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
The fact that so many of the cases cited by Stemmermann were
clearly abnormal and found places in insane asylums makes much
citation of them by us, in turn, hardly worth while. However, a
short summary of a couple of her more normal cases will show the
problems and conditions as she found them. I. Annie J., 19 years
old, father a tailor, had been employed in several places as a
servant. Aside from the fact that it was stated she always had
an inclination to lie, nothing more was known about her early
life. She complained of headaches and fainting attacks, and
mourned over the death of her fiance. She said he had gone to
Berlin to learn tailoring and had died there of inflammation of
the lungs. He left her 650 marks which her mother got hold of.
On investigation it was found that this man was still alive and
never had been engaged to her. She then accused her mother of
taking 50 marks from her and said that a man, purporting to be
her real father, came from another town and told her she had been
brought up by foster parents. Through the quarreling which arose
from these various stories Annie was taken before the police
physician and pronounced mentally unsound. Then she told of
another engagement with the brother of her departed fiance, who
had discovered her real mother. The latter was going to leave
her 30,000 marks. He had formed a plot with the foster mother to
put Annie out of the way and to divide the money. He followed
her on the street and threw a drugged cloth over her head. She
fainted and was carried home. She said she brought action for
attempt to murder. (Whether this fiance and the rich mother were
real persons is not known.) Later in the same year, Annie being
again at large, a new father, der Graf von Woldau, appeared and
bought her beautiful clothes costing 100 marks. He wanted to
take her away, but quickly disappeared and was not seen again.
When Annie told this story she was employed by a woman who
attempted to get traces of the count, but failed. Later this
employer missed a sum of money equivalent to that spent for the
clothes. Annie's responsibility by this time was still more
questioned and she was sent to an insane asylum. There she was
found normally oriented, orderly, industrious, but suffered from
periodical headaches. When questioned in the asylum concerning
her tales she hesitated and would say, ``Now I believe them and
now I don't.'' It is remarkable in this case that her different
employers believed all her fabrications and took the girl's part
against the supposed offenders. For a year she engaged in a sort
of orgy of pathological lying and then this phase of her career
stopped. After a few months in the asylum she returned home and
later married. The last report from her mother was that she was
nervous and easily excited, but showed no further signs of
insanity.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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