understandable reasons. Self-accusations may sometimes be
evolved with the idea of gaining directly practical results, as
when a lover or a comrade is shielded, or when there is danger of
a larger crime being fastened on the self-incriminator.

In selection and treatment of our material we have confined
ourselves as closely as possible to the definition first given in
this chapter--a definition that after some years of observation
we found could be made and held to. While we would not deny that
some of our cases may eventually find their way into an insane
hospital, still none of them, except some we have enumerated
under the name of border-line types, has so far shown any
indication of this. That some of our cases have more or less
recovered from a strongly-marked and prolonged inclination to
falsify is a fact of great importance for treatment and
prognosis.

We see neither reason for including insane cases nor for
overlapping the already used classifications which are based on
more vital facts than the symptom of lying. Our use of abnormal
cases in our chapter, ``Illustrations of Border-Line Types,''
will be perfectly clear to those who read these cases. They
represent the material not easily diagnosed, sometimes after long
observation by professional people, or else they are clearly
abnormal individuals who, by the possession of certain
capacities, manage to keep their heads well above the level of
social incompetency as judged by the world at large.

We have introduced only the cases where we have had ample proof
that the individual had been given to excessive lying of our