The Turkish Language Association defines a lie as “a statement that is untrue and does not reflect reality.” In other words, the main criterion is simply whether a statement is true, rather than whether the lie harms someone. Therefore, both a person who lies to avoid hurting someone’s feelings and a person who lies to harm others or stay out of trouble are liars. The magnitude of a lie or the harm it causes another person is a separate matter. This concerns the individual’s commitment to their own moral values.
Since the beginning of human existence, lying has been considered unacceptable in belief systems, social norms and laws alike. Of course, many people lie today; sometimes these are ordinary fabrications that seem harmless, which we call white lies, and are usually told to avoid hurting another person’s feelings. These lies, sometimes told to conceal the truth and sometimes to create a reality of one’s own, can become routine over time.
Lying, a matter of moral significance in society and across all belief systems, undermines trust and has negative effects on personal relationships. However honest we may be, everyone tells lies every day. What really matters here is not whether someone lies, but why they lie.
We usually begin telling our first lies between the ages of 4-6. Lies at this stage do not involve any particular intent or malice. However, when young children see that their first lies work, they may develop a habit of lying to avoid difficulties or get what they want.
Why do people feel the need to lie?
Broadly speaking, people may sometimes feel the need to lie to stand out in a group, protect themselves defensively in a situation, avoid hurting others or be cruel to certain people. Often, people also lie to impress someone, gain approval, find acceptance in a group, avoid consequences, feel superior, protect themselves from danger or protect others. In this way, they believe they have gained the ability both to protect their own interests and to maintain their relationships with others.
Frequent lying that becomes a cycle, with the lies gradually becoming the person’s new reality, reaches the level of an illness.
How can you recognise people who lie constantly?
Habitual lying is called pathological lying and is known in psychiatry as ‘mythomania’. Individuals with mythomania are called ‘mythomaniacs’. The term mythomania combines the Greek word muthos (myth) and the Latin word mania (madness), and the condition is also known in psychiatry as pseudologia fantastica. Although the condition was first described in 1891 by the German physician Dr. Anton Delbrueck, it has not been sufficiently researched in the years since.
Is mythomania different from white lies?
Mythomania can sometimes be confused with personality disorders. However, unlike people with personality disorders, people with mythomania do not intend to gain anything from lying. Personality disorders usually begin in childhood, whereas mythomania begins in adolescence.
How is mythomania distinguished from other conditions in a differential diagnosis?
People with mythomania do not show the intense emotional ups and downs or suicidal tendencies seen in personality disorders. Mythomania can be confused with confabulation. Confabulation involves telling fabricated stories and distorting reality. In this respect, the two are very similar. What distinguishes confabulation from mythomania is the attempt to fill gaps in memory caused by organic factors. It was first described in patients with alcohol dependence. Confabulation can occur as a result of Korsakoff syndrome, brain trauma or the rupture of blood vessels in the forebrain. In other words, unlike mythomania, it has an organic basis.
Mythomania is not listed as a separate diagnosis in the classification of psychiatric disorders. However, it can also be a feature of certain psychiatric conditions, such as obsessive-compulsive disorders, borderline personality disorder, substance dependence, impulse control problems, bipolar disorders, narcissistic personality disorder and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
Pathological lies are told frequently and compulsively, are not told for personal gain or have no apparent reason, are told continuously, and those who tell them do not fear being found out or feel guilty about telling them. Examples include describing an event as though one had experienced it when one had not, presenting an achievement one has not attained, claiming to have a terminal illness that does not exist or claiming a close acquaintance with a famous person to impress others.
While healthy individuals tell white lies for a reason, usually to get out of a difficult situation, a person with mythomania feels an intense urge to lie, which has become a psychological need, and feels relief after lying. This is the subtle distinction between the two.
How is mythomania diagnosed?
Low self-esteem and a lack of self-confidence underlie mythomania. The individual tries to compensate for these shortcomings by lying. Many people with mythomania have been found to have unstable family lives. In patients with mythomania, the sense of a false self uses defence mechanisms such as idealisation to protect the true self from the false self. The advanced stages of mythomania are neurosis and psychosis.
How can we recognise people with mythomania? What are their personality traits?
Some studies of people with mythomania have noted EEG abnormalities or epilepsy, a family predisposition to psychiatric illness or a history of head trauma. Mythomania usually begins during adolescence, when personality development accelerates, and is generally diagnosed between the ages of 20-25.
It is not always easy to identify people with mythomania. Although we may often sense that their stories are unusual enough to arouse suspicion or too implausible to be true, they are not so easy to recognise as fabrications. There are some clues that can help. These individuals usually talk about achievements that portray them as heroes, while at other times they may describe events in which they are victims to elicit sympathy. Their stories are highly detailed and cover a wide range of subjects. They answer questions about their stories very quickly and with great care, but their answers are often vague and far removed from an accurate answer to the question asked. When asked about the same story on another occasion, they give a different version and tend to deny the lie when confronted with it. As a result, they may suddenly become angry and assume the role of the victim in response to the accusation.
If lying is an illness, can it be treated?
Mythomania is generally treated with psychotherapy provided by a psychologist, and medication may also be started depending on the findings of the person’s psychiatric assessment.
Of course, during treatment and therapy, the person with mythomania needs to develop an awareness that they are ill rather than being directly told that they are a liar. Remaining calm is very important while working on awareness and recognition of harm. Once the person with mythomania accepts their illness, a treatment approach is chosen according to their condition and the process begins. In these patients, who mostly receive psychotherapy, major changes can be seen even by the end of the first session.
Mythomania, which involves unrealistic interpretations and fabrications and for which treatment is very important, can lead to severe personality disorders if left untreated. Therefore, persuading the patient to seek treatment and beginning treatment and therapy as soon as possible is very important.
Clinical Psychologist Solin Çekin
