Pathology of Lying [118]
has done vastly better than the median of this group. The errors themselves are of the purely inventional type, such as your ordinary report from a mentally normal person does not contain. (There is perhaps one interesting exception to this; Case 3. The report given by this subject included egregious denials of some of the main objects in the picture, and so was fictitious to this extent. She did not say that she did not know whether these to-be-expected objects really were in the picture--she insisted that they were not.) So far as suggestibility is concerned, there are great differences among even normal people in all classes. For comparison with the above group, we may take 63 cases of mentally normal delinquents, all of whom had been offered the full 7 suggestions. The median error of this group was two. Lower than the fraction thus obtained was the result on only 4 of the present cases. We have been interested to see that with some of the pathological liars there is no great suggestibility. The person is willing to deal in his own inventions, but not with false ideas which others attempt to put in his mind.
DIAGNOSIS
The essentials for the diagnosis of pathological lying are contained in the definition at the beginning of our book. The above considerations of the physical and mental make-up of pathological liars should leave little question as to what belongs in this class. Of course here, as in the study of any mental traits, borderline cases difficult to discriminate will always be found. Sometimes one will not be able to determine whether the individual is a true pathological liar or merely a prevaricator for a normal purpose. We have already stated our inability to determine this in some cases, and yet the nucleus of the type stands out sharply and clearly, and there can be no doubt as to what is practically meant by the definition.
The differential diagnosis involves consideration of the characteristics of the insane, defective, and epileptic. We repeat that we agree that the mentally abnormal person may engage in pathological lying quite apart from any expression of delusions, and that during the course of such lying the insanity may not be recognized. This occurred in many of the cases cited in the foreign literature, and if the prior histories of many individuals now in insane hospitals were known undoubtedly such lying would be frequently noted. But once the person is recognized as insane he need not be classified as a pathological liar. This term should be reserved, as we stated previously, for normal individuals who engage in pathological lying. Of course other observers have noted such lying in people who could not be designated as being mentally abnormal, but our material is peculiarly rich in examples of this kind.
CORRELATIONS STUDIED FOR CAUSES
Heredity. We come now to a very interesting group of facts--showing at once complete corroboration of previous observers' statements that pathological liars are extraordinarily ``erbliche belastet.'' Taking our 19 mentally normal cases we find the following:
Insanity in the direct family (four of these being a parent). .6 One or both parents severely alcoholic. . . . . . . . . . . . .6 Criminal or very dissolute parent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4 Suicide of parent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Extremely neuropathic parent. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Syphilitic parent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 Epileptic parent. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Unsatisfactory data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 Reliable data showing normal family stock . . . . . . . . . . .2
Thus, out of the 19 cases there are only three or four which do not come of stock showing striking defects. Now, as we go on to show later that unfortunate conditions or experiences were often causal factors, the total findings seem to show clearly that these latter influences generally bore their unfortunate fruition upon inherited instability.
The heredity in the border-line
DIAGNOSIS
The essentials for the diagnosis of pathological lying are contained in the definition at the beginning of our book. The above considerations of the physical and mental make-up of pathological liars should leave little question as to what belongs in this class. Of course here, as in the study of any mental traits, borderline cases difficult to discriminate will always be found. Sometimes one will not be able to determine whether the individual is a true pathological liar or merely a prevaricator for a normal purpose. We have already stated our inability to determine this in some cases, and yet the nucleus of the type stands out sharply and clearly, and there can be no doubt as to what is practically meant by the definition.
The differential diagnosis involves consideration of the characteristics of the insane, defective, and epileptic. We repeat that we agree that the mentally abnormal person may engage in pathological lying quite apart from any expression of delusions, and that during the course of such lying the insanity may not be recognized. This occurred in many of the cases cited in the foreign literature, and if the prior histories of many individuals now in insane hospitals were known undoubtedly such lying would be frequently noted. But once the person is recognized as insane he need not be classified as a pathological liar. This term should be reserved, as we stated previously, for normal individuals who engage in pathological lying. Of course other observers have noted such lying in people who could not be designated as being mentally abnormal, but our material is peculiarly rich in examples of this kind.
CORRELATIONS STUDIED FOR CAUSES
Heredity. We come now to a very interesting group of facts--showing at once complete corroboration of previous observers' statements that pathological liars are extraordinarily ``erbliche belastet.'' Taking our 19 mentally normal cases we find the following:
Insanity in the direct family (four of these being a parent). .6 One or both parents severely alcoholic. . . . . . . . . . . . .6 Criminal or very dissolute parent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4 Suicide of parent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Extremely neuropathic parent. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Syphilitic parent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 Epileptic parent. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Unsatisfactory data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 Reliable data showing normal family stock . . . . . . . . . . .2
Thus, out of the 19 cases there are only three or four which do not come of stock showing striking defects. Now, as we go on to show later that unfortunate conditions or experiences were often causal factors, the total findings seem to show clearly that these latter influences generally bore their unfortunate fruition upon inherited instability.
The heredity in the border-line