I know I ought to leave well-enough alone, but I am just now reading Ghost in the Shell I, and the subject of implanted memories is present. Basically, the bad guy was using this trash collector as his pawn, having implanted
false memories in him to help build his cover (95). The poor guy freaked out. He could not believe that his wife and kid were figments of his imagination.
"Whether its a simex or a dream, the information that exists is all real... and an illusion at the same time" (96). This puts it rather bluntly. To the one in whom the implanted 'memories' reside, they seem like real memories of real events. He has no way of discerning implanted memories from real ones. Nevertheless, the life he believed he lived was not his own.
I have just started reading "Searching for Memory" by Daniel Schacter. It says that memories can be falsified by manipulative 'therapists' who seek to find 'momories' of abuse by parents, and
lead the subjects who must be open to suggestion to 'recover' these so-called 'repressed' memories. These same people, having been convinced of the incidents, are reluctant to release belief in these fabricated events. The emotions that the 'therapist' evokes in the session, is key to the seeming validity of these fake memories.
I will add more as I learn more.