They lie through evasion and by withholding information. Then, once the targets are hooked, psychopaths continue to use lies, along with a sprinkling of truth, in a multitude of ways, to ensure that their targets keep “playing.” They lie to cover up cheating, alcoholism, drug use, and sometimes various illegal activities. They enter into the relationships, unaware of the danger in store for them. Those targets lose the ability to make safe and appropriate decisions. Lying is integral to impression management and mirroring the lies enable psychopaths to present false images of themselves to potential targets. Psychopaths lie in order to dominate othersīecause relationships are games to them, and because they view other people as objects and feel completely justified in exploiting them, psychopaths know that deception creates an uneven playing field. Lying is like breathing for psychopaths, and they use it as a manipulation tool in the following ways: When someone lies habitually, that behavior pattern is always connected to other extremely disturbing traits and behaviors. Not only are most lies damaging, psychopathic lies are beyond the scope of what most people can even imagine when they think about lying. I will repeat that: pathological lying is the opposite of normal! It is irrelevant that researchers have discovered evidence that everyone lies in one way or another. Pathological lying is the opposite of normal. These people are pathological liars, and they are psychopaths.Īfter much research, I have concluded that all pathological and compulsive liars have personality disorders, and those disorders can be placed on a psychopathic spectrum. But, there are other people who lie habitually, with the intent to deceive and manipulate others for their own personal gain, and they do not feel bad about doing it. And normal people lie to hide the shame they feel about wrongdoings or because they fear the consequences of their mistakes. Yes, almost all of us have told white lies to spare others’ feelings or with the intention of protecting others. Since everyone does it, since lying is apparently so universal and typical, it follows that it must not be that bad. Unfortunately, the above truth is obscured by a popular, and dangerous, assumption that exists within our society it is even supported by research. It was only when I painstakingly found my way to sociopathy/psychopathy that I uncovered accurate answers to my many questions! I eventually realized that pathological lying and psychopathy are inextricably linked. Unfortunately, I came up with nothing helpful. I held on tightly to that fact and started to research “pathological lying” on the internet. In the beginning of my recovery, very soon after I discovered that the man I thought I knew had never existed, I held on to the one solid piece of truth that I had finally figured out: he was a LIAR. “Deceit is the linchpin of conscienceless behavior.” ~Martha Stout, The Sociopath Next Door

Sociopath vs pathological liar