If we analyze the etymology of confabulation, we will arrive at confabulatio, a word in the Latin language. The act and result of conspiring or conspiring is called conspiracy.
The verb confabular, on the other hand, can be used to name the action of telling lies or fables or of establishing an agreement to develop an illicit plan. For example: “That’s a conspiracy! I am not going to allow them to defame my name with falsehoods ”, “ The president discovered a conspiracy of several officials who tried to destabilize his government ”, “ A retiree was the victim of a conspiracy and lost all his savings ”.
According to abbreviationfinder.org, a conspiracy, therefore, can consist of spreading lies with the aim of harming someone. It should be noted that the term is used in a derogatory sense: a person does not usually admit that he carried out a conspiracy, but rather it is usual to accuse another of having done it.
When studying the etymology of the term confabular we can find the verb confabulari, from Latin, which translates as “talk between two or more people and put together a plan together”, but also refers to “tell stories between two or more people ».
Although at first glance this last meaning may seem strange, it arises naturally from the lexical components of the word confabulari : the prefix con gives the connotation of «all together», while the verb it modifies (fabulari) can be translate as “tell fables, speak.”
Suppose that, in the media of a given country, complaints and accusations involving the governor of a province begin to be published. This situation undermines the image of the leader. By way of defense, the governor in question assures that he is the victim of a conspiracy by the opposition: in his words, the accusations are false and the accusations are based on lies. According to the governor, everything obeys the intention of the opponents to access power.
Collusions can also be alliances between several individuals to carry out illegal, illegitimate or unethical activity. If three co-workers agree to go to their boss to accuse another worker of being inefficient and troublesome just because they don’t like him, it can be said that they are running a conspiracy.
In this last example, we can see that nuance of a «joint plan» that is detailed above in the etymology of the term: the prefix con gives us the idea of group work, of the action of several people in pursuit of a plot which, in this case, seeks to harm a third party by spreading a false story, a “fable.”
In the field of psychiatry, we speak of collusion to describe the phenomenon characterized by the invention of certain experiences with which the subject fills in empty spaces in his memory. It is important to note that the person is not aware that these memories are false, that they have never taken place in reality, and tells them to others with complete ease, although very soon they forget them and start inventing new ones.
The chronic alcoholism and some organic brain syndromes often result in the appearance of collusion. It is not uncommon to witness this behavior in people who suffer from these disorders, when they tell us about their supposed plans (things that we know they will not do, mainly because their illness does not allow them) or the things they have done the day before, for example.
It is important not to confuse this concept with that of fiction : although both coincide in the fabrication of stories and their subsequent dissemination, the fictional subject is aware of their lies.
