Chronic Lying Can Be a Serious Disorder

Gordon Monson’s feature on liars (“Human Condition,” Dec. 8) contained no allusion to the terms psychopath or sociopath .

My lay understanding is that chronic lying is a primary characteristic of psychopathic disorder. This personality uses lying as a means to an end on a regular, systematic basis.

But the perpetual liar somehow manages to destroy whatever convincing veneer he has constructed. He brings his successful delusion to an end with a finishing stroke that often borders on the bizarre, almost as though he wanted the whole mess to end. I use the male gender as an illustration only because the overwhelming majority of psychopathic personalities are male.

CHARLES R. BARR

Upland