Yun Park who works with children under six and who is worth whatever anybody pays her — explained it to me in the third month in a way I have repeated to other people since.

“She isn’t remembering the incident when she says that.

It’s below memory.

What happened is that she learned a rule about the world, which is that when something goes missing, she is going to be hurt, and the only defense available is to deny it before anybody speaks.

That’s not a thought.

That’s closer to a reflex, and you don’t argue a reflex out of a child.”