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 Smiths were the people she lived with until she was 14. She
remembers first living with them, but faintly recalls bearing the
name of Mary Johnson before that. Who the Johnsons were she does
not know, but she feels sure of the fact that she was born in New
Orleans. However, Inez does not worry about her parentage even
though it is unknown. Mrs. Smith was an elderly woman of wealth
who was very good to her, and by the time she was 14 she had
studied German and French, algebra and trigonometry. She had a
French tutor and took lessons on the piano. Always did well in
school and loved her work there. The Smith children, who were
much older, were very angry with their mother for all the money
she spent on Inez--they would have preferred its being expended
on their children. The son grew quite abusive and Mrs. S. was
made to suffer so much that the girl came to feel that she was
largely the cause of the old lady's unhappiness. After one
particularly deplorable scene she slipped away from their home in
New Orleans, traveled to St. Louis and went to an employment
agency where she found the B.'s. At the present time, above all
things, she does not want the Smiths to know about her when she
is temporarily a failure. She will never go back to them until
she can help the old lady who was so good to her.
Inez tells us she is now suffering from a wound still open as the
result of an operation for appendicitis performed two years
previously. She also suffered from tuberculosis a few years ago.
(She was found to be running a slight temperature, and some
slight hemorrhages in the sputum were observed.)
It may strengthen the portraiture so far sketched to give our
impressions as stated after our first study covering a week or
two; nor will it lessen the reader's interest to remark that it
was not for lack of acquaintance with the pathological liar type
that we failed to correctly size up this individual. Indeed, we
had already studied nearly all the other cases cited in this
monograph. Our statement ran as follows: ``This girl is very
frank and talkative with us. With her strong, but refined
features and cultivated voice she is a good deal of a
personality. She is sanguine and independent. Very likely she
does not exaggerate the hard times she has had in going from one
home to another. One cannot but respect this unusual young woman
for wanting to keep her early history secret. It would be
fortunate if some one would care for the girl and get her
ailments cured. With her very good ability she might easily then
be self-supporting.''
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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