Pathology of Lying [120]
to pathological lying begins in the early formative years. Common-sense observation of general character building would tend to make us readily believe that if an individual got through the formative years of life with a normal hold upon veracity he would never become a pathological liar. We can see definite beginnings at certain critically formative periods, as in Case 6 and perhaps in Case 3, but our material shows that most cases demonstrate more gradually insidious beginnings. (Case 21 is in this respect in a class by itself.) As we stated in our introduction, it is clear from the previous studies of older individuals that the nature of the beginnings were not learned because it was too late. Our material offers unusual opportunities in this direction and shows the fact of genesis in childhood most clearly. For specific and often most interesting details we refer the reader to our various case histories.
Sex. Our findings show only 1 male out of 19 mentally normal cases. A general observation by practical students of conduct, namely, that females tend to deviate from the truth more readily than males, is more than thoroughly borne out here. There are certainly several social and psychological reasons for this, but they need not be gone into here. If our figures seem not to be corroborated by the findings of previous students it is only because the figures are not comparable-- the latter have mixed the mentally abnormal with the pathological liars proper. It will be noted that in our examples of border-line cases 5 out of the 8 are males. Cases of pathological swindling by mentally abnormal individuals, such as we have avoided, make up much of the foreign literature. We can easily see that the social opportunities for swindling are vastly greater for males than those offered to the opposite sex. Sex differences, as in many instances, must not be taken here too seriously because social environment, differing so greatly for the sexes, is largely responsible for the behavior which we superficially judge to be entirely the expression of innate characteristics.
Environment. We are far from feeling that a mere enumeration of material environmental conditions tells the story of environmental influences important for our present subject. The psyche is frequently most profoundly affected by environmental conditions which even a trained observer would not detect. But conditions in the total number of unselected cases show something, and, for whatever it is worth, we offer the following enumeration of environment in our 19 normal cases, who with much more reason might be expected to be largely influenced by surroundings than our group of border-line cases.
Reasonably good home from birth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5 Defective home conditions through poverty . . . . . . . . . . .2 Very ignorant parents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 Immoralities in home life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6 Marked defect in parental control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6 Very erratic home conditions-parent abnormal. . . . . . . . . .1
Early Mental Experiences. As will have been observed by the reader in going over the case histories, the early mental experiences of many of our group of mentally normal pathological liars have been shockingly bad. Full appreciation of this can only be gained through perusal of the text, but here we may call attention to the fact that no less than 8 of the 19 have had very early untoward sex experiences, that 5 were markedly under the influence of bad companions, including even the influence in one or two cases of vicious grown people. The sex experiences we have just enumerated were received through others--we are not here speaking of masturbation, which is discussed above.
Psychic Contagion. Direct contagion of the tendency to lie seems more than likely to take place, at least during the more plastic periods of life. It may be that this only develops when there is some sort of predisposition to instability; our related findings on defective heredity
Sex. Our findings show only 1 male out of 19 mentally normal cases. A general observation by practical students of conduct, namely, that females tend to deviate from the truth more readily than males, is more than thoroughly borne out here. There are certainly several social and psychological reasons for this, but they need not be gone into here. If our figures seem not to be corroborated by the findings of previous students it is only because the figures are not comparable-- the latter have mixed the mentally abnormal with the pathological liars proper. It will be noted that in our examples of border-line cases 5 out of the 8 are males. Cases of pathological swindling by mentally abnormal individuals, such as we have avoided, make up much of the foreign literature. We can easily see that the social opportunities for swindling are vastly greater for males than those offered to the opposite sex. Sex differences, as in many instances, must not be taken here too seriously because social environment, differing so greatly for the sexes, is largely responsible for the behavior which we superficially judge to be entirely the expression of innate characteristics.
Environment. We are far from feeling that a mere enumeration of material environmental conditions tells the story of environmental influences important for our present subject. The psyche is frequently most profoundly affected by environmental conditions which even a trained observer would not detect. But conditions in the total number of unselected cases show something, and, for whatever it is worth, we offer the following enumeration of environment in our 19 normal cases, who with much more reason might be expected to be largely influenced by surroundings than our group of border-line cases.
Reasonably good home from birth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5 Defective home conditions through poverty . . . . . . . . . . .2 Very ignorant parents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 Immoralities in home life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6 Marked defect in parental control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6 Very erratic home conditions-parent abnormal. . . . . . . . . .1
Early Mental Experiences. As will have been observed by the reader in going over the case histories, the early mental experiences of many of our group of mentally normal pathological liars have been shockingly bad. Full appreciation of this can only be gained through perusal of the text, but here we may call attention to the fact that no less than 8 of the 19 have had very early untoward sex experiences, that 5 were markedly under the influence of bad companions, including even the influence in one or two cases of vicious grown people. The sex experiences we have just enumerated were received through others--we are not here speaking of masturbation, which is discussed above.
Psychic Contagion. Direct contagion of the tendency to lie seems more than likely to take place, at least during the more plastic periods of life. It may be that this only develops when there is some sort of predisposition to instability; our related findings on defective heredity