A number of facts have to be considered before we venture into the existence and understanding of lying.

It is known that lying exists in all cultures and since always. It is also known that lying takes place in humans since even two years of age. A precocious baby may lie with just a smile (instead of a nasty expression) when adults try to communicate with him or her in intelligent language proposed by educators for early development of infancy in the following manner: “Hello baby, goo goo gee, ga ga glee!” Babies are usually very diplomatic as they rarely say: “What the hell are you talking about?”

We are here not considering the possibility that lying can exist in animals, as we can only say that it is a defence mechanism or a strategy – planned or spontaneous – to obtain certain results or to block certain realities from worrying us. It is necessary to have some intelligence to lie – and animals have this to a degree depending on the species. Crocodiles must be very intelligent creatures, as they actually manage to convince people that they cannot eat them without weeping first. We have here a case of tearful lying without language. A male animal with a harem is also capable of convincing dozens of lady partners that he loves them all equally. Thus men can love and lie at the same time.

We have seen that it not obligatory to possess speech to lie.  In that case, since some animals have some speech, albeit limited, can this limited speech also be used to lie? Is an unfortunately mute person incapable of lying? Of course, a mute person is capable of lying since it is not absolutely necessary to speak to lie. You may lie by writing without being vocal at all. An e-mail, an sms (whatever happened to letters?) may include some lies or may be full of lies. Vulgar persons who do not appreciate communication sometimes say: “This e-mail is full of ship.”A message that is full of lies is easily dismissed, as it is considered unimpressively bombastic. Good liars construct a message interspersed with a lie or two and the lie becomes more credible. Clever liars thus use a combination of instinct and intelligence.

If lying starts at age two, it probably starts off as an instinct. If it is mixed with intelligence, it is beyond instinct. People without any instruction or education, apart from instinct, may have intelligence anyway. I have sometimes discussed with illiterate people who impressed me by their analytical competence, also called intelligence. (It is not the time here to define and discuss intelligence, as it is too vast a subject for an article; it also involves the metaphysical question of whether a person is happier with little intelligence as s/he rarely reflects on the tragedies of life.)

I have so far not said that lying is necessarily immoral. (Oh no, not another moralising opinion! No, not to worry, as moralisers weep like crocodiles – but much louder.) Of course, the fact that lying is (also) an instinct does not make it positive or negative. We have so far the premise that lying has a very wide range of existence – historico-generational or historical as in life span. It may involve one person only, a few people, thousands or millions.

Pathological lying is an obsession with lying. It is sometimes referred to as fabulation – thus compulsive lying. The fact that fabulation is related to fable does not necessarily make it a lie as a fable may be full of truth. Pathological lying does not necessarily mean that the person expressing it has a general pathology. It could simply be enjoyable to some people to lie without being ill.  Fabulation is sometimes conditioned by persons who enjoy listening to a good set of lies that takes them temporarily away from life’s harsh realities. In this case, it is only an ‘interesting’ characteristic in the fabulator. Pathological lying is only ill when it is sadistic or masochistic (or both) as in the case of lying to harm oneself, one’s family, one’s group or one’s country.

Pathological lying to harm oneself, one’s immediate human environment or one’s country is a very serious condition. It is a psycho-social syndrome that gives pleasure and pain – thus sado-masochistic.  It blinds one beyond blinkers, covers totally one’s eyes, ears and mind and speeds off unbridled, uncontrolled and in a berserk manner. It is also used as a defence mechanism - a lie to explain or cover another lie (sic). The justification may here be: “I am lying as it is good for me, my group or my country.” A liar who harms his country explains that it is basically a good thing as it ultimately produces positive results. A ‘successful’ non-patriotic liar (‘traitor’ is a bombastic word) is even capable of influencing outsiders belonging to another group, culture or country, to naively participate in the individual pathological lying. In this case, we may have collective, pathological, multicultural lying – a pathology that ties two individuals, two groups or two or more cultures with only one pathological set of psychological handcuffs. And nothing else. Thus it is collective and restrictive at the same time – collective in numbers and restrictive in spatial scope.

Lying to oneself is often practised though it usually solves nothing. If your boy wants to become a priest, let him. If he wants to be a priest and be married, tell him about the Protestant Church which has among the best theologian married preachers – apart from excellent theologian female priests, who make male priests in other religions jealous, resentful and resistant. If your son wants to be a priest and a politician at the same time, it’s a problem as he will end up lying to himself, to the faithful, to you his parents, to God and to Caesar. No amount of polygraph lie detector tests will make him admit his frustration, though modern pupil dilation tests are more truth uprooting.

Lying may have a positive or negative purpose in other aspects of life. Positive lies are sometimes called ‘white’ lies and the colour used here may have a racial whiff. Pets are unfortunately incapable of exposing a lie which states that “my dog ate my homework”. Poor dogs who have to suffer lies in silence just to prove they are man’s best friends!

Unless we are a very difficult lot, we usually accept to call a horrid lie, a simple, sweet mistake. Let’s take the example of a family you cannot tolerate for some reason or other. You get together with some friends, barge into the home of the intolerable family, beat the sheep out of parents and children and break all the furniture before you leave. Of course, you and your friends had every right to do this, as you had a serious hunch that this family had chemical and nuclear weapons aimed at you. The fact that you found none of these is neither here nor there. Didn’t you say “ooops” and apologize after the massacre and destruction? So why do some people insist you were lying when you were only making a mistake?

Spouses sometimes cover for kids when they tell their partners that “I smashed your grandmother’s lovely vase – not the boy or girl.” We have here a very happy lying situation where the partner saves the boy or girl from a scolding, giving the impression that housework is tiring and may lead to hurried vase-smashing situations due to dusting efficiency; the boy or girl thank God that their father or mother saved them from the ire of a parent in love with a vase, and God himself is happy as the lie made the boy or girl thank Him – thus indulge in prayer. The only one who is kept out of the equation is the dog, who may perhaps be accused of eating a homework copybook but hardly of breaking a vase. The dog thus thanks God too.

And, with so many creatures thanking Him, God is only too glad to be sometimes appreciated by a bunch of liars.

Dr Anthony Licari has an academic background of human sciences from various French universities.