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
His fourth case was that of an artful, deceitful, arrogant,
selfish boy, always clever in excuses, who had stolen from the
age of twelve, often stolen things that he threw away. Though of
Protestant family, he delighted to draw Catholic insignia and
embroider religious characters. He finally entered the
university, always lying and stealing. At the end of three
months he was taken home in debt 2000 marks. He later became a
Catholic. Outside of normal expense he had cost his father
28,000 marks. By the time he was studied he had already taken
opium for four years, having started because of neuralgia. There
had been a severe operation on account of some trouble with the
teeth. It was discovered that there was contrary sexual feeling
in this case also. The patient had a great inclination for doing
woman's handwork. Delbruck again considered the early appearance
of character anomalies and perverted sex feeling to prove a
deep-seated abnormality of nervous constitution. He diagnosed it
as a case of constitutional psychosis; the extent of the
abnormalities showing the individual to be irresponsible.
His last patient was an alcoholic adventurer, early life unknown,
who had an idiotic sister. He had lived long in America and
returned to Germany full of stories of his wonderful achievements
over seas. This case does not concern us except to emphasize the
influence of alcohol in the development of such cases.
This outline is sufficient to show the justification of his
conclusion, namely, that just as in healthy people a mixing of
lies and mistakes may occur, so the same combination may reach a
pathological height, and one can diagnose a mixture of lies with
delusions or false memories.
These studies focus our attention on the following points which
are valuable to emphasize for the purpose of this monograph: the
complexity of details to be examined in the life of any one
patient in whose delinquencies pathological lying is a factor,
the variety of cases in which this factor may occur, hence the
difficulties in the way of determining the extent to which the
patient is responsible for his deeds and whether he belongs in a
reformatory or an insane hospital. From the standpoint of
society Delbruck's work has great use, since it reveals so
plainly the menace that these liars are to their families and to
the community as a whole, their unscrupulousness in financial
dealings, their tendencies to bring false accusations involving
families and friends alike in useless expense and litigation.
German studies on pseudologia phantastica since Delbruck's time
have followed the line of amplification of his views and
clarification of the subject by the addition of new types.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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