Pathology of Lying, Accusation, and Swindling: A Study in Forensic Psychology

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condition. Defective vision in 6 cases may be only a coincidence, but perhaps resulting nervous irritation was sometimes a factor in producing misconduct. Headaches, which Stemmermann makes so much of, appear as an incident in only a small number of our cases; her emphasis on periodicity also we cannot corroborate, there are hints of it in only one

L FIN

mental capabilities we can class

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still considered br

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rical type . . . .

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causes, but later n

of pathological liars in the strict sense, as given in Chapter III, we find that no less than 7 of these 12 have been given to writing compositions and stories. Three of them had definitely commenced long stories or novels. It is most unusual among other offenders to find evidence of any such tendencies. A considerable number of our group were characterized as great talkers, and several as romantic, dramatic, fantastic, etc., even by ordinary observers. All this goes to

viduals, who have little time, as it were, to discriminate the true from the false. The mental conditions leading to purposeless prevarication which supervene in the real hysterical mental states, or during the course of traumatic psychoneurosis are well known. The individual is to be surely regarded, at least temporarily, as suffering from a psychosis in many of these instances, and falsification, while it may be difficult to distinguish between delusion and lying, is a well recognized phenomenon. The very deliberate lying of psychopathic individuals, such as Case 25, who, though so strongly aberrational, do not fit under the head of any of the classic insanities, is a matter for earnest consideration by all who have to deal with delinquents. There is altogether too little

ual an undue amount of self-assertion. There is very little sympathy for the concern of others, and, indeed, remarkably little apperception of the opinions of others. How frequently the

It is beyond our point at present to go over the separate findings because there is no evidence of a strong correlation of any type of peculiar

case shows the sturdily honest type of response which is frequently met with during the course of testing other delinquents, even as young as the youngest of the cases cited here. Our findings stand in great contrast, we note, to the results on other test work. When looking at the table given above we see that a large share of our 19 normal cases are up to the average in general ability, and yet as a group they fall far below the average on this Testimony Test. Take Cases 8 and 9, for instance- both of them bright girls with, indeed, considerable ability in many directions, and y

ged that if these individuals had been told to key themselves up to do this test well, being forewarned that otherwise it would reveal their weaknesses, they could have done better. Some hin

s on this test clearly to even the reader unfamiliar with the specific details

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ITEMS INCORRE

inator=num

Number

ning Numerator

19% 0/6 7 11<2> 17<4> 6 21% 2/5 6 17<1> 12<6> 7 24% 1/7 13 8 21<7> 7 24% 4/4 8 16 28<12> 12 27% 5/7 9 12 32<

ors or entirely fictitious items given. It should be clearly understood that slight deviations from facts, for instance in color, are not counted as errors for our present purposes. In a later study on this whole topic of the psychology of testimony there will be much more complete itemizing. The errors in which we are particularly interested can perhaps best be called pure inventions. In the next double column is given, first, the total number of incorrect items and, then, the percentage of these t

his 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 di

GNO

gs 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

y 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 pat

NS STUDIED

orroboration of previous observers' statements that pathological liars are extraordin

t family (four of the

everely alcoholic. .

olute parent . . . .

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parent. . . . . . .

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normal family stock

we go on to show later that unfortunate conditions or experiences were often causal factors, the total findings se

ht be expected, even worse. These facts are easi

heritance, but later found there was no blood relationship between the supposed parent and child. In those instances the lying of the younger individual was much more likely to be the result of psychic contagion, and this also may be largely the explanation of Cases 6 and 8, where an older relative

of Young Repeated Offenders.'' Edith R. Spaulding and William Healy. pp.

bad results known. One was a twin. Early severe disease of the nervous system was experienced by one, and convulsions during infancy by two others. Another suffered from some unknown very severe early illness, and one from prolonged digestive disturbance in infancy. Three had in early childhood several severe illnesses, one had a long attack of ``chorea.'' Two suffered from general nervousness, incited in one case by the excessive use of

the head of Physical Conditions. In one other case there had been urethritis previously. Head injuries, which play such a significant part in the study of criminalistics, find no plac

e have full data on all of our cases and yet this stands out most strongly. We have had positive reports from relatives or from the individual showing this certainly to be a factor in 7 out of the 19 cases. This is a very large finding, when it is considered that the data are frequently

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 pre

d 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 c

y 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 wo

from birth . . . . .

ions through poverty

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life . . . . . . . .

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ation 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 ba

develops when there is some sort of predisposition to instability; our related findings on defective heredity would seem to indicate the fact. It should be noted that in

the part which repressed mental life may play in the genesis. That as children they kept to themselves secrets of grave import and dwelled long on them, shows in a large number of our cases. Anything deeply upsetting, such as the discovery

ally true that many other tendencies to peculiarity are accentuated at this period. It has been suggested that cases which have their origin largely in the unstable reactions of adol

access of tendency to prevarication. We would grant the point without conceding this exciting factor to be a fundamental cause. (Case 21, we may say again, illustrates a special fact.) The periodicity which Stemmermann makes much of may merely mean succumbing during a period of physiologic stress. Social stress also may be met by pathological lying, in the same way that the individual

dly necessary to say more than a word on this subject. Even the individual, as in Cases 8, 9, and 10, comes to s

her things being equal, it is particularly the individual who has linguistic abilities, who is especially good at verbal composition, that seems to have most incentive to dally with the truth. But beyond th

CORRE

usual canons of inference. To a certain extent the tendencies of each separate case must be viewed in their environmental context to be well understood. For example, the lying and swindling which center about the assumption of a noble name and a corresponding station or affecting the life of a cloister brother, such as we find in the cases cited by Longard, show great differences from any

ndeavors more and more intimately connected with many phases of life, the pathological liar becomes o

umerous mental defectives who are faithful tellers of the truth, while even, as we have found by other studies, some are good testifiers. Exaggerated instances of the type represented by Case 12, where the individual by the virtue of language ability endeavors to maintain a place in the world which his abilities do not otherwise justify, and where the very contradiction between abilities and disabilities leads to the development of an excessive habit of lying, are kn

r forms of misrepresentation. Swindling, sometimes stealing, sometimes running away from home (assuming another character and perhaps another name) may be the results of the same general causes in the individual. The extent to which these other delinquencies are carried on by a pathological liar

f the pathological liar. It is part of the general character instability, the unwillingness to meet the realities of life, the inclination to escape consequences. As a matter of fact, frequently the pathological liar gets himself in a tight place by lying, and then the easiest escape is by running away from the scene. The delinquencies of our present group as given below can with profit be compared with our previous statistics[26] o

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e Individual Delinquent.'' Pp. 830.

se in varying degrees, as might naturally be expected by the differences in ages, which, if nothing else, makes for variations in the evolution of social and character tendencies. Perusal of the cases shows the small beginnings as well as the flagrant offenses on this order. As we previously have stated, we have avoided dealing with the older careers of notorious swindlers. The n

he chronic liar growing up in a household where grave sex and other delinquencies are habitual occurrences. Should his lying be compared with these major anti-social transactions? Indeed, it might be a field for speculation as to whether, given certain

SIS. T

t only for proper colonization. The epileptic, in default of cure of his disease, is ever going to be prone to many peculiar mental states which may involve pathological lying. The slight mental confusion of chorea, which may lead to false accusation, as we have seen in Case 23, is one of the most curable of all abnormal mental states. With proper attention to diagnosis and treatment, favorable outcome of cases of hysteria, such as that in Case 24, is frequently seen. Another type which cannot be handled except by permanent segregation is the thoroughly aberrational and socially dangerous class represente

l, and social issues are blended, no prognosis or outlook can be rationally offered without consideration of possible changes in the circumstances peculiar to the given case. Firs

onstitutionally abnormal individuals who are not curable, he fails to differentiate where profitable differentiation can be made. If our own work is of any practical value it is in offering safer grounds for prognosis and treatment. Stemmermann summarizes well her follow-up work done upon cases seen years previously by other observers. Some of these are still in institutions. After a perio

exact prognosis, is perhaps the only sane procedure. What we do know definitely is the immensely favorable outcome in Cases 1, 4, 7, 19, and the promising betterment in several other instances-all in direct contradiction to what we had expected from survey of previous literature. In several of these cases the years have gone by with nothing but steady improvement. The difficulty in getting adequate treatment, either in home life or by the necessary individual attention elsewhere, makes it impossible to say that many of the others also could not have been favorably i

g of neural paths, with habit formations, which bodily treatment can only slightly alter. An enticing problem to the gynecologist is always the relationship of pelvic, particularly sexual irritations, to conduct. We cannot confirm the idea of a prime causal connection in this particular, although we have evidence that betterment of the physical ailment may lead to less inclination towards the unfortunate behavior. In Case 1 the lying came long before pelvic disease was acquired, but very

towards betterment. In several of the improved cases we have mentioned that it was largely the acquirement of social foresight which made the first step in a moral advance which finally won the day. In this whole matter the first ethical instruction may well be based upon the idea of self-preservation-after all the backbone of much of our morals. When it comes to specific details of treatment these must be educational, alterative, and constructive. In Cases 1 and 3 under treatment we know that when the lying was discover

ation and memory. Had one the opportunity, there can be little doubt but that training in the power to do well on such a test as that afforded by the ``Aussage'' picture would have yielded good results. Indeed, there is some suggestion of this in our table of findings on this test, where we note that pathological liars, when left merely to

arried out in those instances where we know that betterment took place. Nearly always only a part of what we advised could

his was used to the utmost. Then her lying tendencies were checked by social disapprobation as much as possible. A special effort was made toward this. The girl was undoubtedly made more serious-minded by the after-ef

of self-control in this respect. At the same time she was given a vastly better environment, particularly in the matter of her friends. However, there is

rst, naturally, had to gain an understanding of the case. With her bettered physical and mental

e child's mental conflicts and somewhat through partially bettered environmenta

llowed by the personal services of a probation officer and by the legal proceedings, served to clear up con

his period in a good environment and with friends who understood her type of case and who were willing to put up with her aberrancies for this time. Although we

period will lead to change in behavior, we cite Cases 3, 5, and 6, where the addition of years has brought no be

falls. The inclination to verbal composition, already spoken of as existing in so many cases, may be utilized, and imagination be given full sway in harmless directions. It seems likely that just this deliberate practice may serve to more clearly demarcate truth from falsehood in the individual's min

erary ability. He had been observed over the period of 13 years. After he was first studied he twice managed to go 3 years without succumbing to his falsifying tendencies, and then found his chance for leading a blameless life by becoming a newspaper man. In fact, he reached an honored place as an editor. Stemmermann

ings of misconduct, and by diverting energies and talents into their most suitable channels. The problem must ever be one for individual therapy. Failures of treatment th

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