There are many motivations and different environmental factors that can lead to lying, yet for some there is no reason. The difference between lying with a motive and without one, is what differentiates normal or common lying from pathological lying. Normal lying has a transparent purpose, which is commonly to protect others, guilt, or to gain something. Pathological lying would consist of excessive lying, commonly by people who tell lies for personal benefit; yet this does not dictate a person’s diagnosis of being a pathological liar. Usually pathological liars will find controlling their lies unachievable and sometimes have no reason or gain from lying. It is important to note that there are different perspectives on what characteristics and symptoms create pathological lying.
There are different subtypes of pathological lying known as Pseudologia Phantastica, liars by habit, lying and impulse control disorder, people who live their lives by lying, and Munchausen Syndrome ( Jočić et al, 219). Pseudologia Phantastica is the behavior of compulsive lying. Liars by habit tend to lie superficially and easily recognize their lies, they also are often found to have learning difficulties. Lying and impulse control disorders consist of behaviors such as gambling and compulsive shopping, in order to hide their compulsions many of these people will lie. People who live their lives by lying would mean people who change their identity in order to be able to present themselves as important, otherwise known as imposters. Lastly Munchausen syndrome by Proxy is known as the syndrome that causes people to lie about new symptoms of a disease in order to get attention and care. Pathological lying can be considered a symptom of another disorder or can stand on its own.
Pathological lying has been debated over for a while, some believe it is a symptom and others a syndrome etc. The DSM-IV has pathological lying labeled as a symptom of a factitious disorder but in the DSM-V it is left out. The American Psychiatric Association has considered pathological lying to be complying with the criteria for impulse control disorders. Due to the lack of impulse when lying, it is easy to question whether the individual recognizes whether or not they lie. It has ben found by C.C. Dike et al. that those who suffer from pathological lying will maintain logical thinking and can see something isn’t true when strongly confronted. This comes into play when separating pathological lying from confabulation and delusion. A confabulation is an expression of an unconscious feeling of a person that they have gaps in their memory, which must be compensated with an imaginary experience (Jočić et al, 221). While some may whole-heartedly believe in the content of their lies, they are not delusional, due to their ability to recognize the truth. Pathological lying is still an understudied subject and continues to leave unanswered questions such as: what causes someone to become a pathological liar?
In a study done by Yaling Yang et al. 108 volunteers were drawn from five different temporary employment agencies in Los Angeles. The groups were consisted of eleven males and one female whom had histories of lying and 21 (15 male and 6 female) controls who didn’t have antisocial personality disorder nor history of pathological lying. Lastly there were 16 antisocial controls, 15 male and 1 female, who had antisocial personality disorder but no history of pathological lying. None of the volunteers were under 21 or over 45 years of age, all spoke English, and had no history of epilepsy, claustrophobia, a pace-maker or metal implants. (Yang et al., 2005). The assessment of lying was determined by the following:
“(a) criteria for pathological lying on the Psychopathy Checklist- Revised( PCL-R; Hare, 1991); or (b) criteria for conning/manipulative behavior on the PCL-r; or the deceitfulness criterion for DSM-IV (American Psychiatric Association, 1994) antisocial personality disorder (lifelong repeated lying, use of aliases or conning others for personal profit or please); or (d) criteria for malingering as indicated by admitting to telling lies to obtain sick-ness benefits in a self-report crime interview” (Yang et al., 2005).
Participants had become part of the first study to reveal brain abnormality in people who lie, cheat, and manipulate. Yang et al. found that liars had an increased amount of white matter and reduced grey-to-white ratios of brain matter. Compared to the normal controls, “liars had a 22.2% increase in prefrontal white matter and a 41.7% decrease in grey/white ratio, and compared to antisocial controls they showed a 25.7% white matter increase and a 35.7% decrease in prefrontal grey/white ratio” (Yang et al., 2005). Their working hypothesis is that the increase of prefrontal white matter will provide an individual with the cognitive capacity to lie.
From a psychodynamic perspective, pathological lying may be implicated due to the need to preserve one’s identity and defend themselves from reality. The experiences and environment can influence the way a person will express their feelings, whether they be true or not. A person may create a false self, which is characterized by excessive pride, manipulations, and idealizations. In Susan Harter’s The Construction of the Self: A Developmental Perspective, it states the false self may be formed or influenced in one’s childhood. Harter explains that parents may contribute to the creation of a false self by denying or rejecting their child’s true self. Essentially, a person may feel that they only get praise or recognition when they are portraying their false self, therefor they may have low self-worth due to not being able to show their real identity. This could explain why people may become pathological liars. Due to the lack of support and feelings or unworthiness a person may create a worthy identity in order to create the sense that they are important and protect themselves from the chance of rejection of their true self.
Since pathological lying is still a very understudied topic, there aren’t any guidelines for how to treat a patient who experiences pathological lying. It may be recommended for a patient to seek psychotherapy, psychopharmacotherapy, or both, in which a person would go through a type of talk therapy, whether it be group or a one-on-one session, or be treated with psychoactive drugs. The goal of these treatments would be to control the impulsivity that a patient will experience. If pathological lying is a symptom of another mental disorder, then they should seek treatment for the primary disorder. This can include the same kind of treatment depending on what disorder they are found to have.
In order to understand why pathological lying is an understudied topic, one must understand that pathological liars are not known to step forward to receive treatment. As a person that has their whole life revolving around the lies they tell, it would become difficult to notice what you’re doing is wrong. The first step to treatment is recognizing the problem that one faces. Without the ability to step forward there can be no progress, which is why there aren’t any treatment guidelines for pathological lying. Along with stepping up, most psychologist have a hard time conducting studies due to the type of patients they are observing or experimenting with. Pathological liars are called liars for a reason, a researcher may not get they answers they want because their subjects may not be giving them truthful answers. On the other hand, a researcher may get exactly what they want because of how they interpret what their subjects say.
As much as people wish, they cannot always decipher when a person is lying or when they aren’t. No person can detect every lie that they are told, based on our experiences we tend to judge truth differently. The kind of relationships we’ve had in the past and the lies we may have heard before can alter our judgment into believing someone is telling the truth or believing that they are lying, when in fact they may not be. Some people may be better at lying than others and may go undetected in their lies.
In order to create a more in-depth knowledge of pathological liars researchers should focus on known cases and talk with those who knew the subject. It is possible that this will be subject to bias, but everything is. By talking with those around a person who is known to have attributes associated with pathological lying, then they may be able to determine what kind of lifestyle this person had/has. This would include a further look into the types of relationships that person had with their parents, the kind of school environment they learned in and whether or not they felt safe, and the possibility of discovering if that person had/has a different percentage of white matter in their brain than found in average persons.
Along with looking at cases of pathological liars that don’t seem to have another mental disorder that contributes to those symptoms, researchers should still continue in-depth studies of those who have pathological lying as a symptom of their disorder. This symptom still creates lies with no true reason. It is essential to continue to study it as a symptom in order to construct a line between pathological lying as a symptom and as a disorder. While studying pathological lying as a symptom, researchers may find other contributions for the need to lie other than the primary disorder.
Pathological lying differs greatly from common lying, yet they both consist of fabricated stories. It is an issue that people may face, whether it is a result of another mental disorder or is classified as it’s own disorder. Studies are limited and do not show the full picture of what causes someone to become a pathological liar. In order to create better treatments and a better understanding of pathological lying, researchers need to continue studies and do their best to remain objective.