This is only part of the
whole matter of sex experience which, we find upon gathering our
material together, plays such an enormous role.
Age of Onset. It is very easy to see that the tendency to
pathological lying begins in the early formative years.
Common-sense observation of general character building would tend
to make us readily believe that if an individual got through the
formative years of life with a normal hold upon veracity he would
never become a pathological liar. We can see definite beginnings
at certain critically formative periods, as in Case 6 and perhaps
in Case 3, but our material shows that most cases demonstrate
more gradually insidious beginnings. (Case 21 is in this respect
in a class by itself.) As we stated in our introduction, it is
clear from the previous studies of older individuals that the
nature of the beginnings were not learned because it was too
late. Our material offers unusual opportunities in this
direction and shows the fact of genesis in childhood most
clearly. For specific and often most interesting details we
refer the reader to our various case histories.
Sex. Our findings show only 1 male out of 19 mentally normal
cases.
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