Pseudologia Fantastica

Emily DeCoster

Psych 359

April 22nd, 2002

I became interested in pathological lying after working a year in retail. Complete strangers would tell me their life stories while I made them cappuccinos, and then attempt to get me to do the same while I rang up their purchases. It was not bad at first, but after awhile it became boring. Most of these people were one-time customers, so since I knew that I would never see them again, I decided to have some fun. Some days I would be an environmental studies major from Louisville. Other days I was a student from Harrison High School. I would make up small biographies about myself, such as having six brothers or living with a great-aunt because all of my immediate family had been killed in a plane crash. The response was usually the same: "Oh." These people didn't care; they were just trying to make small talk while waiting for their change.

However, this often made me think of people who lie all the time. What led them to do it? Was it boredom, like me, or something more pathological? I flipped through the DSM-IV, but there was nothing in the manual about either Pseudologica Fantastica or pathological lying, its more common name. This made me rather curious, so I decided to research it further. In this paper, I will first describe the disorder. Next I will discuss some of the reasons that people lie. Then I will discuss possible causes for lying, including as a symptom of other disorders, neurological causes, and possible reasons based in childhood. Then I will discuss possible treatments. Finally, I will discuss how pathological lying relates to other disorders, such as Munchausen syndrome and Walter Mitty disorder.

Everyone lies. It is normal and accepted in our society. However, sometimes lying goes too far. When it disrupts normal development or destroys the everyday life of someone involved, it becomes pathological (Ford et al, p 555). Lying, says Wiersma, is a continuum, with everyday, so called "normal" lying at one end and pathological or pseudologia on the opposite end of the spectrum (p 48-61).

In 1951, Richard Asher defined pseudologia fantastica as a patient's "intense desire to deceive everybody as much as possible. Many of their falsehoods seem to have little point. They lie for the sake of lying. They give false addresses, false names, and false occupations merely from a love of falsehoods (p 339)." Selling defined a pathological liar as

a person having a constellation of symptoms cause by a disease of the total personality characterized psychologically by a very definite tendency to tell untruths about matters which perhaps could be easily verified and which untruths may serve no obvious purpose either in the personality of the individual or in the situation which he finds himself (p. 335-350).

There are many different reasons for lying, according to Ford et al., with its main reasons being its effect: "to have an impact on the environment by influencing others (p 557)." Howver, there are several other more subtle reasons.

One reason is autonomy. When a person feels too controlled or intruded upon by another, he or she may lie to maintain or regain independence (p 557). A good example of this would be a teenager lying to a demanding, overbearing parent who constantly wants to know the child's whereabouts and activities.

Another reason of lying is aggressiveness or to gain power over others. It has often been said that knowledge is power; therefore, by lying to another (giving them false information), an individual gains control over him or her. Additionally, lying may be used to gain power over someone's surroundings, thereby denying a sense of weakness. Sadism may also be involved, as the liar enjoys belittling another and revels in the superiority he may feel over him (p 558).

Lying can be used as denial or repression. If a lie is repeated often enough, it may come to be believed by both the liar and the individual being lied to. Over time, the lie will seem like the truth, and the actual events will come to feel like a false memory. Thus, painful or embarrassing memories may be supressed until such a time that the person is able to confront and consequently deal with that actually happened (p 558). This may be evident in rape or abuse cases, where the victim comes to blame herself for the incident or deny that it ever really happened.

Another reason for lying is for wish fulfillment or regulation of self-esteem (p 558). Examples of this include lying about achievements to impress a friend, or lying about the recent end of a relationship (i.e., "I left him because he wasn't smart enough," when actually the liar was the one who was left), because it is too painful or depressing to admit that she was not right for that person.

However, the reasons for lying may not always be that simple and clearcut. They often are combined to create a better method of coping.

Rosalie Wells points out that lying is extremely common among psychopathic personalities. "[T]hey not only deliberately employ lies to avoid blame and escape punishment but to impress others. They derive personal satisfaction and take pride in their ability to tell the most outrageous lies convincingly…. The successful psychopath is not just a compulsive liar, but a practiced liar (p 851)."

Ford et al. agrees with this theory that pathological lying is frequently evident in personality disorders such as the antisocial, histrionic, narcissistic, borderline, and compulsive disorders.

With respect to antisocial personality disorder, one of the main qualifications of its diagnosis is persistent lying (p 559). This is possibly because they do not respect or care about others enough to tell them the truth. Related to this disorder is substance abuse, of which denial and repression (both reasons for lying) are key components.

People who suffer from histrionic personality disorder lie mainly for attention, and the bigger the lie that he or she can convincingly get away with, the better. Therefore, to be a successful histrionic person, the person must be extroverted and a good actor. Ford et al. note that "[c]asual lies to the person with histrionic personality disorder are what license is to the poet, and a certain disdain for facts needs to be distinguished from a deliberate and conscious effort to distort them (p 559)." A histrionic person does not necessarily mean to lie, but just gets so caught up in the story that the tale ends up riddled with falsehoods.

Narcissists have yet a different spin on lying. They are the important ones; therefore, they must be the best at all times. If they must lie to appear this way, so be it, as narcissists tend to be so egocentric that they have little concern for how their lies affect others (p 559-560).

People with borderline personality disorder, again, have entirely different reasons for lying. Since they often crave attention at the expense of their own bodies, they often simultaneously have Munchausen syndrome, a disorder that I will discuss later, or factitious illness (p 560). These kinds of people are clearly lying to gain power over others; by fooling people into taking care of them, they exude superiority over their unknowing victims.

In the fifth disorder, compulsive personality disorder, lying is also done for control, but in this case it is control over one's own life, not others. Falsehoods are told out of a sense of secrecy and to remain independent, and they are often not meant to hurt others, as in the other personality disorders (p 560). This type of lying is best summed up by the following sentiments: "It's not important, and it's none of your business, so why should I tell you the truth?"

There may also be a neurological basis for lying. An example is the confabulation seen with Korsakoff's disorder (a disorder brought on by years of heavy drinking), but since there is no intent to deceive, it is not technically lying. It may, however, provide insights into why exactly people lie pathologically (Ford et al., p 556).

The frontal lobe is thought to be connected to lying. Joseph theorized that when the speech area of the nondominant cerebral hemisphere cannot get to the needed information, other information is substituted. And if this area is also separated from other parts of the brain, such as a section that controls judgment, then the person doesn't realize the absurdity and untruthfulness of what he is saying. This gap in functioning may be due to a number of causes, including head trauma and seizures (Ford et al., p 556).

Besides neurological and personality disorder causes, a person's current emotional state and cognitive style may have something to do with pathological lying. There are two relevant styles put forth by Shapiro: hysterical and obsessive-compulsive. For hysterical people, details are not important; "the truth is defined by what feels right at the moment (Ford et al., p 556)." With obsessive-compulsive people, details are overwhelmingly important, leading them to lie about the overall situation (p 556).

Another cause of lying may be found in a person's childhood. Aldrich, in response to a paper by Ford et al., mentions that a person's decision to lie, rather than manifesting his problems in other ways, is determined by the expectioatns of his parents regarding a specific behavior (p 405). Ford et al. Address this by looking at how the parents dealt with the child's lie - either by punishing her or by dismissing them as cute, thus sending her the message that lying is okay. Also, the child's environment must be examined. If she was repeatedly lied to or was made promises that were frequently broken, then she will be more likely to lie (p 557).

The values of the child's culture and subculture must be looked at, as some value honesty more than others. Additionally, some gangs value "smartness," which is defined as being able to con people to get what the person wants (p 557).

One more cause for lying, as mentioned earlier, is traumatic experiences. The victim cannot deal with the event(s) that occurred, so he lies to avoid confrontation (p 557).

Treatment for lying is difficult. The vast majority of people will not willingly seek treatment and must therefore by coerced into it, which does not work well for therapy, since that is usually only successful when the person sincerely wants to change. As mentioned throughout this paper, lying is usually a symptom of a larger, more complex problem. As such, the main problem must be the reason for the treatment.

There are several approaches for this. Weinshel thought that lies could be helpful in recreating traumatic events. Kernberg believed that lying must be dealt with immediately before progress could be made on the main problem. However, most agree that whatever is used must be tailored to the individual in order to be effective. Likely methods include "behavior modification, shaping, environmental interventions, and group and insight-oriented psychotherapy (Ford et al., p 561)."

One disorder that pseudologia fantastica plays a large part in is Munchausen syndrome, which is when a person purposefully injures himself for attention. This person has many scars from previous surgeries that were performed on his in numerous different hospitals, often located all over the country. He also has a large enough knowledge of medicine that he can fool doctors for awhile.

The disorder is named after the main character in the 1785 R. E. Raspe book, Singular Travels, Campaigns, and Adventures of Baron Munchausen, who is depicted in it as a trickster (Amirault, p 178). Thus people who have this disorder are also often seen as tricksters, which presents a dilemma when one considers the severity of the problems associated with the disorder. These people seem to thrive on unnecessary operations, which is dangerous in itself, but they may also take their frustrations out on their loved ones, such as their children, who cannot fight back and often may die as a result.

These people are difficult to catch, although it is being made easier in today's computerized world, where doctor can look at the patient's record of past hospital stays. Another thing that may tip off doctors is the people's extremely superior medical knowledge.

This is directly in contrast with another related disorder: Walter Mitty syndrome. This disorder is usually laughed at, but it serves to prove that doctors have a sense of humor. It is named after a story by James Thurber entitled "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty." The main character is an ordinary man with an overactive imagination. He fantasizes about being a world famous doctor, yet he knows nothing about medicine, so he makes everything up. The syndrome is immediately exposed as a fake by anyone with a medical background (Amirault, p 180-181).

In conclusion, pseudologia fantastica is a fascinating topic. There are many reasons for lying, the main one being that a person is using someone else to get what they want. It manifests itself as a symptom of many disorders, including personality disorders and Munchausen syndrome. The exact causes are not known, but they include neurological damage and ideas that were formed in childhood. Treatment is difficult yet possible.

I would like to find more information on pathological lying, as it greatly interests me. I also wish that the DSM-IV would mention it, along with the Abnormal Psychology textbook, at least as more than a quick passing reference as part of another disorder. I think that if pathological lying were to get more attention that way, it would be the focus of more research and therefore I could find out more about it. I also plan to come up with more elaborate stories to entertain myself while working over the summer.

Resources

Aldrich, C. Knight. Letter to the Editor. American Journal of Psychiatry vol 146, issue 3, March 1989, p 405.

Amirault, Chris. "Pseudologica Fantastica and Other Tall Tales: The Contagious Literature of Munchausen Syndrome." Literature and Medicine vol 14, issue 2, 1995, p 169-190.

Asher, Richard. "Munchausen's Syndrome," Lancet, vol 1, 1951, p 339.

Ford, C. V. The Somatizing Disorders: Illness as a Way of Life. Elsevier, New York, 1983

Ford, Charles V., Brian H. King, and Marc H. Hollander. "Lies and Liars: Psychiatric Aspects of Prevarication." American Journal of Psychiatry vol 145, issue 5, May 1988, p 554-561.

Joseph, R. "Confabulation and delusional denial: frontal lobe and lateralized influences." Journal of Clinical Psychology vol 42, 1986, p 507-520.

Kernberg, O. Borderline Conditions and Pathological Narcissism. Jason Aronson, New York, 1975.

Shapiro, D. Neurotic Styles. Basic Books, New York, 1965.

Wells, Rosalie. "A Fresh Look at the Muddy Waters of Psychopathy." Psychological Reports vol 63, 1988, p 843-856.

Wiersma, D. "On pathological lying." Character and Personality, vol 2, issue 1, 1933, p 48-61.