Importantly, he, like Hall, noted that pathological liars do not always seem to have a tangible goal that their lies are tied to.
He described a condition he called pseudologia phantastica, which roughly translates to fantastical lying. Delbrück wrote about the woman and four other cases in a book he published in 1891. She was brought in for psychiatric evaluation after using a disguise to pass herself off as a man while attending an educational institution. For instance, one was a woman who traveled through Austria and Switzerland using boastful and imaginative deception to convince people at various times that she was a Spanish royal, a Romanian princess, the affluent friend of a bishop, and an impoverished medical student. He had a handful of patients who exhibited an unusual pattern of pervasive dishonesty. The highly-regarded German psychiatrist, Anton Delbrück, worked at several insane asylums in Europe. He noted that while the lies may start off in the service goals such as attention, thrills, or material gain, pathological liars can, in a sense, lose themselves in their lies and begin to tell lies that offer no obvious incentives.Īcross the Atlantic at the same time, another researcher was tackling the concept of pathological lying. That is not to say that it is caused by these disorders, but rather it forms a part of them. Personality disorders as mentioned above, this form of lying can be associated with various types of personality disorder. The term he used for this insane tendency to lie was pseudomania. Here are just a few of the more common reasons for compulsive and pathological lying: 1.