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
Over and beyond the above enumeration there were some intensely
interesting facts which came out during the intimate study of
these cases. We are at once forced to agree with previous
writers that an unusual number of the pathological liar group
show great aptitude for language. This is shown by their general
conversational ability and by the fact that many of them have
found out themselves that they had capacity, for instance, for
writing compositions. Taking our group of pathological liars in
the strict sense, as given in Chapter III, we find that no less
than 7 of these 12 have been given to writing compositions and
stories. Three of them had definitely commenced long stories or
novels. It is most unusual among other offenders to find
evidence of any such tendencies. A considerable number of our
group were characterized as great talkers, and several as
romantic, dramatic, fantastic, etc., even by ordinary observers.
All this goes to show clearly that the native traits making for
verbal fluency are strongly correlated with pathological lying.
When it comes to consideration of such an instance as Case 11 we
have the point more strongly brought out. Here the individual is
fairly swung down his life's course as the irregularity of his
capacities direct. His language ability carries him along as
nothing else will. In corroboration of this interesting point
the conclusions of other authors should be noted.
The aberrational types which show pathological lying are, several
of them, depicted in our Chapter VI. But little in summary of
them needs to be said. The general mental and moral weakness of
the constitutional inferior very naturally leads him to become a
pathological liar; he follows, by virtue of his make-up, the path
of immediate least resistance--lying. The episodic lying or
aimless false accusations of the choreic psychosis needs no
comment--the confusional mental state sometimes accompanying that
disease readily predisposes toward fantastic treatment of
realities. The relationship of constitutional excitement to
pathological lying is less well recognized, but fully explicable
when we recollect the rate at which ideas present themselves in
the mental content of such individuals, who have little time, as
it were, to discriminate the true from the false. The mental
conditions leading to purposeless prevarication which supervene
in the real hysterical mental states, or during the course of
traumatic psychoneurosis are well known. The individual is to be
surely regarded, at least temporarily, as suffering from a
psychosis in many of these instances, and falsification, while it
may be difficult to distinguish between delusion and lying, is a
well recognized phenomenon. The very deliberate lying of
psychopathic individuals, such as Case 25, who, though so
strongly aberrational, do not fit under the head of any of the
classic insanities, is a matter for earnest consideration by all
who have to deal with delinquents.
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