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Mémoire autobiographique dans l’amnésieThe term ‘autobiographical memory’ refers to the recollection of personal facts, episodes and incidents. It can be affected in various ways in clinical disorders, both neurological and psychological. In this paper, examples of ‘anomalies’ in autobiographical memory are discussed in the context of current explanatory theories. Retrograde amnesia (RA) is a fascinating phenomenon, referring to loss of memories for autobiographical episodes and/or personal semantic facts which occurred before the onset of a brain disease or injury. The severity of RA is only loosely associated with the severity of anterograde amnesia, suggesting different underlying mechanisms. There are various theories of how and why RA occurs. These will be reviewed, and it will be suggested that they all have their limitations. A retrieval deficit, with an age-related encoding factor, giving rise to a temporal gradient, will be suggested. Spontaneous confabulation refers to the unprovoked flow of erroneous memories, seen in some neurological patients, now thought to relate to damage in the ventro-medial and orbito-frontal regions of the frontal lobes. A recent study will be presented which tested between alternative theories of confabulation, finding damage to autobiographical memory and executive systems to be most critical to the ‘rise and fall’ of confabulation. Psychogenic amnesia intrigues the media! It can be ‘global’ or ‘situation-specific’. A recently published study of 53 cases has highlighted 4 different types of syndrome (or subgroups). The study emphasised the psychosocial circumstances in which the amnesia occurs, and demonstrated different patterns of autobiographical memory loss across the subgroups, and with differential patterns of outcome.