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How do you know somebody may have a genuine problem with truthfulness?
Friday, 19 December 2008 00:55
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You know I’ve met very few people that come close to meeting the definition of Pathological Liar in the clinical sense. By and large, I believe most people only lie when they feel like they are in a box; and they perceive rightly or wrongly, that telling a lie will help the situation in some way.

But I’ve had the misfortune to have come across a person recently whose behavior has been so off the wall and incomprehensible that I took to Google to see what kind of disorders might fit, and this hit it on the nail (although I suppose it’s coupled with a couple of other disorders in this person’s case). The traits from this article are what psychologists define as a “pathological liar” – which is a term you hear a lot on TV and what not, but one I certainly couldn’t have defined for you yesterday.

  • Lie to control and get their own way
  • Often change stories
  • Exaggerate, lying about almost everything, but tell the truth about major ones
  • Not value truth
  • Live in their own reality most of the time
  • Behave defensively when questioned or challenged
  • Lie for sympathy
  • Don’t admit they lie
  • Contradict what they say because they don’t remember their lies, although there are exceptions

    You can read the whole article here: What Are Pathological Liars?: Are they Different from Compulsive Liars? I wonder if people like this can get help?  The scary thing is to realize that these people really do exist – and that unless you are aware of that, and accept the possibility that people you meet, befriend, do business with, etc - may actually be like this – you are putting yourself in the position of becoming an easy target.
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