Pathology of Lying, Etc.

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

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In any attempt to distinguish between pathological accusers and
liars, cases overlapping into both groups are found--so some of
the material in this chapter may be fairly considered as
belonging partially to the next chapter.

In discussing the possibility of betterment, a fact which we as
well as others have observed, consideration of Cases 1, 4, and 7
is suggested.

CASE 1

Summary: A girl of 16 applied for help, telling an elaborate
tale of family tragedy which proved to be totally untrue. It was
so well done that it deceived the most experienced. Shrewd
detective work cleared the mystery. It was found that the girl
was a chronic falsifier and had immediately preceding this
episode become delinquent in other ways. Given firm treatment in
an institution and later by her family, who knew well her
peculiarities, this girl in the course of four years apparently
has lost her previous extreme tendency to falsification.

Hazel M. at 16 years of age created a mild sensation by a story
of woe which brought immediate offers of aid for the alleged
distress. One morning she appeared at a social center and stated
she had come from a hospital where her brother, a young army man,
had just died. She gave a remarkably correct, detailed, medical
account of his suffering and death. In response to inquiry she
told of a year's training as a nurse; that was how she knew about
such subjects. In company with a social worker she went directly
back to the hospital to make arrangements for what she requested,
namely, a proper burial. At the hospital office it was said that
no such person had died there, and after she had for a time
insisted on it she finally said she must have been dreaming.
Although she had wept on the shoulder of a listener as she first
told her story, she now gave it up without any show of emotion.
We were asked to study the case.

Hazel sketched to us a well-balanced story of her family life;
one which it was impossible to break down. It involved
experiences at army posts--she stated her only relatives were
brothers in the army--and her recent work as a ``practical
nurse.'' She finally led on to the death of her brother, as in
the tale previously told. When asked how she accounted for the
fact that no such person was found in the hospital, she answered,
``Well, I either must have been crazy or something is the matter,
and I don't think my mind is that bad.'' The girl evidently was
suffering from loss of sleep; her case was not further
investigated until after a long rest.

The next day Hazel started in by saying, ``It's enough to
convince anybody that I was not in the hospital when Mrs. B. and
I went there and found out that they said I had not been there.
Truthfully I don't know where I was. If I was not there I must
have been some place or I must have been in a trance.'' The long
stories told in the next few days need not be gone into. They
contained descriptions of life with her family in several towns
when she was a child, of her graduation from the high school in
Des Moines, and of her experience as a nurse in Cincinnati and
Chicago. Our cross-examination disclosed that she knew a good
many facts about obstetrics, in which she said she had had
training, and about the cities where she said she had lived. For
instance, she gave a description of the Cliff House at San
Francisco, the seals on the rocks there, the high school in Des
Moines, and so on. She also knew about life at army posts. The
point that made us skeptical was when in mentioning the names of
railroads she placed the wrong towns upon them. For instance,
she told us her brother worked on the L. S. & M. S. at Kenosha.

Hazel's stories were successfully maintained for several days
until a shrewd detective, who got her to tell some street numbers
in Chicago, ferreted out her family. She had persistently denied
the existence of any of them in Chicago, and, indeed, stated that
her father and mother had died years previously. One of the most
convincing things about her was her poise; she displayed an
attitude of sincerity combined with a show of deep surprise when
her word was questioned. For example, the moment before her
mother was brought in to see her, she was asked what she would
say if anyone asserted that her mother was in the next room. Her
instantaneous, emphatic response was, ``She would have to rise
out of her grave to be there.''

We soon learned that not a single detail the girl had given about
her family was true. She was born and brought up in Chicago and
had never been outside of the city. She had never studied
nursing nor had she ever nursed anybody. In public school she
had reached eighth grade.

Hazel came of an intelligent family and we were able to get a
good account of the family and developmental history. Heredity
seems completely negative as far as any nervous or mental
abnormalities are concerned. She is one of seven children, four
of whom are living, three having died in infancy. The father had
just recently died of tuberculosis. There has been no trouble
with the other children of any significance for us. Pregnancy
with Hazel was healthy, but the mother suffered a considerable
shock when she stood on a passenger boat by the side of a man who
jumped overboard and committed suicide. The birth was difficult.
The child weighed 12 lbs. Instruments were used; it was a breech
presentation. At 2 years of age Hazel was very ill with
gastritis and what was said to be spinal meningitis. She had
some convulsions then. Had both walked and talked when she was
about 16 months of age. During childhood she had a severe
strabismus and at 8 years of age was operated upon for it.
Vision has always been practically nil in one eye. Several
diseases of childhood she had in mild form. After she was 2
years of age she had no more convulsions, or spasms, or attacks
of any kind. From the standpoint of general nervousness Hazel
was said to be one of the calmest in the family, although she was
accustomed to drink five or six cups of coffee a day.
Menstruation at 13 years, no irregularity.

On examination we found a very well nourished and well developed
young woman of slouchy attitude and normal expression. Vision
very defective in one eye and 10/20, even with glasses, in the
other. Slight strabismus. General strength good. Examination
otherwise negative except for the fact that she had been infected
with the diplococcus of Neisser.

Mental tests proved her to have quite normal ability. Neither
special ability nor disabilities of significance were discovered.
For present discussion it is of interest to note that in the
``Aussage'' Test she gave a functional account, enumerating 16
items, 2 of which were incorrect, and accepted none of the
suggestions which were offered.

The mother and sister brought out the facts that Hazel had been
giving an assumed name recently and lying about her age. She had
alleged that she was married. In the last year she had run away
from home on several occasions. At one time had written to her
mother about her happy married life. One letter reads, ``Dearest
Mother:--I can picture your dear face when you receive my letter.
I know you have your doubts about the matter, the same as I had
the first few days. But mama, you know I love him and I have the
satisfaction of being a married woman before Annie is.'' In the
letter she describes the appearance of her imaginary husband,
tells about her new dress and gloves and ``the prettiest little
wedding ring that was ever made.'' In another letter she says,
``It is just one o'clock A.M. and Jack has just gone to sleep and
so I stole a little time to write,'' etc. (It was later shown by
the stationery used, and by the girl's final confession, that
these letters were written in the rest room of a department
store.)

Hazel's lying began, it seems, when she was a little girl. She
would come home from school and out of whole cloth relate
incidents which occurred on the way home. One of her earliest
efforts was about being chased by a white horse. The mother
states that for years she has had to check Hazel because she
recognized her remarkable tendencies in this direction. The
father's death was somewhat of a shock and it seems that after
this the girl's other delinquencies began. Prior to the time she
first went away from home she had some sort of hysterical spells
when she said she could see her father lying in his coffin before
her in the room. Her behavior became quite outrageous with some
young man in her own household at just about this time. Not that
she was immoral, although she once suddenly blurted out in the
parlor a grave self-accusation: ``Now, John, mother thinks you
must be careful. You know I am a prostitute.'' When we first
saw her she had been away from home four times, on this last
occasion for three weeks. Before she went she had said she
wanted to kill herself. Mother had notified the police but no
trace of her was found.

From Hazel's own story told at this time and even after she
became more stable it seems very likely that her bad tendencies
began with her acquaintance with a certain rather notorious
woman. Her mother came to believe that this was undoubtedly the
fact. Our inquiry into beginnings brought to light the fact that
Hazel while a school girl for long associated with this woman who
taught her about sex immoralities. ``I don't believe my mother
knows what this Mrs. R. did to me or she would have her arrested.
She started me on all this. When I was about 11 years old I
first knew of those things. The first I ever heard was from that
woman's daughter. I never said anything to my mother. I was
always ashamed of myself to say anything about it. After I got
to working with factory girls I heard a lot about it.'' The
mother told us later that she thought it probable from what she
now knew that this Mrs. R. may have been largely responsible for
Hazel's tendency to delinquency. Hazel kept this association of
several years' standing quite to herself. The mother remembers
now how Hazel once stayed for hours after school and told a story
in explanation that they felt sure was untrue. The teachers used
to tell the mother that Hazel seemed as if she couldn't pay
attention to her school work. One teacher reported to us that
she remembers Hazel as a girl who seemed peculiar and hysterical.
The other girls called her queer and used to steer clear of her.

The mother reports Hazel as being for several years impulsive,
erratic, talkative, untidy, and rather dishonest in other small
ways besides lying--all this in spite of vigorous home
discipline. The girl at one time under the influence of revival
meetings left the religious faith of her parents. However, they
thought if any form of religion would make her better it would be
all right.

At our last interview with Hazel before she was sent away, an
interview which she prefaced by saying, ``I want to apologize for
everything I did,'' the girl showed herself unable to avoid
prevarications. Coming back, for instance, to the subject of her
schooling she tells us how she won a graduating medal. This her
mother said was untrue.

About her own lying tendencies she confessed that sometimes she
hardly knew whether things were really so or not. Asked about
her knowledge of other cities; ``I read a whole lot and learn
things in that way. I used to have to write compositions and
imagine we were going places. I was pretty good at that.'' One
felt very uncertain about Hazel's mental condition when in almost
the same breath she denied having said anything about the seals
on the rocks at San Francisco, or about obstetrical cases, but,
of course, the denial may have been itself another falsification.
Her knowledge of army affairs was gained through her acquaintance
with young soldiers. An unusual amount of what she heard or read
was photographed with the greatest clearness in her mind and was
recalled most vividly.

A peculiarity of Hazel's case which was quite obvious was her
lack of apperception concerning her own interests. Her lies all
along, after her identity was discovered, were so easy to trace,
and they so quickly rebounded upon her, that there seemed every
reason for her to desist. Nothing so clearly proved the absence
of self-realization as her feeling under detention that other
girls with whom she was in forced association were much beneath
her in quality, although many of them were not nearly so untidy
and had not been nearly so immoral. During all this period of
several months, beginning with her running away and her writing
the housewifely letters about her imaginary married life, and
ending with her appeal for aid at the social center, Hazel was
indulging in veritable orgies of lying. When away from home she
several times picked up men on the street and stayed at hotels
with them.

At the time of our first studies of this case we hardly dared to
offer either a mental or moral prognosis.

In the institution for delinquent young women to which she was
sent Hazel's traits were long maintained. She proved very
troublesome on account of lies to her family, to the officers,
and to the other girls. The latter soon discovered, however, the
peculiar lack of foundation for her stories. In the institution
was also noted the tendency to untidiness of which her mother
spoke. The authorities steadily persevered with Hazel. They
secured another operation on her eye, which successfully
straightened it, and she became fully ``cured'' of her pelvic
disease. She received instruction in a form of handicraft in
which she quickly showed special dexterity and skill. Her
tendencies to falsify gradually became less. About two years
later the mother again assumed control with great success.

This is the remarkable interest of Hazel's case, to wit, that
with proper discipline and the development of new interests her
fabricating tendencies have been reduced to a minimum. She has
made a wonderful improvement and has long been a self-supporting
and self-respecting young woman with her own relation to the
world realized in a way that before seemed entirely lacking.

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Mental conflict: About early secret Case 1.
experiences. Girl, age 16 yrs.
Mental conditions: Either mild psychosis
or extreme adolescent
instability.
Bad companions: Early.
Delinquencies: Mentality:
Extreme lying. Normal ability.
Running away. Psychosis (?).
Sex.
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CASE 2

Summary: A girl of 19, under partial observation for three
years, was during all this time a great mystery. Brought at
first to us by her family as being insane because she was such a
great liar and unreliable in other ways, we never could find the
slightest evidence of aberration. No satisfactory explanation
was forthcoming until the remarkable denouement when we learned
that the mother, whom we had come to know herself as an extreme
falsifier, was not the mother at all. It seems clear that the
girl's behavior was largely the result of mental conflict about
certain suspected facts, and psychic contagion arising from the
world of lies in which she had lived.

Beula D. has been known in several cities and in more than one
court as the ``mystery girl.'' She has appeared on the scene in
various places, giving a fictitious name and telling elaborate
stories of herself which always proved to be without foundation.
She ran away from home on several occasions, but except in one
instance which we know about, has never been seriously
delinquent. We saw her on many occasions and tried to get at the
truth of her stories of ill treatment and the like.
Investigators found there was unquestionably some truth in her
statements, but never from first to last in the many interviews
which we had with her was there ever any possibility of
separating truth from falsehood. The girl simply did not seem to
know the difference between the two. What was more, we found
that the mother presented the same characteristics. She also, by
her most curious and complicated fabrications, led even her most
rational sympathizers into a bewildering maze. A woman of
magnificent presence, tremendous will, and good intelligence, she
nevertheless was soon found to be absolutely unreliable in her
statements. This woman's numerous inventions, so far as we have
been able to ascertain, have been quite beside the mark of any
possible advantage to be gained by her or her family. Naturally
we here thought heredity played an important role, until our
final discovery that the two were not related. The details which
we know about this case would cover scores of pages. In summary
it stands as follows:

On the physical side Beula at 17 was a striking looking young
woman, but of very poor development. She was only 4 ft. 7 in. in
height and weighed 102 lbs. Expression was quiet, pleasant, and
responsive. Unusually clear and pleasant voice. Typical
Hutchinsonian teeth. All other examination negative.
Menstruation first at 13 1/2, normal and regular.

Notwithstanding the mother's report of her being subnormal
mentally, we found that she had fair ability. Her range of
information was good. She was always desirous of writing
compositions, she wanted to be a story writer, she said, but her
diction was very immature and her spelling was poor, making
altogether a very mild production. Never did we see any
essential incoherency in her mental processes, or any other signs
of aberration. A series of association tests given in an
endeavor to discover some of the facts which her mother
maintained she herself was desirous of knowing (but really could
not have been), failed to elicit anything but the most normal
reactions, even to ideas about which we considered there must be
some feeling-tone.

On the ``Aussage'' Test only ten items were given from the
picture upon free recital. On questioning twelve more details
were reported correctly, but no less than seven of these alleged
facts were incorrect. Only one out of the five suggestions
offered was accepted.

No purpose would be served in recounting the details of falsehood
which were told by this girl about family affairs, about the
places she had worked, about the facts of home treatment, etc.
Her lying was not done cleverly, but it served to create much
confusion and gave considerable trouble to a number of social
agencies that came in contact with the family. Even when she was
applying directly for help her lies stood greatly in the way of
achieving anything for her. The confusion was vastly added to by
the many vagaries of her alleged parent, but, even so, one of the
chief accusations of the prevaricating mother was that the girl
herself was a terrible liar. The whole situation was rendered
completely absurd and needless by the behavior of both the woman
and the girl.

After we had known this case for about three years and the truth
about Beula's antecedents had come to light as the result of a
new person stepping in on the scene, the girl's tendency to
falsification seemed quite inexplicable. No one who came to know
the circumstances, even as we previously had been acquainted with
them, felt they could blame Beula much for her attitude of
dissatisfaction and her tendencies to run away. We felt, too,
that the mystery which had always hovered about this girl was
sufficient to have led her to be fanciful and imaginative and
that the fabrications of the self-styled ``mother'' did not form
an atmosphere in which the girl could well achieve respect for
truth. But Beula's almost confusional state concerning the facts
of her family life seemed quite explicable in the light of what
we at last ascertained. Soon after we first saw the girl the
woman had told us a most remarkable tale of how it was she
happened to be the mother of the child, and the attempt was then
made by several to straighten out the apparent doubt in the
girl's mind. But it seems that the clever and tragic tale of the
mother, although well calculated to do so, did not entirely cover
the points remembered by this girl of her earliest childhood.
Evidently for a time Beula tried to correlate the two, but doubt
grew apace. It seemed almost as if her doubt as to who she was
led her to say first one thing and then another. It was
particularly at a period of stress of this kind that she was
figuring in other cities as the ``mystery girl.''

The earlier facts of the case probably never will be known. Of
the many details known by us it is sufficient to say that the
woman adopted Beula as a young child and proceeded by devious
methods to weave a network of lies about the situation of their
relationship. Who Beula's parents really were neither she nor
any one else of whom we have heard, ever knew.

Beula showed such delinquent tendencies after a time that she had
to be sent to a corrective institution. After coming out she
made off in the world for herself before we could give her the
information soon afterwards obtained by us. At her last visit we
felt that her report in a terribly tragic mood on the family
conditions was totally unreliable. She went forth to weave, no
doubt, new fabrications.
---------------------------------------------------------------
Early experiences: Peculiar treatment Case 2.
and excessive misrepresentations Girl, age 19 years.
in home circle.
Mental influences: Contagion from long
continued untruthfulness at home.
Mystery of antecedents.
Mental conflict about the above.
Heredity and developmental conditions (?)
Hutchinsonian teeth only clew.
Delinquencies: Mentality:
Lying. Fair ability with
Running away. poor educational
Sex. advantages.
---------------------------------------------------------------

CASE 3

Summary: In its wonderfully clear presentation of
characteristics this case classically represents the type. A
woman of 27 years (usually claiming to be 17), during a career of
7 or 8 years has engaged in an excessive amount of
misrepresentation, often to the extent of swindling. Alleging
herself to be merely a girl and without a family, she has
repeatedly gained protection, sometimes for a year or more, in
homes where her prevaricating tendencies, appearing with ever new
details, have sooner or later thwarted her own interests. By
extraordinary methods she has often simulated illnesses which
have demanded hospital treatment. For long she was lost to her
family, traveling about under different names, making her way by
her remarkable abilities and unusual presence.

This case illustrates, again, two points we have often made,
namely, that the difficulty of getting safe data concerning
genetics increases rapidly with age, and that the chance of
altering tendencies after years of character formation vastly
diminishes. These features appear strongly here, yet our long
knowledge of the person and of the many details of her career
gives the history great interest.

A young woman, whom we will call Inez B., a name she once assumed
for a time, arrived at a girls' boarding home in Chicago with
merely a small traveling bag and money sufficient only for a few
days. In appearance and conversation she gave distinct evidences
of refinement. She showed indecision and confessed she knew no
one in the city.

Just at this time a wealthy eastern girl, Agnes W., was missing
from her home, and the police everywhere were on the lookout for
her. A detective who was ordered to visit the boarding club
showed a picture of Agnes W. to the matron, who instantly
discerned a likeness to Inez and informed him of her recent
arrival. Inez was questioned, but could or would give no
satisfactory response concerning her own home. She maintained
she was just 17 and had come to Chicago to make her own way in
the world. After some account of herself, the details of which
were somewhat contradictory, it was inferred that she might be
Agnes W. She vehemently denied it, but being the same age and
some likeness being discerned, the questioning was continued.
Various matters of Agnes W.'s antecedents were gone into and
after a time Inez burst out with, ``Well, if you must have it so,
I am Agnes W.'' The girl was thereupon taken in charge by the
police authorities, and she herself registered several times as
Agnes W. After the family of the latter had been communicated
with, however, it was ascertained that Inez was not the lost
heiress.

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