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
Inez has remained adamant to every plea and suggestion made by
many well-wishing friends that she reform and begin again. After
her parents and other relatives were found and communicated with,
her career partly known, and her mother's need of sympathy shown
to her, she still refused to change her story in many
particulars--even when she knew that we had discovered about her
writing home within recent months. She steadily refused to
acknowledge her true age. When the evidence was complete,
showing that she could not be held as a runaway girl, but must be
treated under the law as a woman, she went forth to begin, as we
heard from many other sources, her old misrepresentations of
herself, which speedily got her into further trouble.
We were not astonished, even after we had accumulated almost the
entire knowledge of the career which we have outlined above, and
Inez knew that we had done so, to be visited by two fine
philanthropic women who wanted to consult with us about an
unfortunate girl who had won their sympathy, and who had been
placed by them in a leading hospital after having shown some
signs of acute bronchitis. In fact, she was in such a bad
condition that she had to be transferred in an ambulance. But
her illness had rapidly cleared up and now after ten days of
observation an eminent diagnostician had thoroughly scolded her
for simulation, and the girl was once more on their hands.
Indirectly they learned that we knew of the case of this ``girl
of 16.'' They realized that they had been taken in, but it had
been done so cleverly, and, as they expressed it, Inez showed
herself such a splendid actress, that they wondered if she had
not extraordinary histrionic abilities which could be utilized.
(It remains to be seen whether anything constructive can be done
by following this lead. We feel that previous psychiatrists who
gave earlier an unfavorable prognosis in this case were perhaps
quite right. But perhaps we should not let our opinions in this
be swayed by the fact that my associate, Dr. Bronner, who went to
this last hospital was met by an absolute denial on the part of
Inez of the essentials of the above career, by her insistence
that she was not the same person as the daughter of the Smiths,
and that she was only 17--all this in spite of her knowledge of
our correspondence with her family and others, and her own
previous acknowledgments of lying.)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account