pseudologia

Mythomania also known as pseudologia fantastica or pathological lying is a condition involving compulsive lying by a person with no obvious motivation.

Open Thread: Medical “Facts” « Whatever 2007

Couwenberg blamed the lies on a mental condition called pseudologia fantastica.''

Archive 2006-05-01 2006

Couwenberg blamed the lies on a mental condition called pseudologia fantastica.''

Pseudologia Fantastica: A Brief 21st Century History of Résumé Fraud 2006

The May 2005 saga of “Runaway Bride” Jennifer Wilbanks, who fled her own lavish wedding and concocted a kidnapping story to explain her disappearance, demonstrates a syndrome psychologists call pseudologia phantastica.

Think Progress » Top DADT Advocate Says Abu Ghraib Abuses Happened Because Women Are Allowed In The Military 2010

Psychologists who have studied the phenomenon describe a condition called pseudologia fantastica: the blurring of fact and fantasy so thoroughly that the imposter almost convinces himself that he is a war hero.

Bill Burke 12/2001 2010

Couwenberg's attorney, who admits his client is a compulsive liar but says it is because of a curable mental condition called ` ` pseudologia fantastica, '' said Couwenberg has not decided whether to challenge the decision.

Heroes or Villains? 2010

Of course, pseudologia fantastica also fits the bill...which is just the fancy name for pathological lying, which to quote from the link "is falsification entirely disproportionate to any discernible end in view, may be extensive and very complicated, and may manifest over a period of years or even a lifetime."

Archive 2009-05-01 Dr. Sanity 2009

On this basis there develop conditions of pseudologia-phantastica, systematized delusional formations of all sorts, delirious psychoses, etc.

Studies in Forensic Psychiatry Bernard Glueck

Lying, a very natural and generally prevalent phenomenon, may manifest itself in all gradations -- from the occasional, quite innocent "white lie" as it occurs in a perfectly normal individual to the pathological lying exhibited in that mental state known as "pseudologia phantastica."

Studies in Forensic Psychiatry Bernard Glueck

Their mendacity appears not only in lies told to escape punishment or to obtain something desirable, but also in fantastic romancing (pseudologia phantastica).

The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 11: New Mexico-Philip 1840-1916 1913