Pathology of Lying [11]
showed intelligence not equal to that of eight years with moral inferiority on account of this weakness. II. A feebleminded girl of vacillating, weak judgment. Father insane. Her lies were marked by their fantastic nature. III. Lively, fanciful, unstable, hysterical girl. Poor record at school. IV. Hysterical liar with peculiarities united with splendid mental ability. V. Unusually intelligent, 15 years old, illegitimate child; normal mother who later had five sound children; father drunkard. Her lies were neither of suggested nor dreamy type, they were skillfully dramatized means to an end in her fight for social position. In the psychiatric examination she was found mentally normal. VI. Girl thoroughly intelligent, good at figures and puzzles, with no signs of degeneracy.
[11] ``Jugendliche Lugnerinnen.'' Zeitschrift fur Erforschung d. jugend. Schwachsinns., Bd. 3. H. 5. 1910; p. 465.
Vogt characterized the pathological lie as active, more elaborately constructed, more inclusive, and leaving the ground of reality more readily than ordinary lies. Such lies he does not always find egocentric. To the pathological liar his own creation is reality, so he walks securely, is open and amiable. All these cases are gifted with lively imaginations and inclined to autosuggestion. Vogt calls the pathological lie a wish psychosis. This statement opens the way to an interesting and valuable interpretation of the psychological significance of this phenomenon of the mental life. He finds many more girls than boys among his cases; boys lie from need of defense and protection, girls more from autosuggestion. This type of lie is of greater interest to social than to clinical psychology. He emphasizes the point that very refined and complicated lies appear in healthy young people in the stress of difficult situations. Obstinate and stubborn lying of itself is no disease among children; examination must reveal that the lie has a morbid cause.
The resemblance of pathological lying to poetic creation was first suggested by Delbruck[12] in a reference to Keller's ``Der grune Heinrich,'' a German novel in which the lies of a boy of seven years, lies of a creative type of the nature of retroactive hallucinations, are described. Hinrichsen[13] discusses at length the resemblance of pseudologia phantastica to poetic creation in Goethe, Grillparzer, Hoffman, and others.
[12] loc. cit.
[13] ``Zur Kasuistik und Psychologie der Pseudologia phantastica.'' Arch. fur Kriminal Anthrop. umd Kriminalistik, 1906.
In an inaugural dissertation Anna Stemmermann[14] presents exhaustively a series of cases. These cases were studied over a long period catamnestically. Commenting upon one case she says: It is worthy of note in this history that the patient in a hypnoidal condition, with headache and flushed face, crochets in a senseless way and thinks she is weaving a wreath for her mother's grave, her mother being still alive. We often meet with actions like this. Characteristic is the report of spontaneous, fearful headache, without the patient's putting this in relation to her peculiar behavior. We lay more stress upon this condition than has been done previously in the literature. We believe that this symptom is wanting in no classic case of pseudologia phantastica. Often in this condition of narrowed consciousness, the daydreams are spun and have such a power of convincing that they later make the basis for pathological lies and swindling. In this hypnoidal state a strongly heightened suggestibility exists and trivial external causes give daydreams their direction. The general trend of fancy reveals naturally the inclinations and ideals of the affected individual. Stemmermann also maintained that the pathological lie is a wish psychosis. Even outside of the hypnoidal state, these cases are more suggestible than the general run of people.
[14] ``Beitrage und Kasuistik der Pseudologia phantastica.'' Geo. Reimer, Berlin, 1906, pp. 102.
Of Stemmermann's own cases, ten in number, only four
[11] ``Jugendliche Lugnerinnen.'' Zeitschrift fur Erforschung d. jugend. Schwachsinns., Bd. 3. H. 5. 1910; p. 465.
Vogt characterized the pathological lie as active, more elaborately constructed, more inclusive, and leaving the ground of reality more readily than ordinary lies. Such lies he does not always find egocentric. To the pathological liar his own creation is reality, so he walks securely, is open and amiable. All these cases are gifted with lively imaginations and inclined to autosuggestion. Vogt calls the pathological lie a wish psychosis. This statement opens the way to an interesting and valuable interpretation of the psychological significance of this phenomenon of the mental life. He finds many more girls than boys among his cases; boys lie from need of defense and protection, girls more from autosuggestion. This type of lie is of greater interest to social than to clinical psychology. He emphasizes the point that very refined and complicated lies appear in healthy young people in the stress of difficult situations. Obstinate and stubborn lying of itself is no disease among children; examination must reveal that the lie has a morbid cause.
The resemblance of pathological lying to poetic creation was first suggested by Delbruck[12] in a reference to Keller's ``Der grune Heinrich,'' a German novel in which the lies of a boy of seven years, lies of a creative type of the nature of retroactive hallucinations, are described. Hinrichsen[13] discusses at length the resemblance of pseudologia phantastica to poetic creation in Goethe, Grillparzer, Hoffman, and others.
[12] loc. cit.
[13] ``Zur Kasuistik und Psychologie der Pseudologia phantastica.'' Arch. fur Kriminal Anthrop. umd Kriminalistik, 1906.
In an inaugural dissertation Anna Stemmermann[14] presents exhaustively a series of cases. These cases were studied over a long period catamnestically. Commenting upon one case she says: It is worthy of note in this history that the patient in a hypnoidal condition, with headache and flushed face, crochets in a senseless way and thinks she is weaving a wreath for her mother's grave, her mother being still alive. We often meet with actions like this. Characteristic is the report of spontaneous, fearful headache, without the patient's putting this in relation to her peculiar behavior. We lay more stress upon this condition than has been done previously in the literature. We believe that this symptom is wanting in no classic case of pseudologia phantastica. Often in this condition of narrowed consciousness, the daydreams are spun and have such a power of convincing that they later make the basis for pathological lies and swindling. In this hypnoidal state a strongly heightened suggestibility exists and trivial external causes give daydreams their direction. The general trend of fancy reveals naturally the inclinations and ideals of the affected individual. Stemmermann also maintained that the pathological lie is a wish psychosis. Even outside of the hypnoidal state, these cases are more suggestible than the general run of people.
[14] ``Beitrage und Kasuistik der Pseudologia phantastica.'' Geo. Reimer, Berlin, 1906, pp. 102.
Of Stemmermann's own cases, ten in number, only four