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A lie, the dissimulation or willful deformation of the [[contents ]] of a [[thought ]] that the [[subject ]] deems to be [[true]], can be practiced only either vis-à-vis [[another ]] person or by means of a [[split ]] in the subject—in which [[case ]] the subject lies "to him- or herself." A lie implies the intent to deceive and supports [[self]]-interest. The [[psychoanalytic ]] approach to lying introduces the [[dimension ]] of the [[unconscious]].

The earliest psychoanalytic consideration of lies is found in [[Freud]]'s "[[Project ]] for a [[Scientific ]] [[Psychology]]" (1950c [1895]), where he envisioned lies solely in the context of the [[psychiatric ]] definition of [[hysteria ]] as a [[form ]] of simulation, although he rejected this perspective. While he acknowledged the [[existence ]] of a tendency toward simulation and lying in [[hysterics]], he attributed it to the fact that the [[patient ]] "wishes to be ill," (p. 249), itself the result of [[patients]]' [[need ]] to convince themselves and those around [[them ]] of the [[reality ]] of their [[suffering]].

In "Project for a Scientific Psychology," the πρωτoυ πσευδoς (proton-pseudos) is usually translated as "first [[hysterical ]] lie" although it in fact involves an error or mistaken connection rather than an intentional dissimulation or [[distortion]]. The well-known example of Emma shows that the "error" had to do with the fact that she related her attack of [[agoraphobia ]] to the shop-assistants' ridicule of her clothes when she was thirteen, whereas the determining [[event]], although its felt effects were deferred, was the [[memory]]-trace of a shopkeeper's pedophilic assault on her when she was a [[child]]. The mistaken connection resulted from the [[repression ]] of a [[childhood ]] memory that was not available to her at the [[time ]] of the [[scene ]] when she was thirteen ("Hysterics suffer mainly from reminiscences" [p. 7]).

In "Two Lies Told by [[Children]]" (1913g) Freud emphasized that lies between [[parents ]] and children are "[[natural]]." In "On the Origin of the 'Influencing [[Machine]]' in [[Schizophrenia]]" (1919/1991), Viktor Tausk wrote: "children learn to lie from parents and upbringers, who by misrepresentations and unkept promises make the child obey and teach him to disguise his true purposes" (pp. 214-215 n4). The aim of Freud's article of 1913 was thus to show the existence of unconscious motivations in certain childhood lies that "occur under the influence of excessive [[feelings ]] of [[love]]" (p. 305).

Such motivations do not involve the interests of the ego but instead correspond to an [[instinctual ]] impulse that cannot be admitted, not because of the strong feelings of [[shame ]] or unconscious [[guilt ]] that are attached to it, but because it is unconscious. In the two cases evoked by Freud, incestuous love is behind the error and, secondarily, behind the lie that covers it up. The error itself could have been admitted as a fact, and if it is not acknowledged, this is because of the unconscious [[content ]] it manifests. The "[[impossibility]]" of [[confession ]] opens the way for reconstitution through deferred [[action]], based on [[associations ]] produced during the [[analysis]], of the motivations that made the error [[impossible ]] to confess.

This view leads to [[seeing ]] the [[moral ]] fault that the lie represents as a consequence of [[neurosis]]. A strictly moral [[understanding ]] of lies is thus transformed by the [[psychoanalytical ]] approach into an interrogation of the [[desire ]] for falsehood. Such a [[desire, ]] or even need, is incompatible with [[psychoanalysis]], which requires, of [[analyst ]] and patient alike, not that they tell the [[truth]], but that they seek it.

According to Sándor Ferenczi (1912/1968), the [[difference ]] between [[suggestion ]] and psychoanalysis is that the former maintains disguise and repression owing to its basis in the [[authority ]] of the therapist, where the latter "combats the 'vital lie' wherever it is found . . . its final [[goal ]] [[[being]]] to let light penetrate into [[human ]] [[consciousness ]] as far as the most hidden wellsprings of motivations for actions." Ferenczi, too, stigmatized the pedagogy of his time, which imposed upon children the repression of emotions and [[ideas]]. In "[[Psychanalyse ]] et pédagogie" (1908; [Psychoanalysis and education, 1949]), he wrote: "The closest [[thing ]] to it is lying . . . current pedagogy forces the child to lie to himself, to deny what he [[knows ]] and what he thinks." Echoed here is Freud's concern [[about ]] telling children the truth about [[sexuality]]; lying, in this context, appears first and foremost as an [[adult ]] form of [[hypocrisy]], with [[children's lies ]] being a response to it.

Karl [[Abraham ]] (1925/1927) studied from a psychoanalytic viewpoint the case of a captain of industry, analyzing his [[compulsion ]] to deceive [[others ]] as a two-[[phase ]] [[process ]] in which he first showed himself to be lovable because he had not been loved by his parents, then did his best to disappoint those whom he had duped in [[order ]] to take revenge against them. In "Über einen Typus der Pseudoaffektifivität ('Als ob')" (1934) Helen Deutsch introduced the important [[notion ]] of the "as if" [[personality]], which is not a utilitarian lie told on a given occasion, but rather protects the "true Self" with a "[[false ]] Self" (Donald [[Winnicott]]). Mythomania can also be situated within this framework of a [[narcissistic ]] [[pathology ]] in which lies are addressed both to others and to the self. Moreover, in "The Antisocial Tendency" (1956/1984) Winnicott situated theft associated with lying at the heart of antisocial tendencies in children and adolescents, but also connected this to incontinence and anything that makes a mess. In this context, this would focus on ease and opportunity to the classic moral understanding of an [[aggressive ]] will to deceive. Lying, like gluttony and theft, originates in [[frustration]].

The psychoanalytic view of lying is thus very broad, because it includes both the dimension of the false, ranging from [[social ]] [[adaptation ]] to pathologies of [[identity]], and that of willful deceit, for which explanations relating to frustration or [[repressed ]] love can be found.

See also: As if personality; Historical truth; [[Imposter]]; [[Memories]]; Mythomania; "On the [[Sexual ]] Theories of Children"; Proton-pseudos; [[Secret]]; Transitional [[object]]; Truth.[[Bibliography]]