wat is the meaning of a pathological liar?

Answer 1

Well pathology refers to "disease" so a pathological liar is someone who has a lying disease. That means that they can not control it and they will even lie for no reason. They just lie all the time.

Answer 2

A pathological liar is someone who often embellishes his or her stories in a way that he or she believes will impress people. It may be that a pathological liar is different from a normal liar in that a pathological liar believes the lie he or she is telling to be true—at least in public—and is "playing" the role. He or she sometimes is seen to have a serious mental problem that needs to be rectified.

It is not clear, however, that this is the case. It could also be that pathological liars know precisely what they are doing. Making up stories and at the same time believing them is known as confabulation. The term "pathological liar" is not an official clinical diagnosis however psychiatrists may agree that pathological lying is often the result of a mental disorder or low self-esteem.

Even though pathological lying is not recognized as a clinical disorder, legal court cases often require that you prove that the defendant is aware that he or she is lying. This proof is most important in cases of slander and/or liability. Pathological liars often actually convince themselves that they are telling the truth, which in turn can alter polygraph tests and other questioning.

When caught in a lie, pathological liars tend to become hostile or try to disregard the fact they lied; often playing it off as a joke.

Answer 3

From my understanding, a pathological liar is a person who lies constantly. They cannot help but to lie.

Answer 4

I'm not sure that this particular term identifies any particular mental illness... perhaps it is being used to to describe someone who has a poor sense of what reality is so they make up facts about what they're hoping that reality is. They may not be lying maliciously but just confused. Someone with an antisocial personality on the other hand, may be lying to receive personal gain and manipulating other people for their own benefit. This type of lying has much more possibility for a bad outcome... I hope you're not asking this question about someone you're particularly fond of. If you are, you may want to make sure you have a good support system in place to help you deal with the inconsistencies you're going to experience in your own life! Good luck!

Answer 5

A person who can't help but lie.

... like if I ask you a simple question like if you drive a ford and you say no, I drive a VW.

--- your friend asks you what your mom's name is and you say Marcie when it is Francine.

It is just a person who can't help but lie about everything.

They have some sort of problem, and always feel the need to hide behind lies.

Answer 6

Pathological liars, or "mythomaniacs," may be suffering from histrionic personality disorder or narcissistic personality disorder. The following comments basically reflect a pathological liar who has the characteristics of histrionic personality disorder.

Some characteristics:

1. Exaggerates things that are ridiculous.

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. 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 bring out the sharp knives than admit that there's anything wrong with them.

3. They "construct" a reality around themselves. They don't value the truth, especially if they don't see it as hurting anyone. If you call them on a lie and they are backed into a corner, they will act very defensively and say ugly things (most likely but depends on personality), but they may eventually start to act like, "Well, what's the difference? You're making a big deal out of nothing!" (again, to refocus the conversation to your wrongdoing instead of theirs).

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.

5. They may be somewhat of a hypochondriac. This can come in especially useful when caught in a lie, for example, they can claim that they have been sick, or that there's some mysteriously "illness" that has them all stressed out. It's another excuse tool for their behavior.

6. Obviously, they will contradict what they say. This will become very clear over time. They usually aren't smart enough to keep track of so many lies (who would be?).

Here are some ways to tell someone is a pathological liar contributed by another FAQ Farmer:


They lie about even the smallest things. For example, saying "I brushed my teeth today," when they didn't.

They add exaggerations to every sentence.

They change their story all the time.

They act very defensively when you question their statements.

They believe what they say is true, when everyone else knows it isn't.
Here's an alternate "checklist":


Lies when it is very easy to tell the truth.

Lies to get sympathy, to look beter, to save their butt, etc.

Fools people at first but once they get to know him, no one believes anything they ever say.

May have a personality disorder.

Extremely manipulative.

Has been caught in lies repeatedly.

Never fesses up to the lies.

Is a legend in their own mind.
Here are more opinions and other input from FAQ Farmers:


I have found a few differences in pathological liar and a "slime ball" liar. Pathological liars cannot tell that they are lying they actually believe the lie as soon as it comes out of their mouth. They lie about unimportant things that don't really matter to anyone. This can be caused by mental defect but isn't always. Slime-ball liars lie about things that make them look better or embellish to get attention. They also lie to keep their butts out of trouble and to get what they want.

Here are things to ask yourself: How could this many things happen to one person? Would believe these stories if someone else told you? Think back to the beginning: you had red flags and alarms going off in you head. Learn to trust your instincts.

It is very hard to tell when one is a pathological liar. Some people just are liars and lie to lie because they can and they don't care about getting caught and aware that you know they have lied. These people care not about lying, it's no big deal. It's like "ok, so what? I lied". The pathological liar on the other hand, IS aware that they are lying BUT will go to extremes to make you believe that they are truthful. They appear to believe their own lies BUT in truth, they know their lies are just that, lies. But because their efforts are constantly backing up their lies, it appears to us that they actually believe their lies, when we eventually do find out about them and then we tend to feel sorry for these people. Then they have an excuse, "I am sick, I don't know why I lie, I believed what I was saying etc." The only truth was the fact that they don't know why they lie. Other than that it's crap. It is true that most of them have an extremely low sense of self worth and are continuously trying to make themselves feel better about THEMSELVES and this is one reason they lie. It is about them but the lies are not always set up with the purpose to hurt some one else; it's that these people feel so low about themselves they need to create ANYTHING different from the ugly reality they feel about themselves so they lie about even the most tiniest little thing. The people closest to them get sucked into these lies which sometimes start as something very trivial and then turn into something that can turn everyone involved worlds upside down and inside out.

Unmasking the pathological liar is an easier task when the pathological liar is no more than a casual acquaintence to the "un-masker." Close relationships provide camouflage for the pathological liar, and intimacy provides a heavily-fortressed breeding ground.

Other indicators: 1) Rage attacks after they realize you're questioning their lies. 2) Distraction techniques, e.g. hanging up the phone when you catch them in lie, playing word games, or even just running out of the room. After using the distraction technique, or rage attack, or sometimes both, they will pretend that nothing ever happened. They re-write history, so it never did happen in their minds. Normal people do it too, but these people take it to the extreme.

Answer 7

Living the life of lies.