Marty Prehn: Pseudologia Fantastica Case Study

While Wikipedia is far from the end-all resource to diagnosis a serious mental disorder, it's contributors most often aggregate external reputable experts and cite those sources.  For our purposes, that's good enough.

The defining characteristics of pseudologia fantastica are:

"The stories told are usually dazzling or fantastical, but never breach the realm of reality. The possibility of truth is key to the pathological liar's survival. They are not a manifestation of delusion or some broader type of psychosis: upon confrontation, the teller can admit them to be untrue, even if unwillingly.

The fabricative tendency is chronic; it is not provoked by the immediate situation or social pressure as much as it is an innate trait of the personality. There is some element of dyscontrol present.

A definitely internal, not an external, motive for the behavior can be discerned clinically: e.g., long-lasting extortion or habitual spousal battery might cause a person to lie repeatedly, without the lying being a pathological symptom.

The stories told tend toward presenting the liar favorably. The liar "decorates their own person" by telling stories that present them as the hero or the victim. For example, the person might be presented as being fantastically brave, knowing or being related to many famous people, or claiming they earn more income than they do.

Pseudologia fantastica may also present as false memory syndrome, where the sufferer genuinely believes that fictitious events have taken place, regardless that these events are fantasies. The sufferer may believe that he or she has committed superhuman acts of altruism and love or has committed equally grandiose acts of diabolical evil, for which the sufferer must atone, or has already atoned for in her/his fantasies.

Lying is the act of both knowingly and intentionally/willfully making a false statement. Most people do so out of fear. Normal lies are defensive, and are told to avoid the consequences of truth telling. They are often white lies that spare another's feelings, reflect a pro-social attitude, and make civilized human contact possible. 

Pathological lying is considered a mental illness, because it takes over rational judgment and progresses into the fantasy world and back. Pathological lying can be described as a habituation of lying. It is when an individual consistently lies for no personal gain. The lies are commonly transparent and often seem rather pointless.

There are many consequences of being a pathological liar. Due to lack of trust, most pathological liars' relationships and friendships fail. If the disease continues to progress, lying could become so severe as to cause legal problems, including but not limited to fraud.

Psychotherapy appears to be one of the only methods to treat a person suffering from pathological lying. No research has been performed regarding the use of pharmaceutical medication to treat pathological liars.  Some research suggests that certain people may have a “predisposition to lying”. A study showed that pathological liars had increased white matter volumes in the orbitofrontal, inferior frontal, and middle frontal cortexes compared to control groups. There is a counter-argument saying long-term training may cause regional increase in white matter volume, and the repeated activation may cause permanent changes in brain chemistry. It could be either a genetic condition, or an environmentally induced one. Further research is needed on this subject to determine the cause.

Pathological lying is a complex phenomenon, differing from other mental illnesses. It has many life-changing consequences for those who must live with the illness. Currently, there is not enough research in the area of pathological lying to guarantee a cure."

Remind you of anyone?