Pathology of Lying, Accusation, and Swindling: A Study in Forensic Psychology — John Shaqi
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
Then follows a closer analysis of the qualities possessed by
pathological liars: (a) Their range of ideas is wide. (b) Their
range of interests is wider than would be expected from their
grade of education. (c) Their perceptions are better than the
average. (d) They are nimble witted. Their oral and written
style is above normal in fluency. (e) They exhibit faultiness in
the development of conceptions and judgments. Their judgment is
sharp and clear only as far as their own person does not come
into consideration. It is the lack of any self criticism
combined with an abnormal egocentric trend of thought that biases
their judgments concerning themselves. (f) Psychic traumata
arise perhaps through a striking reaction in the emotional realm
towards external occurrences. (g) Nearly all of Risch's cases
were burdened with bad inheritance. He maintains that, above
all, these cases show instability and psychic excitability. The
entire symptom complex arises upon a basis of degeneracy.
Essential similarities run through all of Risch's cases; it is
perhaps valuable here to cite a couple of them. His Case I is
that of a soldier, who after being released from prison at 23
years had begun his military duty and in a short time attempted
suicide. He was then studied for insanity. It was found that he
gave long accounts of his experiences as a chauffeur, rendering
his story with fluent details about hairbreadth escapes and other
adventures. He also told at length of his love affair with a
young girl. These stories were discovered to be false from ``A
to Z''; he did not clearly remember them later. The evolving of
such fabrications was all along one of his chief characteristics.
Examination showed no gross intellectual defect, but there were
certain psychopathic signs which had been displayed from early
childhood: he had little endurance and was unable to stand
criticism. Emotions befitting his stories were correctly
expressed by him; there were no facial evidences of conflict or
discomfort. It was impossible to tell from his physiognomy that
he was engaged in untruths. Mentally he was well oriented and
his thoughts flowed in orderly sequence. Despite rather limited
education he demonstrated very good style in his conversation and
his letters. The train of thought was expressed coherently and
logically, so well that one could speak of him as having literary
ability. Physically he was quite normal. Investigation of
antecedents showed that he was born of an exceedingly nervous
mother (more exact diagnosis not given) and that he had a
feebleminded brother. During his school career he was considered
to have quite fair ability. He learned no trade, and after
stopping school would leave a position upon the slightest
provocation. Before he was 23 he had been legally punished many
times for stealing and had spent, all told, over three years in
prison. Once before he had attempted suicide. After the
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