Talk:Pathological liar

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what is someone who make one little lie, and then makes thousands more to cover up that one?? and then constantly lies, basically waht is the DEFINITION of a compulsive liar? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 68.74.155.231 (talk • contribs) 06:44, September 5, 2005 (UTC)

Contents

[edit] Acting

I know many people percieve acting as just a form of lying, but it is not. Since the audience knows that a play or movie is not real, it is not a lie, it is pretend. A reality show like the one cited in this article is different and neither Hagen nor Olivier would probably call that proper acting. The bit comparing acting and pathological lying should probably be either be removed or elaborated upon. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 12.176.81.65 (talk • contribs) 04:52, September 26, 2005 (UTC)

[edit] That Link

The link to "liar" at the beginning of the article should probably be changed to "lie", but since I've never messed with wiki and someone else might think a disambiguation or further article would be a better idea, I'll just leave this comment for now.

Why change it? Because the only "liar" page is one about a band called Liar, whereas lie is the most relevant article of which I'm aware. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 71.67.131.17 (talk • contribs) 16:19, January 9, 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Weasel words

Weasel words should be avoided. A copy of this article with weasel terms bolded is shown below.

A pathological liar is someone who often embellishes his or her stories in a way that he or she believes will impress people. Some think 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. It is not clear, however, that this is the case, and others hold 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 most psychiatrists agree that pathological lying is often the result of a mental disorder or low self-esteem.

Which people specifically believe this? Invitatious 15:39, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

Wow virtually every sentenced in this article starts with weasel words. Just a comment SirCollin —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 24.147.103.62 (talkcontribs) 02:07, 13 Jul 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Totally redone

I've redone the entire page. All of the weasel words have been removed. I may have mis-spelled some words. Tiny.ian 00:13, 4 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Red Link

The last sentence says:

"A good example of a pathological liar is Vittorio Mamon."

But it's red link.

This leads me to believe that Vittorio is not such a great example, because if he was he would be very well known and/or would at least have his own article. Please change Vittorio Mamon to someone more identifiable.


...Additionally, Google searching indicates that "Vittorio Mamon" is a name that has popped up and been disposed of from a number of other Wikipedia articles (including his own page), which might indicate this is simply spurious information in the form of Wiki vandalism?

[edit] correction of self-esteem vs. self-worth

The sentence that reads "...pathological lying is often the result of a mental disorder or low self-esteem." I believe that this sentence mistakenly uses the word "self-esteem" when the correct word should be "self-worth". These two words are frequently misused by reversing them, but they are not the same at all. Let me give a brief definition. Self-esteem is the conditional love of ourselves or ego-strength, based on externally validated temporary sources. Self-worth is the unconditional love of ourselves, based on internally validated permanent sources.

It is more likely that people who pathologically lie, do so because they have low self-worth, not low self-esteem.