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We include in this chapter pathological self-accusation as well as incrimination of others. In court work one sees many cases of false accusation, but few belong to the pathological variety. We have not considered those based upon vindictiveness, or self-defense, or where any other even slight, recognizable, normal gratification was at the bottom. We have tried to hold strictly to our definition. Selection of the cases for this chapter has been easier than discriminating those who are merely pathological liars in general. It is simpler to distinguish those who accuse others for the purpose of injury or self-protection, or those who make self-accusation under the influence of delusional conditions, than it is to decide upon similar distinctions in cases of mere pathological lying. Several authors, such as Gross, have noted false accusations made during a short period of early adolescence, or in connection with menstrual disturbance. Our cases corroborate these facts, but show also that extreme false accusations may be made by girls BEFORE puberty. Satisfactory knowledge of such cases is not gained by learning merely that the accuser is under temporary physical stress--it is to be noted that our material clearly shows that there is always more in the background.
The many cases observed by us of false accusations made, rarely, by the feebleminded and, more often, by those suffering from a psychosis, need not be mentioned here--they are obvious in their abnormality and have little bearing upon our immediate problem.
For the sake of illustration of the fact of pathological accusation Case 17 is given in this chapter, but in its mental aspects it belongs more properly under the head of border-line cases. In our final deductions this has not been counted as a mentally normal case.
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