A Chinese patient with pathological lying (pseudologia fantastica) and gender identity disturbance is described. The stories “save face” and lack a truly self-aggrandising quality. The importance of keeping “face” and maintaining modest behaviour in the Chinese culture is central to the psychopathology.
References
1.
BerlyneN.Confabulation. British Journal of Psychiatry1972; 120:31–39.
DelbruckA.Die pathologische Lunge und die psychisch abnormen Schwindler. Ein Untersuchung uber den allmahlichen Obergang eines normales psychologische Vorgangs in ein pathologisches Symptom. Stuttgart: Enke, 1891: reference 18, cases 1–5.
4.
BerstenO.On Munchausen's syndrome. Archives of General Psychiatry1965; 13:261–268.
SnyderS.Pseudologia fantastica in the borderline patient. American Journal of Psychiatry1986; 143:1287–1289.
7.
JanofskyJ.Munchausen's syndrome in a mother and daughter: An unusual presentation of a folie à deux. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease1986; 174:368–370.
8.
WimberleyT.The making of a Munchausen. British Journal of Medical Psychology1981; 54:121–129.