Identifying a Pathological Liar

Assalamualaikum and a good day to all umplife forumer.

Since there isn't any topic started here in this section, I've found some article that is rather good for us; university level students from the internet to read and learn something from it.

Try to read and understand it. It is something that's worth your attention. I dare say that this topic would fall under Soft Skills subject in our university. We're students currently pursuing our degrees in various field and would eventually blend with the society and would end up mixing with 1001 people with different behaviour regardless of their origin, position, skin colour, nor religion.


Its about Identifying a Pathological Liar.


Partially, Identifying means analyzing, Pathological means a person who is unable to control part of their behaviour, while liar means someone who cheats or tell lies.

Pathological liars, or "mythomaniacs," may be suffering from histrionic
personality disorder or narcissistic personality disorder. The
following comments basically reflect a pathological liar who has the
characteristics of histrionic personality disorder.

Some characteristics:

1. Exaggerates things that are ridiculous.

2. One-upping. Whatever you do, this person can do it better. You will
never top them in their own mind, because they have a concerted need to
be better than everyone else. This also applies to being right. If you
try to confront an individual like this, no matter how lovingly and
well-intentioned you might be - this will probably not be effective.
It's threatening their fantasy of themselves, so they would rather
argue with you and bring out the sharp knives than admit that there's
anything wrong with them.

3. They "construct" a reality around themselves. They don't value the
truth, especially if they don't see it as hurting anyone. If you call
them on a lie and they are backed into a corner, they will act very
defensively and say ugly things (most likely but depends on
personality), but they may eventually start to act like, "Well, what's
the difference? You're making a big deal out of nothing!" (again, to
refocus the conversation to your wrongdoing instead of theirs).

4. Because these people don't value honesty, a lot of times they will
not value loyalty. So watch what you tell them. They will not only tell
others, but they will embellish to make you look worse. Their loyalty
is fleeting, and because they are insecure people, they will find
solace in confiding to whomever is in their favor at the moment.

5. They may be somewhat of a hypochondriac. This can come in especially
useful when caught in a lie, for example, they can claim that they have
been sick, or that there's some mysteriously "illness" that has them
all stressed out. It's another excuse tool for their behavior.

6. Obviously, they will contradict what they say. This will become very
clear over time. They usually aren't smart enough to keep track of so
many lies (who would be?).

Here are some ways to tell someone is a pathological liar contributed by another WikiAnswers Contributor:

* They lie about even the smallest things. For example, saying "I brushed my teeth today," when they didn't.

* They add exaggerations to every sentence.

* They change their story all the time.

* They act very defensively when you question their statements.

* They believe what they say is true, when everyone else knows it isn't.

Here's an alternate "checklist":

* Lies when it is very easy to tell the truth.

* Lies to get sympathy, to look beter, to save their butt, etc.

* Fools people at first but once they get to know him, no one believes anything they ever say.

* May have a personality disorder.

* Extremely manipulative.

* Has been caught in lies repeatedly.

* Never fesses up to the lies.

* Is a legend in their own mind.

Here are more opinions and other input from WikiAnswers Contributors:

* I have found a few differences in pathological liar and a "slime
ball" liar. Pathological liars cannot tell that they are lying they
actually believe the lie as soon as it comes out of their mouth. They
lie about unimportant things that don't really matter to anyone. This
can be caused by mental defect but isn't always. Slime-ball liars lie
about things that make them look better or embellish to get attention.
They also lie to keep their butts out of trouble and to get what they
want.

* Here are things to ask yourself: How could this many things happen to
one person? Would believe these stories if someone else told you? Think
back to the beginning: you had red flags and alarms going off in you
head. Learn to trust your instincts.

* It is very hard to tell when one is a pathological liar. Some people
just are liars and lie to lie because they can and they don't care
about getting caught and aware that you know they have lied. These
people care not about lying, it's no big deal. It's like "ok, so what?
I lied". The pathological liar on the other hand, IS aware that they
are lying BUT will go to extremes to make you believe that they are
truthful. They appear to believe their own lies BUT in truth, they know
their lies are just that, lies. But because their efforts are
constantly backing up their lies, it appears to us that they actually
believe their lies, when we eventually do find out about them and then
we tend to feel sorry for these people. Then they have an excuse, "I am
sick, I don't know why I lie, I believed what I was saying etc." The
only truth was the fact that they don't know why they lie. Other than
that it's crap. It is true that most of them have an extremely low
sense of self worth and are continuously trying to make themselves feel
better about THEMSELVES and this is one reason they lie. It is about
them but the lies are not always set up with the purpose to hurt some
one else; it's that these people feel so low about themselves they need
to create ANYTHING different from the ugly reality they feel about
themselves so they lie about even the most tiniest little thing. The
people closest to them get sucked into these lies which sometimes start
as something very trivial and then turn into something that can turn
everyone involved worlds upside down and inside out.

* Unmasking the pathological liar is an easier task when the
pathological liar is no more than a casual acquaintence to the
"un-masker." Close relationships provide camouflage for the
pathological liar, and intimacy provides a heavily-fortressed breeding
ground.

* Other indicators: 1) Rage attacks after they realize you're
questioning their lies. 2) Distraction techniques, e.g. hanging up the
phone when you catch them in lie, playing word games, or even just
running out of the room. After using the distraction technique, or rage
attack, or sometimes both, they will pretend that nothing ever
happened. They re-write history, so it never did happen in their minds.
Normal people do it too, but these people take it to the extreme.

* From "Go Ask Alice": Lies are unplanned and impulsive. Behavior is
repeated over a long period of time. Lies don't seem to exist for any
external reason. Behavior may not always be a conscious act. Lies are
admitted, changed, and/or adapted if a false story is challenged.

* From Andrea Broadbent "The Truth about Truman": To begin, the
definition of pathological actually means abnormal or grossly atypical.
Therefore, a pathological liar prevaricates more frequently than the
average person or tells more abnormal lies. In most cases, pathological
liars tell lies that are "unplanned and impulsive" (Hausman). These
lies are usually very emotional stories that tend to serve no purpose
except to impress people (Ford 133). As of now, psychiatrists are
unsure whether or not pathological liars are fully capable of realizing
if and when they are lying, so detecting whether or not a person is a
pathological liar is a very difficult task (Hausman). By looking at the
list of conditions commonly connected with people considered to be
pathological liars, psychiatrists are better able to determine whether
or not a person might actually have the disorder. Some main qualities
linked with pathological liars include dysfunctional family origin,
family lying patterns, anomalies of sexual life, frequent substance
abuse, and a great capacity for language.

* From Raymond Lloyd Richmond, Ph.D. "Psychological Honesty": Even a
pathological liar carries deep in his heart a desire for goodness and
honesty and yet, because of painful emotional wounds, believes that the
world never has, and never will, recognize his pain. And so, to hide
that pain from himself, he uses all the lies he can concoct to hurl at
the world as he runs in fear from his own goodness.


note: taken from facebook.com

hoh, panjang gilor, tolon translateee...hehe

good one. the thing is, most of people are Pathological liar..me? i'm not sure. lol. ahaks

haha. me? depends on the circumstances.

bcoz there are times that u need to lie. well, that's what i think tho.

Well, judging from the description above, I'm a hell of a pathological liar. Heck, Maybe I'm even legendary! Hahahaha...

Anyways, achievements after achievements is getting to my head too much. Guess need to re-evaluate my life, again.

haha. frankly, i have more than half of the attributes stated up there. well actually most of them were subconsciously came out of me.

its inevitable! XD