At the time when we
were studying his case his prevaricating tendencies were shown in
the manufacture of long and complicated stories, in the center of
which he himself posed as the chief actor. These phantasies were
told to people, such as ourselves, who could easily ascertain
their falsehood, and they were told after there had been a
distinct understanding that anything which showed unreliability
on his part would militate against his own strongly avowed
desires and interests. After special chances had been given this
boy with the understanding that all that was necessary for him to
do was to alter his behavior in respect to lying, on more than
one occasion new fabrications were evolved in the same interview
that Robert had begged in fairly tragic fashion to be helped to
cure himself of his inclination to falsify.
A great love of the dramatic was always displayed by this boy,
which may largely account for the evolution of his lying into
long and complicated stories. When truant one day he boldly
visited the school for truants, and when under probation, after
having fallen into the hands of the police two or three times, he
impersonated a policeman.
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