An implanted idea persists unchanged even after its context is restored.

Evidence

Cobb’s effectiveness as a dream thief is compromised by the projection of his dead wife, Mal, the pathological stain he now brings with him into any dream caper. Mal died after she suffered an apparent psychotic break. She and Cobb set up a lover’s retreat in the ‘unconstructed dreamspace’ that the dream thieves call Limbo. But after she became too attached to this virtual love nest, Cobb ‘incepted’ in her the idea that the world in which they were living was not real. As Cobb mordantly observes, there is nothing more resilient than an idea. Even when she is restored to what Cobb takes to be reality, Mal remains obsessed with the idea that she the world around her is not real, so she throws herself from a hotel window in order to return to what she believes is the real world. — Mark Fisher, Ghosts of My Life, 519

Categorization

• XREF: Idea-as-virus resonates with Dawkins’ meme concept and with informational-epidemic framing elsewhere in the book. — connects to: A totem’s evidence test cannot distinguish dream from reality by construction. — Mark Fisher, Ghosts of My Life: Writings on…, 528; Concepts supposedly abolished in theory keep returning in altered form. — Stuart Hall, Essential Essays, Volume 2: Identity…, 199; The social contract idea persists despite centuries of influential critique. — Russell Hardin, Trust and Trustworthiness, 486 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Belief perseverance persists even when evidence establishing it is shown false #exemplifies (0.85) — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 2586
• The social contract idea persists despite centuries of influential critique. #exemplifies (0.78) — Russell Hardin, Trust and Trustworthiness, 486
• Concepts supposedly abolished in theory keep returning in altered form. #expands (0.75) — Stuart Hall, Essential Essays, Volume 2, 199
• Once attention is re-rendered the change is irreversible #qualifies (0.70)