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
Of these we had the best account from the girl herself.
An intelligent relative gave an account of the facts. Amanda has
been tried in a number of households, but has been given up by
everyone after a short period of trial. Her word is found so
unreliable that in general she is regarded as thoroughly
untrustworthy. This particular relative, who is most interested
in her, tells us she thinks the girl is mentally peculiar. She
states that in general her mind is both romantic and rambling.
She constantly has the idea that her beauty will bring her a
wealthy husband. She lies about other people to these relatives
and about them to others. They have a comfortable home and are
very anxious for Amanda to do well, and many times have had
serious talks with her, all to no purpose. They themselves have
attempted to analyze the nature of the girl's characteristics,
and say it is quite evident that the telling of untruths with
this girl is the result of quick reaction on her part. Fictions
of all kinds come up in her mind constantly and are uttered
quickly. It is doubtful whether she premeditates her stories.
She has threatened suicide. They think she is the biggest liar
that ever lived and can't understand how she can engage in such
unforesighted behavior unless she is somewhat abnormal. Only
once did they ever notice anything suggestive of a mental
peculiarity other than her lying. Then she did talk quite
incoherently and at random for a time (she is a great talker
anyhow), but later she said she realized what she had done, and
said not to mind her--she had just let her tongue rattle on and
did not mean anything by it.
On two or three occasions Amanda has started to school in the
morning and wandered off and kept going all day. She had been
immoral with boys, but not to any great extent. She undertook to
be religious for a time, but her sincerity was always in
question. She knows the character of her own mother and
threatens at times to follow in her tracks.
The racial heredity of this girl is a strange mixture. Her
father was a Scandinavian and her mother colored. The maternal
grandfather was colored, and the maternal grandmother was an
alcoholic Irish woman and died in an insane hospital. It is
possible, also, that there is Indian blood in the family. The
mother kept an immoral resort and drank at times. The father is
said, even by his wife's relative, to have died some years ago of
a broken heart about her career. She died of tuberculosis a few
years after him. Amanda was the only child. About the early
developmental history we have no reliable information. The girl
was taken by relatives before her mother died, but was allowed to
visit her, and there was evidently real affection between mother
and daughter. Long contention over religious affairs in the
family led to some bickering about placing the girl.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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