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
Summary: A young woman of 20, bright mentally, strong
physically, ``confessed'' to a professor of a university where
she was studying that she had shot and killed a man. The facts
were known to only three or four people and she was terribly
worried about it all. Upon her information the affair was taken
up by a group of professional men, one of them a lawyer of large
practical experience. She aided in an investigation which
attempted to uncover the ``white slave'' feature of the case.
The data of verification proved most elusive. Later, the young
woman implicated herself in a burglary, and altogether an
elaborate story of her life was evolved. It was found that from
early years she had been a great fabricator.
While a first year student at a university Marie M. begged for an
interview with one of her instructors at his home and there, with
him and others, she told a detailed story of how some months
previously she had escaped a difficult situation by killing a
man.
The exceedingly long account which was given at intervals to
several professional men and enlarged upon in response to
inquiry, or as the occasion otherwise demanded, we are not
justified in taking space to retell. This case figures, as a
whole, in somewhat anecdotal fashion among our others, we freely
confess; it is cited to show the extent to which apparently
purposeless fabrication can go. It has been found impossible to
gain a satisfactory idea of the genesis of this young woman's
tendency, quite in contrast to the other cases we have cited. It
forms the only instance where we have drawn from our experience
with merely partially studied cases.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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