.
That was the exact moment it clicked. My “Patronus” was not a faithful photograph of the past. It was an edited memory, carefully polished by my own mind.
We always hear that the past helps us to build the present and shape the future. But that phrase leaves out an uncomfortable truth. The past is not a framed painting, nor a movie paused on a scene. The past, in fact, can be just as abstract as the future and often depends on the interpretation and recollection of our current selves. ²
This is because memory isn’t static; it’s malleable.
How Memory Rewrites Itself
Studies on reconstructive memory show that our current emotions, beliefs, and life experiences shape how we recall past events. Cognitive psychologist Daniel Schacter notes that this transformation is not merely about forgetting or distorting, but about integrating new meanings into old experiences, a kind of narrative updating that reflects who we are now, not who we were then.³
One of the clearest illustrations of this phenomenon is rosy retrospection—a bias that makes us remember the past as happier or easier than today.⁴ In moments of sadness or discouragement, it leads us to revisit old experiences through a softened lens. Memories become warmer, simpler, almost sacred.. The rough edges fade and complications dissolve. We may find ourselves thinking, “everything was just better back then.” That’s how my sleepless nights brought back the pool scene—edited, glowing, flawless.
Interestingly, this same bias can also work in reverse. In moments of excitement or confidence, we may reframe painful past experiences as essential steps in our personal growth. Hardships are no longer just painful; they become necessary, even meant to be. But here lies another illusion.
Our brain, ever in love with shortcuts, wraps these reinterpretations in another layer of distortion: hindsight bias.⁵ It convinces us that we "knew it all along," or that we had more control than we actually did. In reality, we’re projecting our present understanding onto the past. We look back with knowledge and maturity we didn’t yet possess, and in doing so, we retell the story not as it happened, but as it now seems to make sense.
This cognitive heuristic, while comforting, can be dangerous. It gives us a false sense of clarity and mastery, which often leads us to underestimate the complexity of past decisions, and worse, to repeat the same mistakes, believing we’ve already learned our lesson.⁶
References
- Meaning LLC. (2020, April 30). The origins of the Patronus in Harry Potter. Medium. https://medium.com/@meaningllc/the-origins-of-the-patronus-in-harry-potter-8ca6490eacea
- Kraemer, P. M., Weilbächer, R. A., Mechera-Ostrovsky, T., & Gluth, S. (2022). Cognitive and neural principles of a memory bias on preferential choices. Current Research in Neurobiology, 3, 100029. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.crneur.2022.100029
- Schacter, D. L., Norman, K. A., & Koutstaal, W. (2007). The cognitive neuroscience of constructive memory. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 362(1481), 773–786. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2007.2087
- The Decision Lab. Rosy retrospection. https://thedecisionlab.com/biases/rosy-retrospection
- The Decision Lab. Hindsight bias. https://thedecisionlab.com/biases/hindsight-bias
- Bernstein, D. M., Atance, C., Loftus, G. R., & Meltzoff, A. N. (2011). Hindsight bias from 3 to 95 years of age. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 37(2), 378–391. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3084020/
- Cherry, K. (2022, October 27). What is negativity bias? Verywell Mind. https://www.verywellmind.com/negative-bias-4589618
- Kensinger, E. A. (2009). Remembering the details: Effects of emotion. Emotion Review, 1(2), 99–113. https://doi.org/10.1177/1754073908100432, Bower, G. H., & Forgas, J. P. (2023). Affective influences on memory and cognition. Annual Review of Psychology, 74, 25–52.
- Cherry, K. (2021, December 20). Availability heuristic. Verywell Mind. https://www.verywellmind.com/availability-heuristic-2794824
- Loftus, E. (2013, June). How reliable is your memory? [Video]. TED Conferences. https://www.ted.com/talks/elizabeth_loftus_how_reliable_is_your_memory
About the Author
Maria Isabel Chaves
Maria Isabel Chaves is a student whose academic interests lie at the intersection of history, behavioral science, and memory. She has been recognized with national and state awards in history olympiads (ONHB and DHPB), where she developed analytical writing and collaborated on complex research challenges. Her current work explores the emotional dimensions of memory, narrative construction, and collective identity. She is passionate about connecting lived experience with historical consciousness, often approaching these themes from a reflective and interdisciplinary perspective. Outside of research, she enjoys reading and solving crossword puzzles.
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