Plagiarism As Passive Event: My Unconscious Did It!

“[C]ould some alleged plagiarists–like Maureen Dowd, Chris Anderson, Elizabeth Hasselbeck, and even [Kaavya] Viswanathan, who all either deny the charge, or blame their copying on unconscious mistakes–be guilty of psychological sloppiness rather than fraud? Could the real offense be disregard for the mind’s subliminal kleptomania? And if it is real, is unconscious copying (or ‘cryptomnesia’ to those who study the phenomenon) preventable?”