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
In this case we advised gynecological and other medical treatment
and segregation in a reformatory or industrial school. The young
woman could be regarded as nothing else than a dangerous person
in any community. Even when being brought to us she had
endeavored to flirt with a conductor on the train. A fair
diagnosis could only be that she was, for the present at least,
morally irresponsible.
This case has been only recently studied and no further report
can be given. It is cited in illustration of the fact that was
not clearly brought out by our other cases, namely, that a period
of stress may be very definitely the exciting factor in
developing pathological lying and accusation. This stands out
particularly clearly in this case because the young woman had,
prior to the wedding feast, been a good worker and had given no
trouble in the community.
CHAPTER V
CASES OF PATHOLOGICAL LYING IN BORDER-LINE MENTAL TYPES
We could load our pages with histories of cases where the
statement of delusions, unrecognized as such, has created much
trouble in courts and out, but this type of case is too well
known to need any illustration. Text books of psychiatry deal
with the falsifications of paranoia and other insanities. That
the really insane also sometimes lie pathologically, that is,
tell for no normal purpose what they adequately know to be
untrue, is a fact not so well understood. But even that we need
not be especially concerned with in our case histories. It has
been well brought out in the previous literature on pathological
lying, as witness in our Chapter II. In the present chapter we
do not include the out-and-out insane, nor the definitively
feeble-minded, nor the recognizably epileptic.
Much more difficult of understanding and much less easily
recognized because of the mildness of many of the symptoms, or
their variations from time to time, are the types which we
enumerate. Several of these offer no complete picture of
insanity--even Case 25, although clearly aberrational, extremely
defective in self-control, and markedly criminalistic, did not
show to some psychiatrists who observed him a sufficiently clear
correspondence to any form of insanity as laid down in the
old-school text-books to be practically regarded as insane and in
need of long segregation. In considering this whole matter we
must never forget that there is no wall of demarcation between
those whose conduct clearly betokens insanity and those who are
not insane. There are plenty of instances where the easily
passable border between the two is permanently occupied or is at
times approached.
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