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
About her own lying tendencies she confessed that sometimes she
hardly knew whether things were really so or not. Asked about
her knowledge of other cities; ``I read a whole lot and learn
things in that way. I used to have to write compositions and
imagine we were going places. I was pretty good at that.'' One
felt very uncertain about Hazel's mental condition when in almost
the same breath she denied having said anything about the seals
on the rocks at San Francisco, or about obstetrical cases, but,
of course, the denial may have been itself another falsification.
Her knowledge of army affairs was gained through her acquaintance
with young soldiers. An unusual amount of what she heard or read
was photographed with the greatest clearness in her mind and was
recalled most vividly.
A peculiarity of Hazel's case which was quite obvious was her
lack of apperception concerning her own interests. Her lies all
along, after her identity was discovered, were so easy to trace,
and they so quickly rebounded upon her, that there seemed every
reason for her to desist. Nothing so clearly proved the absence
of self-realization as her feeling under detention that other
girls with whom she was in forced association were much beneath
her in quality, although many of them were not nearly so untidy
and had not been nearly so immoral. During all this period of
several months, beginning with her running away and her writing
the housewifely letters about her imaginary married life, and
ending with her appeal for aid at the social center, Hazel was
indulging in veritable orgies of lying. When away from home she
several times picked up men on the street and stayed at hotels
with them.
At the time of our first studies of this case we hardly dared to
offer either a mental or moral prognosis.
In the institution for delinquent young women to which she was
sent Hazel's traits were long maintained. She proved very
troublesome on account of lies to her family, to the officers,
and to the other girls. The latter soon discovered, however, the
peculiar lack of foundation for her stories. In the institution
was also noted the tendency to untidiness of which her mother
spoke. The authorities steadily persevered with Hazel. They
secured another operation on her eye, which successfully
straightened it, and she became fully ``cured'' of her pelvic
disease. She received instruction in a form of handicraft in
which she quickly showed special dexterity and skill. Her
tendencies to falsify gradually became less. About two years
later the mother again assumed control with great success.
This is the remarkable interest of Hazel's case, to wit, that
with proper discipline and the development of new interests her
fabricating tendencies have been reduced to a minimum. She has
made a wonderful improvement and has long been a self-supporting
and self-respecting young woman with her own relation to the
world realized in a way that before seemed entirely lacking.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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