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To me, Cezanne sounds like a case of Histrionic Personality Disorder.
I had a friend in college who was not a severe fabulist, but she would tell these very interesting exciting stories of her past experiences, and there's no way someone 20 years old could have done all those things.
She even had this story about spending a few months on a Navajo reservation and participating in a religious peyote ritual. We had known her since she started college at 18, and she never left NJ during that time. I seriously doubted her very strict parents would have allowed her to spend several weeks or months in Arizona when she was in high school.
She also had another story about having dated a guy who was in the Russian mafia. She supposedly didn't know at first, but he had taken her on a trip to Las Vegas (again, when was this???) and someone was following them and tried to kill the boyfriend. He supposedly rushed her to the airport and put her on a plane back to Newark for her safety, and she had to break up with him by phone after that, because she was so afraid for her life. Again, she'd have to be like 17 when this allegedly happened.
Considering that my mother, her mother, my brother, my mom's sister, and several of my 12 first cousins on my mom's side are seriously mentally ill, I'll tell you what I've come to realize and that is that there is a thin line - an often indiscernible line in fact- between syndromes such as bipolar disorder, paranoid schizophrenia, schizoid personality type, personality disorders, etc. They often overlap and merge and blend into each other, unfortunately.
I didn't know that was called "Fabulist"..I just called them pathological liars. Fabulist is a better word because they tell stories that are completely untrue.
I have known a few of these people. I was researching it because I couldn't understand why someone would do that. The common answer is because they want their lies to be so. They also want people to believe that they are really awesome. What I read from people who admit it is that they can't really help it, or some of them can't. It is really hard to understand why someone would do that. I really stay close to the truth but I will tell a little white lie to avoid trouble, but that is it.
One guy was dating a friend of mine. We were teenagers. He lied about his family and made up fiction. Nobody cared about the facts. My friend told me that he lied because he was embarrassed or ashamed and he made up a story he liked better. That was weird but she accepted that about him and he was a nice guy. I don't think he was too extravagant but you learn to not listen.
My daughter had a friend who made up extravagant stories and everybody believed him. She was good friends with him and then I noticed something that didn't add up and I pointed it out to her and she started seeing through the lies. He held onto them and had an excuse for everything but she caught him red handed. She tried to stay friends and said that their conversations were mostly about other things. What they had in common was not his lies but she couldn't do it. Once she knew, she couldn't ignore it.
I had a friend who was a liar but not a fabulist. He was just a big fat liar. He would tell lies to get something, or to explain himself. He had a purpose for his lies. When he gave me lying lessons, he advised to always put a lot of detail into the lie so it is believable. He had reasons to lie. He kind of lived a double life and he wanted people to give him things. I am not saying he was Mr. Perfect but he was a very good friend to me when I needed a very good friend.
A person with histrionic personality disorder lies to get the attention. It doesn't matter to them if the subject involves consequential or trivial things. Note that a person can fit the criteria for multiple personality disorders; they're rather fuzzily defined. Histrionic is in the "dramatic" cluster, along with antisocial, borderline, and narcissistic. Diagnosis is an art; it's impossible to diagnose someone based on textual descriptions in a forum like this. And one may have one or more personality disorders as well as an axis I disorder like bipolar or major depressive disorder.
Thanks for this info.
Do people get like this because of a decision they have made, or have they experienced trauma that induced this behavior? I do not remember that the two women I knew had suffered any trauma, or had any other major emotional issues. Of course this was so long ago, and I was so much younger when I knew them, I could have missed some stuff.
Exactly. I actually internalized it a little; as in "Does she think I won't find her interesting ... or does she think I'm that shallow as not to accept her for who she really is/what she's really done?"
The odd thing is that I married her son so there was plenty of family around for me to notice that things didn't add up. They would say things that conflicted with what she said ALL the time; it wasn't like she went to great lengths to cover her tracks.
I kinda wonder, if in her mind; she thought they were true.
Exactly. I actually internalized it a little; as in "Does she think I won't find her interesting ... or does she think I'm that shallow as not to accept her for who she really is/what she's really done?"
The odd thing is that I married her son so there was plenty of family around for me to notice that things didn't add up. They would say things that conflicted with what she said ALL the time; it wasn't like she went to great lengths to cover her tracks.
I kinda wonder, if in her mind; she thought they were true.
I don't think the issue was you, it was her. For whatever reason she felt she had to lie.
What interests me, is why someone feels compelled to continually lie in this way. But I think the problem is in themselves.
I keep hoping someone will post here who used to do this. I'd like to think someone stopped doing this. Can you imagine a doctor trying to get a medical history from a fabulist? Or giving a statement to the police or insurance people after witnessing an accident?
Do people get like this because of a decision they have made, or have they experienced trauma that induced this behavior? I do not remember that the two women I knew had suffered any trauma, or had any other major emotional issues. Of course this was so long ago, and I was so much younger when I knew them, I could have missed some stuff.
It's complicated, and depends on the disorder. There's no "decision" involved, and all these disorders develop over time. They start in infancy, which is why most people with them feel that they're normal to be that way. I started writing an explanation, then found this article which describes the roots of personality disorders as we currently understand them:
It's complicated, and depends on the disorder. There's no "decision" involved, and all these disorders develop over time. They start in infancy, which is why most people with them feel that they're normal to be that way. I started writing an explanation, then found this article which describes the roots of personality disorders as we currently understand them:
Thank you. I gather that a fabulist may have a personality disorder.
I have no way of knowing if the two people I knew so long ago had been traumatized. But thinking about trauma experienced when a young child makes feel some compassion for them.
I would hate to depend on them for an eyewitness report though.
I keep hoping someone will post that he or she used to be this way. But I guess that is a lot to expect.
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