PATHOLOGICAL LIARS

SUBMITTED BY: VANI JAIN

B.A.(H) APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
SEMESTER-4
A1206912028
OBJECTIVES
The main objective of the present research is to have a better
understanding of pathological liars.

To understand the connection between pathological lying and
different psychological disorders.

To study more about the signs of pathological lying.

INTRODUCTION
In psychiatry, pseudologia fantastica, also called mythomania,
compulsive lying or pathological lying, is a behavior of habitual or
compulsive lying.
A pathological liar lies compulsively and impulsively, almost without
thinking about the consequences of his action. He lies regularly on a
spontaneous basis even if he gains no benefit from it, or even if he traps
himself into it. A pathological liar cannot control his impulse to lie and it
is usually a self-defeating trait.
A pathological liar is usually defined as someone who lies
incessantly to get their way and does so with little concern for others.
Pathological lying is often viewed as coping mechanism developed in
early childhood and it is often associated with some other type of
mental health disorder.
Pathological liars have little regard or respect for the rights and
feelings of others. A pathological liar often comes across as being
manipulative, cunning and self-centered.
Pathological lying is characterized by a long history (may be lifelong)
of frequent and repeated lies for which no obvious external motive or
benefit can be discerned. While ordinary lies are goal directed, and are
told to obtain obvious external benefit, pathological lies often appear
purposeless, and in some cases, might even be self-incriminating or
damaging, which makes them even more incomprehensible to the
audience.
Lying is a commonly found clinical component with people who
suffer from impulse control disorders such as gambling, compulsive
shopping, substance abuse, kleptomania etc.
SYMPTOMS OF
PATHOLOGICAL LIARS
Lack of head movement
Increased rate of self-adapters (eg., movements such playing with an
object in hands, scratching ones head etc.)
Increased/Heightened pitch of voice
Reduced rate of speech
Pause fillers (uh, hm, er)
Disguised smiling

CAUSES OF PATHOLOGICAL
LYING
A personality disorder (sociopathic, narcissistic, or borderline
personality)
Dysfunctional families
Physical or sexual abuse during childhood
Substance abuse
Neuropsychological abnormalities (learning disabilities, mental
retardation, etc.)
Guilt and repercussions about what they have done
Low self-esteem


DIAGNOSIS
Diagnosing Pseudologia fantastica can be very difficult because it has not
been recognized as a disorder in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of
Mental Disorders. Many other disorders acknowledge pathological lying as a
symptom of disorders such as psychopathy, and antisocial, borderline,
narcissistic, and histrionic personality disorders.
The only diagnosis in the current system where purposeless, internally
motivated deception is listed is Axis I factitious disorder. This diagnosis
deals with people who lie about having physical or psychological disorders.
People with PF tend to lie about their identities and past history. Since the
symptoms do not match up, the individual may go undiagnosed.
SIGNS OF PATHOLOGICAL
LYING
Individual Also Suffers from Mental Illness or Personality Disorders:

According to Psychology Today, while compulsive lying is not itself a
diagnosable mental illness, it often correlates with a number of personality
and mental disorders. Pathologically lying is a common symptom in a
number of mental health issues, such as borderline personality disorder and
narcissistic personality disorder. If someone you know has received a
diagnosis of mental illness or a personality disorder, be aware that he or she
could be a compulsive liar if other symptoms are also present.

Lies Bring Attention to the Person:

Therapist Mark Tyrell, founder of Uncommon Solutions, suggests
some people who lie pathologically do so to seek attention.
Individuals who want to have center stage wherever they are may
have to make up stories to capture people's interest. These types of
people crave an audience and get a high off it, and this leads them to
lie more. Therefore, if you see someone constantly engaging in
attention-seeking behaviors, he or she may also be lying to support
this need.

Stories Are Impossible to Believe:

The Psychiatric Times states compulsive liars will often tell unbelievable
stories, and the lies they contain may seem absolutely pointless. In fact,
a compulsive liar may even tell lies that are self-incriminating. While
almost everyone exaggerates stories sometimes, a pathological liar does
it much of the time. If you find yourself with your jaw falling open
every time someone tells you a story, it's probably because it's not true.
If this happens regularly, the person may be a pathological liar.

Individual Has Poor Self-Esteem:

According to the Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, low self-
esteem ranks high among the probable causes of behavioral issues. People
with low self-esteem are more likely to demonstrate pathological lying
symptoms because they are trying to make themselves feel better about
how they look, their accomplishments, and what they have in life. While
low self-esteem doesn't always indicate a pathological liar, if it's coupled
with regular truth-stretching, it could be a signal that this person needs
help.

HOW TO DETECT A
PATHOLOGICAL LIAR
Attention Seeking Behaviour
A pathological liar wants to be in the limelight or center of attention and
lying reinforces his feeling of being important. Some possibilities include:
Sympathy attention. The liar wants everybody to know his story and
exaggerates details to get sympathy from anybody who can hear him,
whether it is because of a small or a big problem or incidence in his life.
Insecurity. Pathological liars are usually insecure and they feel they must
make up lies about their accomplishments or events in their life to become
worthy of attention.

Secret Habits
People who lie habitually may be hiding a secret habit such as an
alcohol problem or drug addiction. They may be engaged in obsessive
behaviors like online gaming or hiding an eating disorder such as anorexia
or bulimia. They may also have a personality disorder such as narcissistic,
bipolar, or borderline personalities. These pathological liars need
professional help in the form of group counseling or therapy to treat their
behaviors as well their lying problem.

Caught when Lying
The pathological liar reacts very negatively when busted for telling a lie by:
Being extremely defensive. He may try to blame someone else.
Fabricating yet another lie. The pathological liar covers up the original
fib to make sure that his reputation remains intact by telling a bigger lie.
Becoming vindictive. They may react with anger or rage and may
retaliate. However, others may become upset at being caught by someone close and
may react with tearfulness.

REVIEW OF LITERATURE
The Ease of lying, Bruno Verschuerea, Adriaan Spruyta, Ewout H. Meijerb,
Henry Otgaarb (2011)
Brain imaging studies suggest that truth telling constitutes the default of the human
brain and that lying involves intentional suppression of the predominant truth
response. By manipulating the truth proportion in the Sheffield lie test, they
investigated whether the dominance of the truth response is malleable. Results
showed that frequent truth telling made lying more difficult, and that frequent lying
made lying easier. These results implicate that (1) the accuracy of lie detection tests
may be improved by increasing the dominance of the truth response and that (2)
habitual lying makes the lie response more dominant.

Smiles when lying; Ekman, Paul; Friesen, Wallace V.; O'Sullivan,
Maureen (1988)
Subtle differences among forms of smiling distinguished when subjects
were truthful and when they lied about experiencing pleasant feelings.
Expressions that included muscular activity around the eyes in addition to the
smiling lips occurred more often when people were actually enjoying
themselves as compared with when enjoyment was feigned to conceal negative
emotions. Smiles that included traces of muscular actions associated with
disgust, fear, contempt, or sadness occurred more often when subjects were
trying to mask negative emotions with a happy mask. When these differences
among types of smiling were ignored and smiling was treated as a unitary
phenomenon, there was no difference between truthful and deceptive
behavior.

Lying in everyday life; DePaulo, Bella M.; Kashy, Deborah A.;
Kirkendol, Susan E.; Wyer, Melissa M.; Epstein, Jennifer A. (1996)
In 2 diary studies of lying, 77 college students reported telling 2 lies a day, and
70 community members told 1. Participants told more self-centered lies than
other-oriented lies, except in dyads involving only women, in which other-
oriented lies were as common as self-centered ones. Participants told relatively
more self-centered lies to men and relatively more other-oriented lies to
women. Consistent with the view of lying as an everyday social interaction
process, participants said that they did not regard their lies as serious and did
not plan them much or worry about being caught. Still, social interactions in
which lies were told were less pleasant and less intimate than those in which
no lies were told.

KEY LEARNINGS
In psychiatry, pseudologia fantastica, also called mythomania, compulsive lying
or pathological lying, is a behavior of habitual or compulsive lying.
Diagnosing Pseudologia fantastica can be very difficult because it has not been
recognized as a disorder in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental
Disorders.
Pathological liars have secret habits, attention seeking personality and defensive
personality. Whenever they are caught while lying, they either get defensive or try
to cover it up with another lie. They may even retaliate it with anger or rage.
Pathological liars typically have trouble maintaining consistency in their life and
do not live in reality like often changing jobs, inconsistency in relationships and
estrangement from family.


CONCLUSION
A pathological liar lies compulsively and impulsively, almost without
thinking about the consequences of his action. He lies regularly on a
spontaneous basis even if he gains no benefit from it, or even if he traps
himself into it. A pathological liar cannot control his impulse to lie and it is
usually a self-defeating trait.
A pathological liar may never admit that life is difficult. Instead, he or she
will either only discuss the happy times or make up stories to replace
unfortunate events.
Knowing the history of a pathological liar will help the researcher see
patterns in his or her lying. Some people will only lie about the present, but
others make up a completely new life for themselves.
REFERENCES
Birch, S., Kelln, B. & Aquino, E. (2006). "A review and case report of pseudologia
fantastica". The Journal of Forensic Psychiatry & Psychology 17 (2): 299320.
Consciousness and Cognition, Volume 20, Issue 3, September 2011, Pages 908911
Cortex, Volume 17, Issue 2, July 1981, Pages 319322
Department of Psychology, University of Durham, South Road, Durham, UK, DHJ 3LE
Dike, C. (2008). Pathological lying: symptom or disease? Lying with no apparent motive
or benefit. Psychiatric Times, 25(7), 6773.
International Journal of Mathematics and Mathematical Sciences, Volume 2004 (2004),
Issue 29, Pages 1523-1532
Healy, M., & Healy, W. (2004). Pathological lying, Accusation And Swindling. Winnetka,
Illinois: Kessinger Publishing.

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