Pathology of Lying, Etc.

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

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We found a strong, normally developed young woman of rather
attractive appearance for the grade in society from which she
came. No sensory defect. Diseased tonsils. Complained of
constant suffering from pelvic conditions, perhaps induced by the
abortion. However, being such a strong type she has been able to
get about well and do her daily work. When we saw her she was
employed in a factory.

The question put to us was concerning her mentality. She came of
a Slavic peasant family, had been in this country only 6 years,
and her relatives spoke only Slavic. She had been to school but
a very short time, either in the old country or here. Because of
the language difficulty, the giving of many tests, such as those
in the upper years of the Binet system, could be regarded as most
unfair. However, the simpler language tests she did fairly well,
especially those where she could understand the commonsense
questions. In regard to her acquirement of English, she has done
better than her relatives, who continue to live in a neighborhood
where their own Slavic dialect is spoken. When it came to
dealing reasoningly with concrete situations, such as those
presented by our performance tests, this young woman did
comparatively well--quite above the grade of the feebleminded.
Our diagnosis, then, was that she could best be regarded as poor
in ability or possibly subnormal as compared with our general
population, but as correlated with her peasant type she was
probably normal.

From the standpoint of aberration one could find no evidences of
anything but eroticism and a constant tendency to deviate from
the truth. About the affair of the abortion she showed herself
unexpectedly shrewd, maintaining that she had had to work very
hard carrying stones when a new silo was being built on the farm,
and at her next menstrual period she had flowed for a week or so,
and that was all there was to it, except that she had been
suffering from pains continually since. (The charitable
organization knew she had visited the office of a notorious
abortionist.) She smiled much in a silly way when in the company
of men; she proved herself easily led. Taking it altogether,
there was no reason for considering her insane, or as being in
any way a psychopathic personality. She showed no stigmata of
degeneracy.

There was no opportunity to get a satisfactory family history.
Many of the relatives were still in the old country. A sister
and brothers have been known in the neighborhood where this girl
lived, and are said to appear quite normal in their simple ways
of living. They are of the peasant type and good laborers, but
given to occasional indulgence in feasting with alcoholic
embellishments. From the sister we learned that this girl had
passed through a sickly childhood and had been most irregularly
brought up on account of the illnesses of her mother. She was
not known as a liar when younger. Her short school record showed
nothing of value for diagnosis. What happened to this girl was
no great exception; among these people, we know from their own
accounts, free and easy sex relationships are common. We are
advised that it was long ago known that this girl was going with
bad companions.

In this case we advised gynecological and other medical treatment
and segregation in a reformatory or industrial school. The young
woman could be regarded as nothing else than a dangerous person
in any community. Even when being brought to us she had
endeavored to flirt with a conductor on the train. A fair
diagnosis could only be that she was, for the present at least,
morally irresponsible.

This case has been only recently studied and no further report
can be given. It is cited in illustration of the fact that was
not clearly brought out by our other cases, namely, that a period
of stress may be very definitely the exciting factor in
developing pathological lying and accusation. This stands out
particularly clearly in this case because the young woman had,
prior to the wedding feast, been a good worker and had given no
trouble in the community.

CHAPTER V

CASES OF PATHOLOGICAL LYING IN BORDER-LINE MENTAL TYPES

We could load our pages with histories of cases where the
statement of delusions, unrecognized as such, has created much
trouble in courts and out, but this type of case is too well
known to need any illustration. Text books of psychiatry deal
with the falsifications of paranoia and other insanities. That
the really insane also sometimes lie pathologically, that is,
tell for no normal purpose what they adequately know to be
untrue, is a fact not so well understood. But even that we need
not be especially concerned with in our case histories. It has
been well brought out in the previous literature on pathological
lying, as witness in our Chapter II. In the present chapter we
do not include the out-and-out insane, nor the definitively
feeble-minded, nor the recognizably epileptic.

Much more difficult of understanding and much less easily
recognized because of the mildness of many of the symptoms, or
their variations from time to time, are the types which we
enumerate. Several of these offer no complete picture of
insanity--even Case 25, although clearly aberrational, extremely
defective in self-control, and markedly criminalistic, did not
show to some psychiatrists who observed him a sufficiently clear
correspondence to any form of insanity as laid down in the
old-school text-books to be practically regarded as insane and in
need of long segregation. In considering this whole matter we
must never forget that there is no wall of demarcation between
those whose conduct clearly betokens insanity and those who are
not insane. There are plenty of instances where the easily
passable border between the two is permanently occupied or is at
times approached.

We keep our border-line cases separate in order to emphasize that
pathological lying by an insane person does not make a
pathological liar in the true sense. We should hesitate,
however, to give in legal form a verdict of insanity in several
of these border-line cases we cite--they are very difficult to
classify, and the question of responsibility called for sometimes
in court work is unanswerable. Keeping even these mild cases
away from our others serves, however, to lessen confusion; we
need in this subject to conserve all the clearness possible by
holding to fundamental classifications and showing up vagueness
of definition where it does exist.

Perhaps we are over-particular in keeping such a case as No. 22
in this chapter. The commonsense observer would hardly regard
this girl as at all lacking, even in self-control. On the other
hand, for the purpose of illustrating the subject of pathological
accusation we have kept Case 17 in the previous chapter when it
clearly shows great resemblance to Case 26 and is in reality a
border-line type. Then, too, the swindler, Case 12, in some
respects belongs in this chapter.

We are hardly called on in this work to discuss the lying of drug
habitues, although they so frequently in their mental conditions
represent border-line types. They are often on the verge of a
psychosis as the result of their intoxications. Their lying is
mostly done for a purpose, to be sure, and hence much would not
come under the head of pathological lying, but occasionally
veracity is so much interfered with that there seems to be a
tendency to aimless lying. This class of cases, however, is
sufficiently discussed in special literature pertaining to the
subject.[24]

[24] Vide, ``Morphinism and Narcomanias From Other Drugs,'' by T.
D. Crothers. Philadelphia, Saunders and Co., 1902. Also Chapter
V, Stimulants and Narcotics, in ``The Individual Delinquent,'' by
William Healy Boston, Little, Brown, and Co., 1915.

CASE 22

Summary: A girl of 14, a most vigorous and vivacious
personality, had for a couple of years pursued a curiously active
career of misrepresentation, of obtaining goods under false
pretenses and running away from home even to distant places. Her
conversational ability was above normal; her lies were evolved
for the purpose of adapting herself to the peculiar circumstances
in which she frequently found herself. Her general conduct
combined with her abnormal psychomotor activity gave ground for
the diagnosis of constitutional excitement--hypomania.

Birdie M., 14 years old, we saw after some clever detective work
had proved her to be the girl who in another town had repeatedly
swindled shop-keepers. It seems she had been accustomed to take
the train for localities where she had no connections whatever,
and there enter shops and make away with whatever she could. An
astounding incident was when she returned some goods she had
stolen and persuaded the manager to ``refund'' her the money on
the same. This was regarded by the authorities as extremely
clever.

We found Birdie very small for her age. Weight 76 lbs.; height 4
ft. 8 in. Tonsils very large. Teeth excessively crowded. No
sensory defect. Not yet menstruated. A very nervous type; quick
physical and mental reactions; exceedingly active, restless
manner.

Our psychological impressions state that Birdie did all her tests
brilliantly and quickly, but very often with less accuracy than
would have been the case had she taken the time to think quietly
rather than work rapidly. She was very keen to make the best
possible record. ``I am proud of being quick; nothing is hard
for me; it was not hard at school.'' It was found by steadying
her that she gave a more accurate performance. We diagnosed her
ability as good, but her school advantages had been poor.
Otherwise we noted she was a pert, talkative, responsive child,
of a distinctly nervous and somewhat unreliable type. Her ideas
came tumbling, one on top of another. Under close supervision
she was able to control her mental processes fairly well. For
instance, on the antonym test, where opposites to twenty stimulus
words are called for, Birdie gave them in the remarkably rapid
average time of .8 of a second, with only one failure and one
error. This is an exceptional record. From this and her
unexpected powers of self-control exhibited on some other tests
we were obliged to conclude that her aberrational tendencies were
not very deep-set. Her mental traits seemed to conform most
nearly to the type designated as constitutional excitement, or
hypomania. Further observation of the case confirmed us in this
first view of it.

On the ``Aussage'' or Testimony Test she gave 13 items, all
correct, upon free recital. On questioning, 14 more details were
added, but 6 of these were incorrect. Of the 6 suggestions
offered she accepted none.

Birdie immigrated from Austria with her family when she was 10
years of age. She came of a healthy family; all of her
grandparents and many of her uncles and aunts are living. We get
no history of any insanity, epilepsy, or feeblemindedness on
either side. She is one of 7 children, several of whom have had
nervous troubles. Two of the children had convulsions in
infancy, but then only. One brother at 10 years old is an
excessive stammerer and extremely nervous.

Birdie was born after a pregnancy during which the mother was
much worried and in poor health. The father, too, was sickly at
that time. The family conditions were defective on account of
poverty and illness during a large share of the period when the
children were born. Birdie at birth was very small and there was
difficulty in resuscitation. She, however, was never seriously
ill until she was 7 years of age, when she had something like
peritonitis. No spasms or convulsions at any time. She was a
very small child during her infancy, but walked at 8 months and
talked very well indeed when she was only one year old.
Developmental history otherwise negative, but all along there has
been poor family control on account of ill health and the slight
earning capacity of the father.

During the several months we knew Birdie she was always a most
unreliable person. She repeatedly ran away from home and was
lost track of. On one occasion she got as far as Omaha. By the
use of elaborate, but plausible stories she always succeeded in
winning the friendship of reputable people. Once she was found,
after she had been away several weeks, residing in a good home in
another State where the people thought of adopting her on account
of her brightness. Many times she wandered about her home city
and in the most active and sly fashion purloined anything she
cared for. Several times when she was taken by the police she
invented clever stories, without the least faltering, that seemed
entirely fitted to the occasion. As the investigator said, she
talked incessantly with not the slightest hesitation and was
always airy and sure. No one to whom she had gone with her
misrepresentations questioned her veracity-- she always came out
with a clearly connected and plausible story. We noted that her
parents in comparison seemed quite stupid.

Of course Birdie passed under various names. Once we recognized
her picture in the newspaper representing a weary, disheartened
girl who was tired walking all day long from one employment
bureau to another. She stated to the reporter it was her
ambition to become a model servant. When in Omaha her mental
peculiarities were recognized and she was studied by a competent
alienist who, however, was not willing to render a verdict of non
compos mentis to the police. This was when she had run away from
Chicago and had told a lot of stories all of which had turned out
to be untrue. The trouble which she created in various
communities by reason of her hyperactive delinquencies has not
been small.

With much merriment and an excessive amount of facial expression
this little girl held forth to us. It is hardly necessary to say
that the account varied somewhat from day to day. She did not
like it at home and did not propose to go back there. There were
too many in the family. As soon as the floor was scrubbed one of
the children would get it all dirty again. She had started for
New York, but the old gatekeeper at the station was mean and she
could not slip by him. She got along all right in Omaha, but
finally she gave herself up to the police there. She thinks
perhaps she might go up to the people in Wisconsin who wanted to
adopt her. In any case, she can do a great deal better than
Viola B. who ran away from New York and got caught, and was so
much talked about in the newspapers.

Thus her story would run along at great length, Birdie in the
meanwhile chuckling with the thought of her own escapades.

We never recommended institution life because it seemed as if
better things might be done for this girl. We felt that if she
were built up from a physical standpoint her tendency towards
nervous excitement might grow less. Her tonsils were removed.
Every one felt that the girl's good mental abilities should be
conserved to the utmost. Attempts at management in a different
environment gave some hope of success, and after a time her
parents moved to a smaller town, when we lost oversight of the
girl. Following our acquaintance with the case it had been
managed in the light of her characteristics, and her falsifying
tendencies were constantly discounted by those in charge. We
felt that her tendency was to grow more stable.

Three years later: We have just gained further information
concerning Birdie. The family is still in straitened
circumstances, the father having proved too weak a character to
support them. He posed as somewhat of a gentleman and made off
to another country. Birdie is said to have worked steadily for
months at a time, but over a year ago suddenly left home once
more, this time going with a stage company. Although the police
in several cities have been appealed to, no trace has been
obtained as yet of our young friend. Whether her lying was
continued at home we cannot satisfactorily learn, nor do we know
accurately about any continuance of her state of excitement, but
without doubt Birdie in her present wandering is fabricating
anew, and is what she was before, namely, a young adventuress.

---------------------------------------------------------------
Mental conditions: Constitutional excitement. Case 22.
Girl, age 14 years.
Developmental conditions: Defective pregnancy.
Early impaction of teeth.
Poor general physical conditions.
Home conditions: Poverty. Irritability of father and
mother.
Delinquencies: Mentality:
Running away. Ability good;
Stealing. Constitutional
Lying. excitement.
---------------------------------------------------------------

CASE 23

Summary: A girl of 16 having been out all of one night, related
a story to the police of having been led off, and incidentally
made the statement that she had been repeatedly immoral, once
with a relative. She dictated and signed a detailed account of
the affairs, giving times and places. This was used in
investigating and led to much fruitless effort even on the part
of experienced people--her story was quite untrue. When studied
she proved to be a mild case of chorea, exhibiting the typical
psychotic tendencies of that disease, such as we have observed in
court work a number of times.

Nellie M., when brought to us by her grandmother, following the
girl's experience with the police who had been told by her of
immoralities practiced, was found to be rather a nice looking and
gentle girl, pleasant and responsive with us.

On the physical side we found her to be poorly developed and
nourished. Weight 93 lbs.; height 4 ft. 9 in. Vision about
20/40 in each eye, but wears glasses which correct this. Rather
poor color. Complains somewhat of headaches. Marked tremor of
outstretched hands. Moderate amount of choreic movements in arms
and legs, exaggerated when attention distracted. Knee jerks
exaggerated. Conjunctival and palatal reflexes almost absent.
Small regular features. Well shaped head. Said to drink at
least 4 cups of tea a day. Heart sounds negative.

Mentally, she seemed to be fairly normal in ability, but was
undoubtedly in a peculiar psychical condition. She had reached
7th grade in spite of much moving about, even to different
cities. We found evidence of lack of good apperceptive powers
and the history of the case led us to see clearly that she had
been just recently in a very unstable, if not quite confusional
mental condition.

The ``Aussage'' or Testimony Test was not given in this case.

The history of heredity and development shows many points of
importance. The mother died when Nellie was a very little girl.
She was terribly abused by a husband who was excessively
alcoholic and in general a tremendous brute. They lived in a
roadhouse where drunken fights were not uncommon. Nellie has
been brought up since her mother's death by other relatives.
Outside of alcoholism on the father's side there is said to be no
family peculiarities. The mother came from a very reputable
family. Nellie suffered early from several severe illnesses.
When only six weeks old she is said to have been in a comatose
condition with scarlet fever and diphtheria. Later she had
measles, whooping cough and other mild ailments, and at one time
suffered extremely from constipation. Walked and talked early.
No convulsions. Menstruated first several months ago. Sometimes
complains of severe headaches. One observer reported that the
girl had been subject to slight melancholia within the last year.
Choreic movements have been present off and on for about a year,
but have not been marked until a little while previous to the
incident which brought her to us. The diagnosis had been made
that it was a case of mild St. Vitus dance. During all the year
Nellie had been regarded as in general unreliable, but nothing of
importance had happened prior to the above episode.

Nellie's story as told to us seemed coherent enough. Apparently
she had entire memory of her past actions and, in general, of
what she had said. Her own statements convinced us as much as
anything else of her unreliability at times. It seems she had
run away and gone to a picture show and had fallen asleep there.
When she got out it was very late, but it was election night and
people were about on the street. She finally was accosted by a
woman who took her home. After her story of being led off by a
man the police were called into the case and she gave them her
remarkable statement. Nellie told us of picking up with a man,
too, who lured her to a theatre, but who left her there. There
was no way of corroborating this. She fully acknowledged to us
the lies which had created so much trouble. ``Well, I was
telling the first lies and then when I was going to tell him that
I knew that I was telling wrong he acted so cranky and said such
things to me. He said he knew somebody had done bad things to me
and so I thought I had to give the name of somebody and so I gave
those names.

``The girls around in the schools I used to go to talked about
these things. I never went with them. I was always by myself.
None of the boys said bad things. The police were so cranky I
did not know what else to say. They said someone must have done
it to me when I was younger and I said it was my cousin because
he always used to want to. He said he would give me a pair of
skates if I would. He was 13. I never asked my grandmother or
anyone about these things. No one ever explained it to me. Just
the girls are the ones who told me about these things. They told
me themselves how they had been out at night with the boys. I
never did do it with anybody.''

Examination by a gynecologist about this time showed positively
that there had been no immoral relations, and after our findings
the case became a closed incident so far as prosecuting anybody
was concerned. Nellie was taken in hand by the family physician
and no further delinquencies or false accusations have been
complained of during the succeeding two years.

Outside of the girl's general frank bearing, undoubtedly a point
rather indicating to the police possible truth in her statements,
was the detail in which the alleged events were given. The
signed statement coming from an apparently naive girl of 15 would
seem in its clearness and coherency to bear the earmarks of
truth. We always regarded this case as one of our interesting
examples showing the unreliability of girl witnesses, especially
those who have had unfortunate experiences, even though merely
mental, with sex affairs.

---------------------------------------------------------------
Mentality: Mild choreic psychosis. Case 23.
Girl, age 15 years.
Early clandestine sex teachings.
Delinquencies: Mentality:
Running away. Normal ability,
False accusations. temporary aberration.
---------------------------------------------------------------

CASE 24

Summary: A girl of 16 whose general conditions won ready
sympathy created much trouble. She repeatedly made serious
accusations against a man and her attempt at suicide made her
statement seem convincing. Further study showed the absolute
falsity of her charges. It was a case of hysteria which had
developed largely upon a basis of injury--there was a traumatic
psychoneurosis. Under good treatment she made a fine recovery;
there being no more indulgence in pathological accusations,
although her nervous symptoms recurred for a short time after a
couple of years.

At the time when we first saw Georgia B. she was somewhat over 16
years old and had been only 5 years in this country. We saw her
because she had run away from home and attempted suicide. From
the latter she had been rescued, and then had accused a neighbor
of raping her. The case proved to be very troublesome until the
nature of the whole affair was understood.

We found a thin and anemic girl, not at all prepossessing in
appearance, dull in expression, suffering from a chronic
suppurating otitis media.

On the mental side we had much trouble in conducting an
examination because she was greatly given to tears. She did work
for us on a few tests and her efforts would have been graded as
those of a feebleminded person if her emotional state had been
left out of account. Even our physical examination was largely
hindered through her crying. However, her story was told in a
straightforward way and with that show of emotion which had
previously convinced others that grave injustice had been done
her. Distinct proof of hysteria was present; for instance, on
one occasion in the middle of a test Georgia apparently became
unconscious. Her head dropped to the table, but her lips were
red, her face did not change color, she resisted having her head
moved, and in a moment or two lifted it herself to a more
comfortable position. The diagnosis from such symptoms as these
and from her history was not difficult to make.

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