Uncle Joe isn't lying.
He truly believes his delusions are real. ..
Actually, I think they are confabulations rather than delusions.
Confabulations are very common in people like Joe who are suffering from dementia.
Confabulation in Dementia
Confabulation in
Dementia. ... Most known cases of
confabulation are symptomatic of brain damage or dementias, such as an aneurysm, Alzheimer's disease, or Wernicke–Korsakoff syndrome.
Confabulations aren't intentional; the person with
dementia genuinely believes the false memory to be true.
A confabulation isn’t exactly the same thing as a delusion – another phenomenon often present in patients with Alzheimer’s. A person with delusions often thinks that someone steals from them, that there are intruders in the house, or that home isn’t really home. A person with dementia who confabulates might form a “memory” for an event that didn’t occur. For example, the person might rearrange the furniture, forget that it happened, and make up a memory of a burglar moving everything to better explain or make sense of the situation. A person with delusions, on the other hand, might become convinced that a person robs them repeatedly, even if nothing is missing.
