[15]``Beitrage zur Kenntnisse der Pseudologin phantastica.'' Viertel-jahrschrift fur gerichtliche Medicin und offentliches Sanitatswesen, 1904 Bd. XXVII; pp. 189-242.
Henneberg[16] cites another case of a highly educated young man who told wonderful stories in childhood and later obtained money under false pretenses with elaborate deception. From an eccentric grandmother, and a mother who was very excitable and suffered from hysteria, he inherited a nervous system which was not calculated to bear the strain which his own overzealous efforts in pursuing his studies and his spiritual exaltation put upon it, hence the mental and moral breakdown. This is a very interesting case because it does not fit into the usual group of pathological liars.
[16] ``Zur kasuistischen und klin. Beurteilung der Pseudologia phantastica.'' Charite-Annalen, XXV, XXVI.
Wendt[17] enlarges the field in which we may look for such cases. He finds pseudologia phantastica a symptom, not only of hysteria, alcoholism, paranoia, but also of sex repression, and neurasthenia. He takes a more philosophical view of the subject than previous authors. He understands by pseudologia phantastica not merely the bare habit of telling fantastic lies, and what they bring forth, but rather the yielding up of consciousness of reality in the presence of the morbidly fantastic wish in its widest consequences. Since the wish in order to exist is not permitted to lose entirely the conscious presentation of what it hopes for, so memory and recognition of reality emerge disconnected in consciousness, and a condition described as double consciousness arises. In this state of mind two forms of life run side by side, the actual and the desired, finally the latter becomes preponderant and decisive. Such a psychic make-up must lead unconditionally and necessarily to swindling and law breaking. A degenerative alteration furnishes the basis from which a wish or wish-complex arises, increasing in force until it becomes autosuggestion, hence it is pathological. Then follow the practical consequences, and we have developed, on the one side, pathological lying, and, on the other, swindling, i.e., criminality. Purely symptomatically pseudologia phantastica is characterized by the groundlessness of the fabrications, the heightened suggestibility of the patient, and in its wake arises double consciousness and inadequate powers of reproduction of reality.
[17] ``Ein Beitrag zur Kasuistik der Pseudologia phantastica.'' Allgemeine Zeitschrift fur Psychiatrie, LXVIII, Heft 4; pp. 482-500.
Wendt gives at length the history of a precocious boy, the son of an official of medical rank, who had lived always with older people. He lied from early childhood. He was a chronic sufferer from severe headaches. Between the ages of 15 and 17 this boy showed evidences of literary talent, but was poor in mathematics. From a tender age he had an overmastering desire to become great; he said he wished to become a jurist because only jurists get the high offices. He entered a South German university, rented a fine apartment, stated he was accustomed to a Schloss, his father was a high state official. He later called himself Graf Friedrich Gersdorf auf Blankenhain. The young man's deceits grew rapidly, he obtained much money falsely, traveled first class with a body servant. He passed to other universities, was always quiet and industrious. After many adventures he fell into the hands of the law and was adjudged insane. Most interesting was the fact that he discussed intelligently his career. ``My capacity for considering my thoughts as something really carried out in life is unfortunately too great to permit my having full conception of the boundary between appearance and reality.''
The family history of the above case included swindling, hysteria, and epilepsy. His fabricating tendency first reached its height at 14 years, thus showing the influence of puberty. Wendt regarded the etiological factors as family degeneracy, a wish-complex which in activity amounted to autosuggestion, double consciousness, and a periodical preponderance of the wished for personality.
Bresler[18] in proposing two reforms in the German ``Strafgesetzbuch'' undertook a discussion of pathological accusations, as material using cases reported by several authors. He attempted a classification as follows: 1. Deliberately false accusations based upon the pathological disposition or impulse to lie; the content of the accusation being fabricated. 2. False accusation upon a basis of pathologically disturbed perceptions or reasoning. Content of the accusation is here illusion, hallucination, or delusion. 3. Accusations correct in content, but pathologically motivated.
[18] ``Die pathologische Anschuldigung.'' Juristisch-psychiatrische Grenzfragen, Band V, Heft 8, pp. 42.
The first group nearly always is the action of hystericals, and many are centered on sex affairs. Bresler's cited cases of this class seem merely to impress the idea of revenge, or of protection from deserved punishment. A very complicated case was that of a girl who had been rejected in marriage after the discovery by her lover that she had attacks of major hysteria. She entered into a conspiracy with her mother to destroy him. She first maliciously cut grape vines and accused him and his brother of doing it. Then she slandered his whole family. A year later, suddenly appearing wounded, she accused his uncle of trying to kill her and obtained a verdict against him. Then she attempted the same with another uncle who, however, maintained an alibi. After this her role changed, for her mother summoned people to see her daughter lying with a wreath around her head, brought by an angel, with a scroll on which was inscribed ``Corona Martyri.'' The church now took her part and she toured the country as a sort of saint. Later she returned to her former tactics, she set fire to a house, cut off a cow's udder, and accused her former lover of these deeds. Now for the first time it went badly with her. She was finally imprisoned for life on account of attempts to poison people.