Show I. I i U Ua Daily ly Health Sc Service t j Mental Disorders Cause Children to 10 Lie I By y DR MORRIS FISHBEIN Editor Journal of the American Medical Med led ical feal A A. Association lation and of geta the Health Magazine I One Ono problem that disturbs parents as much as any other is the tendency of children to Invent the most fantastic fantastic fan Ian explanations explanations' for their actions and U to indulge in what Is plainly and bluntly called lying on what sometimes sometimes some some- times appears t to be slight tion In a. a association with recent attempts to analyze Ze scientifically the thc reasons for the conduct of the child chUd the psychologists pay pay- have given special attention attention attention atten atten- tion to this problem Professor Franz Alexander believes that children lie because they need steed to lie He more than do adults In order to satisfy their wishes and to maintain themselves es toward conditions In the outer world Therefore children lie because adults compel them to lie The child when it comes into the world has no knowledge of right or wrong and its co code e of conduct is de determined do- do by its parents If parents compel the child to do something which it feels is unjust it is likely to respond by resentment in the form of oC equivocation and evasion The parents arc are so much more powerful than the child that the thc child of af necessity responds to subterfuge If it compelled to do something that it does not understand Hence as Dr Alexander points out it Is nece necessary ary for the parent who demands restrictions lions of the child to compensate In some manner in order that it may realize the value of restrictions The parent should of course endeavor to understand the reason for various in ill in- The child recognizes In Its parent a master It Is always alwa s 's the tendency of ot those who are arc dependent to endeavor endeavor endeavor en en- deavor to please the master Thus the child sometimes lies to please e the parent realizing that such pleasure will be compensated by a reward There is finally the lying that Is purely the thc result of fanciful nation Thus the child chUd will invent strange tales in order to please it self In n a world In which pleasure is sometimes sometimes some some- times Umes found with great difficulty Sometimes the lying of or the child chUd is however not the harmless type tc of lying Iring that Is imaginative and fantastic fan fan- but the p pathologic lie invented for the thc definite purpose of of deceit This type of lying Is seen of course in grownups as well as in children and represents in many cases a mental mental mental men men- tal disorder requiring careful study by an nn expert in order to get at the basis of ot the disturbance and thus to correct it A child whose mind is troubled by some sonic seem social or moral condition that It does not understand may lie in order to compensate In its own mind for the conflict that is going on Hence it is especially necessary that the parents be sufficiently close t to their then children to fo detect the mental conflict and to explain It away logically logically logically logi logi- cally rather than to force the child Into inu lying in order to obtain mental quietude |