Pathology of Lying, Accusation, and Swindling: A Study in Forensic PsychologyHealy, William
Science
Pathology of Lying, Accusation, and Swindling: A Study in Forensic Psychology
Healy, William
Criminal psychology; Swindlers and swindling
Our acquaintance with Robert began and continued on account of
delinquencies other than lying. He had run away from home at one
time, he had stolen some electrical apparatus from a barn and was
found in the middle of the night with it flashing a light on the
street. He also had taken money from his parents and had
threatened his mother with a hatchet. After much encouragement
and help he yet stole from people who were trying to give him a
chance to use his special abilities, and he began various minor
swindling operations which culminated in his attempt to arrest a
man at night, showing a star and a small revolver. Before we
lost sight of him Robert had gained the general reputation of
being the most unreliable of individuals.
Given splendid chances to use his special capacities, his other
qualities made it impossible for him to take advantage of them.
His wonderful ability was demonstrated in the school to which he
was sent; there the teacher said that if she had the opportunity
she really believed she could put him through one grade a month.
His mental grasp on all subjects was astonishing and he wrote
most admirable essays, one of the best being on patriotism. But
even under the stable conditions of this school for six or seven
months the boy did not refrain from an extreme amount of
falsification and was much disliked by the other boys on account
of it.
Robert had continued his lying for years. At the time when we
were studying his case his prevaricating tendencies were shown in
the manufacture of long and complicated stories, in the center of
which he himself posed as the chief actor. These phantasies were
told to people, such as ourselves, who could easily ascertain
their falsehood, and they were told after there had been a
distinct understanding that anything which showed unreliability
on his part would militate against his own strongly avowed
desires and interests. After special chances had been given this
boy with the understanding that all that was necessary for him to
do was to alter his behavior in respect to lying, on more than
one occasion new fabrications were evolved in the same interview
that Robert had begged in fairly tragic fashion to be helped to
cure himself of his inclination to falsify.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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