There Are People Who Have A Habit Of Lying
There are people who have lying as a habit. In fact, by statistics, most of us know one. These people do not usually recognize that they have this habit, as it is socially condemned. But it is a fact that with so much practice many have already reached perfection. Furthermore, internally these people understand that lying can be a resource, equal and as valid as others, if it doesn’t hurt anyone and if it can’t be discovered.
From pious lying to compulsive lying
Since we’re little we’ve been told a lot that if we lie “our nose will grow like Pinocchio’s nose” and that it’s a very big sin not to tell the truth. It’s also not uncommon, however, that when we grow up we end up embracing the theory that a little lie “doesn’t hurt anyone”, which changes a little the child’s view that lying is always a big sin.
In this evolution, there are people who go beyond the limits of what would be considered normal and become uncontrolled liars. So many questions come up; “do they do it on purpose?”, “do they notice the things they say?”, “do they know the harm they do to others?”. Unfortunately in most cases the answer is no. And worst of all is that if we try to help, we are rejected, as in that case we would further increase the lie.
Pathological lies, from cinema to real life
There are not many scientific studies that can explain the reasons why a person suffers from mitomania. Mythomania is the pathological tendency or inclination to fable or transform the reality of explaining any fact. The representations in cinema are, however, numerous. For example, the movie Taxi Driver , in which Robert de Niro plays a young taxi driver who writes a letter to his parents saying that he is actually working on a secret project for the government and that he is committed to a woman.
A story that was not born out of fiction, but real, is that of Tania Head (her real name is Alicia Esteve). Tania was a young woman born in Barcelona who said that on September 11, 2001, she was on the 78th floor of the south tower of the World Trade Center at the time of the explosions.
She even showed the alleged wounds suffered in the attack, and narrated the facts in great detail. In 2007 The New York Times revealed that it was a fraud, and later a famous Spanish television channel issued a document about it, called “September 11 – I made it all up”. It is still not possible to find out what reasons led the girl to lie: some say it was to become famous, others because the lie for her is not very different from the truth.
How do you know if someone lies pathologically?
Why should we be wary of a pathological lie? Basically because it is based on a lack of control on the part of whoever invented it. A person suffering from mitomania may even have brain and central nervous system problems or abnormalities. That wouldn’t be an excuse that would allow the person to keep lying, but it’s something to be aware of when we come across a fantastic fantasy story.
