Pathology of Lying, Accusation, and Swindling

One of the pioneering psychological studies of deception, criminal behaviour, and pathological dishonesty in modern social science. In Pathology of Lying, Accusation, and Swindling, physician and criminologist William Healy examines the psychological, environmental, and behavioural causes underlying compulsive lying, fraudulent behaviour, false accusations, and related forms of social manipulation.

Originally published in the early twentieth century, this influential work brought together detailed case studies, psychiatric observation, criminological analysis, and emerging psychological theory in an effort to understand forms of antisocial behaviour that traditional moral or legal explanations often failed to address adequately. Healy approaches his subjects not merely as criminals or offenders, but as individuals shaped by complex interactions of personality, upbringing, mental state, and circumstance.

Blending early forensic psychology, psychiatry, criminology, and social investigation, Pathology of Lying, Accusation, and Swindling remains an important historical document in the development of behavioural science and criminal psychology. The work offers modern readers a fascinating window into the evolution of psychological thought surrounding deception, manipulation, sociopathy, and abnormal behaviour during a formative period in the history of psychiatry and criminology.

Ideal for readers of psychology, criminology, forensic studies, behavioural science, legal history, psychiatry, and the history of early twentieth-century social science.