Can you imagine a scenario in which a mentally healthy person might tell a lie (not just report misinformation) and not realize it?
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Chapter 29, #2: Did I Just Pass a Kidney Stone?
Can you imagine a scenario in which a mentally healthy person might tell a lie (not just report misinformation) and not realize it?
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There are two instances in which I could imagine somebody knowingly tell a lie.
ReplyDeleteThe first, is for selfish reasons. We are all too familiar with somebody telling a lie in order better our standings (whether it be in a political or social way).
Secondly, there are the lies told with good intentions. We all can remember when I parents told little white lies to get us to do something either good for us or good for everyone. There are also those lies formulated to give us hope.
But the question is can someone tell a lie and NOT KNOW IT?
ReplyDeleteI think that it is rare but possible for a mentally healthy person to lie and not realize it. When someone is talking about their emotions or what they are feeling, that is a scenario in which unrealized lying can take place. Say I was to ask a friend of mine if she liked a certain guy that she had known for really long time and had always thought of him as a close friend instead of a boyfriend. My friend could say that no, of course she doesn’t like him, just because she had always thought of him in the “friend” way. But if she had really thought about the question and the feelings she might have been burying, she would have realized that yes, she really liked this guy. Feelings and emotions can be tangled and confusing sometimes, which can cause people to lie without realizing that they are lying.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Rebecca about how feelings can distort the truth. I think it is possible for a mentally healthy person to tell a lie without realizing it. During certain situations, someone (Person A) may misinterpret actions and words causing them to believe something that is not true to be true. Later on, when someone else asks Person A what really happened, Person A will tell a lie, but not know it, because he or she believes and feels that they are telling the truth based on what they heard or saw.
ReplyDeleteThis is Cerina Stiles.
ReplyDeleteI don’t believe a person can lie without knowing it unless they were misinformed. They can strongly believe something is true and not know that it is not but that is misinformation. You know if you are lying or if you are speaking the truth.
I disagree with Rebecca and Charlotte.Yes, feelings and emotions are confusing and can get tangled but i do not think a person will lie and NOT realize they lied. But before i go further, we have to define and agree on what our definition of "lie" is.lying is a false statement made with deliberate intent to deceive. So that being said, i don't think the girl in Rebecca's example lied because she did not know that she liked the guy and hence she did not made an intentional false statement so she did not lie.
ReplyDeleteThere is really only one scenario in which I can see a mentally healthy person unknowingly tell a lie. After year and year of being fed political propoganda constantly, one could very easily begin to accept these things as truth, even if in the beginning they knew them to be a lie. It's like the quote in the picture above says: "if you repeat a lie often enough it becomes the truth." This is especially true in politics, such as Hitlers effort (effectively) to convince the people of Germany that the Jewish population should be wiped out because they are the enemy. Despite how you truly feel about this subjet, it is possibly that after being told the lie that the Jewish people are the enemy over and over that you could begin to repeat it yourself. Although you may not realize it, you would then be lying unknowingly.
ReplyDeleteIn rethinking my post, I really don't think that one could lie and not realize it. Considering how I misread the question I'm pretty sure that the idea of lying unknowingly is as bizarre to me as the title, and I feel like you would have to know when you tell a lie, much like you wouldn't be able to ignore the fact that you were passing a kidney stone.
ReplyDeleteI also would like to pose the question to the above poster, is a lie subjective? Or is the truth the same for everyone?
I don’t believe that a mentally healthy person could tell a lie without realizing it. I agree with Cerina. The only way that a person could tell a lie without realizing it is if they are misinformed. If they do honestly believe that the lie they are telling is the truth, they cannot be mentally healthy.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I disagree with Rebecca I don’t think she is completely wrong, because my definition and context vary slightly. I believe there is no scenario in which a healthy person could tell a lie and not know it, because when an individual speaks they know what they have said, and know if it is true of false to the extent of their knowledge at that moment in time. When Rebecca’s friend told Rebecca no, it was a true answer based on what she knew at that moment in time. On later examination of her thoughts and feelings, if her answer were to change, it would be because of a realization brought to her by new information. Dale
ReplyDelete