Pathology of Lying, Etc.

W >> William and Mary Healy >> Pathology of Lying, Etc.

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Physical conditions: Local irritation. Case 16.
Girl, age 9 1/2.
Housing conditions: Crowded.
Early sex experiences: Excessive and pervert.
Parental control failure: No home, no mother.
Delinquencies: Mentality:
Serious false accusations. Good ability.
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CASE 17

Summary: Boy of 16 years, not living at home, made false
accusations of excessive immorality against his own family.
These involved sex perversions, and he implicated even his own
sister and brother, and alleged the connivance of his mother.
The main complaint was against the step-father, who he also said
was a professional thief. The improbability of such stories
being told without good foundation led to much time being spent
on investigating the case.

As possible causative factors of the unmitigated lying we found
(a) defective heredity leading to (b) typical constitutional
inferiority with the peculiar states of mind characteristic of
the latter, (c) poor developmental conditions through early
illnesses; (d) excessive bad sex practices on the part of the boy
himself. Vindictive reaction to charges of delinquency against
himself might be considered a factor if his false accusations had
not been made without any such stimulus a long time previously.

(According to another classification this case belongs in our
chapter on Border-line Types. It is retained here because it so
well illustrates pathological accusation.)

John S., an undersized boy of 16, a pitiable specimen, when under
arrest for vagrancy told such a heartrending story of home
conditions, with assertions against family morality, that the
judge and others were moved to indignation and an investigation
was started. The general feeling was that no one who was not
insane could make such statements about their nearest of kin
without foundation in fact.

We found a poorly developed, but fairly nourished young fellow;
weight 112 lbs., height 5 ft. 2 in.; good strength for his size.
Stigmata: slight facial asymmetry, ears very long and narrow,
dentition very irregular--one upper canine having erupted behind
the central incisors. Tattooing on the chest. Vision defective,
but how much so was impossible to estimate on account of corneal
ulcer and general gonorrheal ophthalmia. Gait and attitude very
slouchy. In contrast to general poor development, has already
full sex development and much hair over body for his age.

On the mental side we found an excitable and talkative fellow,
quite coherent, and giving in no way any indication of aberration
by the form or trend of his conversation. He tells us he reached
the 6th grade. He willingly works on tests and we note the
general result as follows: Learning and memory processes, both
for logical verbal and for meaningless associations, quite good.
Perception of form, normal. Power of analysis of situations
mentally represented, only mediocre. Associative processes,
verbal, not normally accurate. Writes good hand. Simple
spelling correct. Arithmetic correct for 4th grade. Tests for
several other points hardly fair to register on account of
defective eyesight. On one he failed because of not knowing the
alphabet in order. Suggestibility extreme, as evidenced by
testimony test. In giving report on the ``Aussage'' picture,
Test VI, he enumerated 12 items, 11 of them correct, on free
recital. Then he gave 11 more details, all correct, on
cross-examination, but he accepted no less than 7 out of 8
suggestions offered.

Information on current events is good, but on points said to have
been learned at school is much mixed up. In giving responses to
questions, he seized on any slight suggestion and adopted the
idea. For instance, he said he had read the life of Napoleon,
but could not remember to which country he belonged. When
England was suggested he agreed to it. He then told various
wrong incidents of Napoleon's life and death, also as suggested
by the examiner. It finally came out that Bonaparte was an
English nobleman who fought against France and Waterloo, was
never defeated, and got sick in England. Then in the same way we
get the information that this country gained its freedom from
France, that Lincoln was president directly after Washington, and
so on. John has read books from the library and various
magazines, a considerable assortment. He knows almost nothing of
even simple scientific facts, but is well acquainted with items
gained from the newspapers and the theatres.

Going into his story, as we were requested, we heard at once
about the cruel conditions at home. The boy's own father had
been dead for ten years and up to within three years he had lived
with a relative. While he was there letters indicated that queer
things were going on at home, and the step-father was cruel to
the other children. The mother was afraid to tell the whole
story. When the boy came home the step-father at once began
pervert sex practices with him, horrible things, and John found
this man had been doing deeds of the same kind with an older
sister and a younger brother. It seems the step-father also
beats the children and has put this older girl out of the house.
Recently he has left his wife.

When we go into John's own record, with which we had already made
ourselves acquainted, he tells us he does not know what gets into
him, but he has run away from home no less than eleven times. He
works for a while, takes his wages and then stays at a hotel. He
says he has been arrested several times on this account. His
mother always telephones to the police about him and that is why
he is under detention now. He wishes he were at home. The next
day we went into more of the details which had been liberally
sketched to the judge and other officials. We now learn that the
step-father is a professional thief and that stolen goods he has
taken are to be found in their home. He often leaves home and
perhaps takes his wife's wages--she has to work out--and just now
is again living at a hotel. The family have been informed by a
physician that he is probably crazy.

On a later occasion the boy told my assistant that he wished to
relate the whole story of his family. He then describes how the
step-father even blackens the eyes of the sister and that he has
long been immoral with her. It now appears that perversions
began between this man and John some two months ago, never before
that. The mother is there in the house all the time and knows
about and permits the step-father's immorality with daughter and
son. Cross-questioned afterward, the boy (evidently remembering
what he said before) states these practices with him began the
night he came home three years ago, but they had been going on
with his sister before that. He knows this because his mother
wrote and told him about it. His uncle wrote and told her to put
a stop to it, but the step-father intimidates her with a
revolver.

Our notes state that one afternoon when tests were being given
him, John seemed to be in an excited state and often interrupted
the procedure with talking. Seen in the hallway soon afterwards
he waved his hand and insisted on telling more about home
conditions and about what the officers would find if they went up
there. On still another occasion he reiterated the same things,
giving many details.

It was about this time that John was found to give strangely
fantastic and childish accounts of circumstances with which he
had been connected. We transcribe his story of a celebration at
a school--it is a good example of his tales.

``They had it on Lincoln's birthday and on the 4th of July, too.
The teacher did not believe that Abraham Lincoln freed the
slaves. The children said, oh yes, he did. But they did not
believe it. The children all hollered and said yes, he did.
Then they all run up on the platform and got to fighting about
it. The teachers would not believe that Lincoln freed the slaves
till an old soldier came up there and told them yes, he did do
it.'' I questioned him about this matter whether it was only a
play they had, or were they in earnest. ``Oh, all in earnest and
they had a fight about it. The teachers would not believe that
Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves and the children all run up on
the platform and had a fight about it.''

Home conditions were next looked up by a court investigator and
we came to know the mother and sister. Much to our surprise we
found them to be quite self-respecting, entirely credible people
of good reputation in the neighborhood. The mother is an honest
hard-working woman and is exceedingly depressed about the career
of this boy. The sister is a modest and unquestionably good,
self-supporting, young woman. Not a word was heard against them
in any way. In their distress they gave us the full story.

The parents were immigrants when young. The father died through
an accident some ten years previously. The mother has kept track
of the members of both families fairly well. She had a sister
insane, said to have become so as the result of the menopause.
The father himself had occasional attacks of epilepsy, but they
were never frequent enough to hinder him working as an artisan.
He was a very moderate user of alcohol. The mother has always
been fairly healthy. Thinks she now has a cancer. There are no
other significant points in heredity that she knows. There are
three living children; a number of miscarriages came after John
was born.

The pregnancy and birth were, normal. John walked and talked
very early. Never any convulsions. At about two years of age he
was very low with a complication of diseases. He was sick at
that time for three months. Later he was operated on for
rupture. The trouble with his eyes is of recent origin. When he
was a young boy in school a teacher once told her she did not
consider him right mentally.

There has been an exceeding amount of trouble with this boy. He
was a great truant and reached only the 4th grade. When he was
living with the uncle he caused much trouble, and the uncle
warned her. He has run away from home twelve times, stays away
perhaps two weeks at a time, and comes home ragged and filthy.
He has had many jobs, but stays only a day or two at work. He
steals in petty ways, takes money from home when he runs away.
He is very lazy, but a great reader, especially of cheap novels.

Among the troubles with this boy is his extremely filthy talk.
He has even lost one position on account of this. An aunt caught
the boy in bad sex practices several years ago and told the
mother. Neighbors, and earlier the school people, warned the
mother that this was what was the matter with the boy. About a
year ago John was found in a room with a man and other boys
engaged in bad practices. The man was sentenced to a long term
in the penitentiary on account of it.

Worst of all, the mother says the boy is the most malicious liar
she has ever heard of. They have had a frightful time with him
on account of this. For over two years John has been telling bad
stories about the step-father. Recently he could not stand it
any longer and left the mother. He was a good and rather strict
man who took much interest in the children. He tried rewards
with John, but this was of no avail. The boy has destroyed the
home life, but she thought it her duty to try further with her
own flesh and blood. The sister is in utter despair about what
John has said concerning her. The younger brother also feels
great humiliation. The boy has told his worst stories about them
even in their own neighborhood.

After our investigation the boy was sent to an institution for
delinquents where he could have the best of treatment for his
ailments. The report from there after a few months was that he
proved to be an exceedingly weak and vacillating type. He was
notorious for being a boy that would do anything that was
suggested to him. An outlook was kept for signs of insanity, but
none was noted.

Over three years later we hear that John's character has not
shown any radical change as demonstrated by his mode of living.
He has served at least one term in a penal institution for
adults. We do not know anything further about lying or false
accusations in the case.

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Constitutional inferiority: Stigmata. Case 17.
Mentality. Boy, age 16.
Heredity: Father epileptic.
Maternal aunt insane.
Masturbation plus.
Pervert sex experiences.
Developmental: Much early illness.
Delinquencies: Mentality:
False accusations excessive. Dull from physical
Running away repeatedly. causes (?).
Stealing. Beginning psychosis (?).
Sex perversions. Pathological liar (?).
Vagrancy.
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CASE 18

Summary: Little girl of 7 makes false charges of sex assault
against boy in the same institution. She is later found to be an
excessive liar and to steal.

Causative factors: (a) atrociously immoral home environment, (b)
early sex experiences, (c) local irritation from active
gonorrhea.

This case illustrates the fact that a young girl, who has had
unfortunate sex experiences, especially if her mind is kept
dwelling on sexual subjects through bodily irritation, is apt to
take advantage of the stir which she knows she can make by her
statements, and glibly make false accusations. The case offered
no difficulties for study and can be presented in short as
typical of a number of similar cases seen by us.

We were asked to see this girl a few days after she had been
taken from very bad home conditions and temporarily placed in a
good institution for dependent children. While there she had
much upset the high-minded superintendent and her helpers by
stating that an older boy in the place had sex relations with
her.

She was a small, bright-eyed, vivacious child. General physical
conditions decidedly good. No sensory defect. Well shaped head.
Weight 55 lbs.; height 4 ft. Active gonorrheal vulvovaginitis.

On the mental side we found, although she spoke in somewhat
broken English, an ardent conversationalist. With her many ideas
about many subjects, she appeared decidedly precocious. We noted
her also to be very defiant and self-assertive, and her tendency
to lie without rhyme or reason was soon discovered. Her exact
age never was ascertained, but undoubtedly it was about 7. She
was in the 2d grade. At times when doing the Binet tests
inhibitions would appear and she would give no answer at all even
to some easy questions. Her positive responses graded her as 6
2/5 years, but undoubtedly she could have done much better had
she so wished.

In her talkative way she used English very graphically, but with
curious misuse of pronouns and a few other words. Considering
the fact that her family spoke a foreign language at home and she
had been but a short time in school this was not strange. Her
lack of veracity was shown even in her assertions about her
inability to understand English. At the first approach she
denied her ability to do so, but later showed that she understood
very well. This behavior was of a piece with her attitude shown
in doing the Binet tests.

``Police bringed me. Don't know why. Cause my father run away,
she don't want to stay with my mother. My father Austrian.
Sometime my father talk Italian. Then God make him sick cause
she talk Italian. My neck is sick. I go to Italian church and I
talk Italian and God makes me sick.

``They bringed me home to-day, then they bringed me back here,
then I stay here all along.'' (What is the matter with you?)
``A big boy--up in school--upstairs--don't know his name. I came
Saturday. She came Saturday. She came Sunday, too. When we
come to listen to music then she gave to me that disease.

``Papa is bad. She run away. She run away. She take from my
mama $12--all the clothes. She got another lady. Is that your
lady? Why do you write? I could write better than you because I
go to school all the time. I never take money. I Catholic and
Catholic can't tell lie. Well, I going to tell the truth now. I
found it in bed, in paper inside. Then I give it to teacher and
then I give it to nurse. I never tell lies.''

Before we had seen her this child had given some sort of
description of a big boy in the institution who she said had
assaulted her. There was no such person there, but her vehement
statements caused much disturbance. Later she denied this to us
and accused somebody at her own home. She came from miserable
environment, as may be surmised from the fact that her father was
a deserter and probably immoral. On account of her unreliability
nothing could be done in the way of prosecuting the offender. We
always felt it a possibility that some member of her own family
was guilty and that was the reason she had told so many different
tales about it. An owner was not found for the money which she
had stolen. The person from whom she said she had taken it had
not lost it. She took it under conditions when she had no chance
to spend it. Her excessive lying was a continual source of
trouble as long as she was kept in this institution. She was
long treated in a public hospital for her gonorrhea. Since then
she has been lost track of. It is interesting in this case to
note that the child maintained that she belonged to a church,
which made it impossible for her to tell lies. We have heard
almost exactly this same assertion on numerous occasions. It is
clearly made by way of affirmation when the offender covertly
feels the need of bolstering up false statements.

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Early sex experiences. Case 18.
Bad companions. Girl, age 7.
Physical conditions: Local irritation.
Home conditions: Father immoral and
deserter.
Heredity(?): Father as above.
Delinquencies: Mentality:
Stealing. Fair ability.
Sex.
Lying.
False accusations.
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CASE 19

Summary: Girl of 18 made accusations to officials that a lawyer
for whom she worked had been immoral with her. About the same
time it was found that she herself had been stealing and lying
about other matters. Later, when there was reiteration of the
charges, a physician's examination showed that she had not been
immoral. Some months afterward she went to other officials and
insisted she ought to go to a reform school. A year still later
she did have sex experiences and contracted venereal disease.
Her succeeding record is totally different. For several years
now she has been a young woman of thoroughly good character.

In its progress, after extended exhibition of exceedingly erratic
conduct, to complete stability now long observed, this case is of
considerable interest. It was after some months of effort on the
case by experienced social workers that we were asked to study
this girl. We found no difficulty in rapidly becoming intimately
acquainted with her conditions and troubles.

Physically she was a normally developed young woman of distinctly
good strength, but slouchy attitude. In expression rather dull
and pleasant; laughs much in rather childish way for her age.
Weight, 110 lbs.; height, 5 ft. 2 1/2 in. No sensory defect.
Good color.

Mentally we gave her a wide variety of tests with the result, in
general, that she did well on them. She had left school at 14
years when in the 7th grade, but had not forgotten what she had
learned. Her arithmetic was done very well indeed and she wrote
a very good hand. The tests, which brought her abilities in many
directions into play, were done almost uniformly well. Her
memory processes were distinctly good and showed her capacity by
her remembering logical connections as well as details. Her
casuistic responses which were asked for in two moral situations,
verbally presented, Test XXI, were rather vacillating, but
evidently sound. It was easy for her to appreciate the intricacy
of the situation.

On the ``Aussage'' experiment, Test VI, out of 15 details given
as remembered from the picture just seen two were imaginary, and
of 9 more items given on cross-examination two were erroneous.
Her account as given was functional, not at all enumerative as in
the usual childish fashion. Out of 6 suggestions proffered she
accepted 4. This was a poor result for a person of her age. Her
range of information was normal. Her interests while at home had
been very simple; for instance, she had not been allowed to read
novels nor go to theatres. In all our work on tests and in our
several interviews with her we never discovered any signs of
aberrational tendencies. Her social conduct furnished the only
evidence of erraticism.

This young woman's mother, who is said to have been a normal
person, died a few months before we knew her daughter. She had
long been ill and consequently had had very imperfect control
over her daughter all through adolescence. The father had been
dead for several years previously; he was a storekeeper in a
small way, fairly educated and non-alcoholic. No other family
history of importance was ever forthcoming. There was only one
other child in the family, a younger brother, who was quite
normal. Outside of bronchitis during infancy it was said this
girl had never had any serious disease. In the last few months
there had been much complaint about suffering at the menstrual
period. Menstruation began at 13 years of age and was said to
have been regular until seven months or so prior to the time when
we first saw her. However, this latter statement was made by the
girl herself and at this stage her word was not particularly
reliable.

When we began study of this case we were put in possession of the
following notes made by an unusually competent social worker,
extending over the previous nine months. Attention was first
drawn to her when she was living with someone who had offered to
give her a home while her mother was mortally ill in a hospital.
She then had clothing and trinkets the possession of which she
could not satisfactorily explain. It was discovered that she was
lying. It was about this time that the girl told her friends
that she had been immoral, and accused a man for whom she had
worked of being responsible for her downfall. She had also been
flirting with a married man who had been talking to her about
eloping with him. It was learned that she stayed all one night
at a downtown hotel, but probably alone. Further investigation
showed she had stolen a considerable sum of money from an
acquaintance and also a watch. Then a physical examination was
made and a certificate given that the girl had not been immoral.

Much trouble was taken about the case in the ensuing year, the
notes naively say, ``object being to see if the girl could not be
reclaimed.'' She was given an unusually good opportunity with a
sterling family. She made much trouble for them and others who
were interested in her. Her mother died early in the period. On
a number of occasions she left her place and stayed away all
night, sometimes walking the streets. On one occasion she is
reported to have gone to a certain agency, looking as if she had
been recently intoxicated, and appealed to be sent to a reform
school. She was taken in by the police on one occasion. We
first saw her after she had been living in this good home for
several months.

At the same time we studied her physical and mental conditions we
attempted to make some analysis of her self-orientation. She
maintained then that her main trouble was because she had got
mixed up with this married man. She declared he threatened her.
(This was very likely from what was discovered about his
character.) She had very good words for the officials who had
helped her so much. She told us how she had stolen a matter of
$100 or so. When we questioned her about her early accusations
she said that she did tell a lot of lies when her case first was
looked into. ``I thought they were too inquisitive. I thought
if I told them a few lies they would leave me alone. Everybody
has to know everything. I forget half of what I'm to say. I
don't know why I stole that watch. I would have brought it back
home if he had not taken it on me. I never told anybody that I
wanted to go to the reform school. I was afraid to go home
because I was afraid I would get a good scolding. I think I have
told all the truth to the officers since the first. I was
ashamed to tell it, that's the whole truth. That's the truth,
there was no one with me this other night. I did not meet a soul
I knew. I went out to the South Park. I had never been there
before. Where I have been living they would not let me go out
anywhere. I had to stay there Sundays and all the time. When I
got out I was worse than a wild calf. Maybe if I went out
oftener I would not be so bad. I am here now because I went to
the police station and told them I would not go home. It was
late and I was afraid to go home. I had stayed out on the street
all night. One night I went home and it was all dark and I was
afraid to ring and I stayed on the street all night. I was on
the street all the next day too. I went to the cemetery. Late
that afternoon I met a young man and stayed talking to him and a
detective came along and told us we shouldn't stand there. I
never did anything bad with any man. I never said so. A
visiting nurse told me the dangers of life. My mother told me I
should be careful. Oh, I worked for that lawyer before my mother
died. I worked for him about two weeks and he did not pay me
what he owed me. No, he never did me any harm. A man came along
with a lady from that office and he asked me some questions and I
was so scared because I thought they were going to lock me up. I
guess that was the question maybe and I said, yes, but I did not
know just what it was.''

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