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
After a time of quieting down in her behavior tendencies,
although there was never complete cessation of the inclination to
falsify, a new exacerbation of lying arose. This time it seemed
to center about a clandestine love affair of a mild type. There
was one trouble with this case which neither I nor any one else
was able to clear for the parents. It was perfectly apparent
that the girl might naturally be expected to marry at some time.
Now, when an honest young man felt inspired to keep company with
this vivacious, healthy, and generally attractive young woman,
what were the parents to do? It was easy enough for them to
decide that she must not go with a man of bad character, but were
they bound in honor to inform any young man, before affairs had
gone too far, that the girl had this unfortunate tendency and
that she had had rather a shady career? It was perfectly clear
to them that she herself would not tell him. This was how the
matter stood at the time we last heard of the case, and while the
parents were holding back, a young man's affections and the
girl's fabrications were growing apace.
Janet had been suffering from a chronic inflammation of the
bladder, which, however, did not cause any acute symptoms. A
chronic pelvic inflammation was discovered, for which she was
operated upon in her home town. The surgeon reported to the
parents that conditions were such that they would naturally be
highly irritative, although there had been no previous complaint
about them. The girl made an exceedingly rapid recovery. It was
after this that her last affair of the affections was causing the
parental quandary and distress.
Our final diagnosis of this ease, after careful study of it, was
that it was a typical case of pathological lying, mythomania, or
pseudologia phantastica. The girl could not be called a
defective in any ordinary sense. Her capabilities were above the
average. She showed good moral instincts in many directions and
was at times altogether penitent. Nor could she be said to have
a psychosis. The trouble was confined to one form of conduct.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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