Am J Psychiatry 1988; 145:554-562
Copyright © 1988 by American Psychiatric Association

SPECIAL ARTICLES

Lies and liars: psychiatric aspects of prevarication

CV Ford, BH King and MH Hollender
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Little Rock 72205.

The authors discuss the phenomenon of lying, a common psychic process that has received remarkably little scrutiny. The ubiquity of lying and others forms of deception suggests that they have "normal" aspects, but lying which is persistent or destructive to the quality of a person's life becomes pathological. Lying has many determinants, including developmental, biological, social, and psychodynamic. Antisocial, histrionic, narcissistic, borderline, and compulsive personalities have been associated with lying. The treatment of lying needs to be individualized according to the overall symptom complex in which it is embedded.

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