Pathological liars, or "mythomaniacs," often suffer from histrionic personality disorder or narcissistic personality disorder (which we have discussed at length). The following symptoms are common among pathological liars:
1. Exaggerates things that are ridiculous (like claiming that 11,000 people visited his website in the middle of the night).
2. One-upping. Whatever you do, this person can do it better. You will never top them in their own mind, because they have a concerted need to be better than everyone else. (Like claiming they are better than newspapers):
"we have done what they have not done in a long time. And that is become a better advocate for the people"
This also applies to being right. If you try to confront an individual like this, no matter how lovingly and well-intentioned you might be - this will probably not be effective. It's threatening their fantasy of themselves, so they would rather argue with you and would rather bring out sharp knives than admit that there's anything wrong with them.
3. They "construct" a reality around themselves. They don't value the truth. If you call them on a lie and they are backed into a corner, they will act very defensively and say ugly things (like threatening to post nasty things about your personal life) They often try to refocus the conversation to your wrongdoing instead of theirs (like claiming to be the victim).
4. Because these people don't value honesty, a lot of times they will not value loyalty. So watch what you tell them. They will not only tell others, but they will embellish to make you look worse. Their loyalty is fleeting, and because they are insecure people, they will find solace in confiding to whomever is in their favor at the moment (like Christina Delgadillo of Carl Griffith).
5. They will contradict what they say (like saying one thing one week and then two weeks later saying something else). This will become very clear over time. They usually aren't smart enough to keep track of so many lies (Which is why they failed out of college).
In future sessions, we will discuss how to treat pathological liars.
Dr. Lucy Van Pelt
