What motives drive false accusers?
Feel free to add to the list
The answer to the question in the title might seem obvious, but I think it’s more complicated than most people might think.
Let’s leave out accusers who are telling the truth. I’m interested in the ones who are not. They can have multiple motives; any of these can be combined. This list is not all-inclusive, but here are the major ones:
(1) Revenge. The person actually has hurt you in some way—estranged spouses are notorious for this motivation—but you’re making up a story with an accusation that can hurt them even more than the truth would, and you justify it by telling yourself they deserve it.
(2) Attempting to deflect your own guilt onto an innocent person when you are guilty of something and might yourself be accused.
(3) You’re a sociopath who enjoys lying and gets off on seeing people squirm. Makes you feel superior to all those stupid normals.
(4) Someone has paid you money to lie.
(5) You want your 15 minutes (or more) of fame.
(6) An actual psychological contagion effect, a kind of mass hysteria in which people start thinking they remember something that is really just a reflection of what they’re hearing from others. Obviously, for this motive to be operating there must be other accusers and a lot of attention given to them, which is often true for a public figure. I believe that this was at least part of the motive for the girls doing the accusing in the Salem witch trials, for example. Do not underestimate the power of the strangeness of the human mind.
(7) (This one is related to #5, but somewhat different.) Some time ago, something happened to you that was bad, but your memory is foggy on some details. When you really think about it (or are coaxed to do so, perhaps by a therapist or reporter or attorney), you become convinced that it happened a certain way at a certain person’s hands. And yet this is actually a manufactured memory detail superimposed on a much hazier basic memory that is real. People who are undergoing numbers 6 or 7 can make very convincing witnesses indeed, because they have convinced themselves of the absolute truth of their memories and can therefore speak with the power of tremendous conviction.
(8) You believe this is a noble lie you are telling because the cause is noble. This is the mentality of some spies, or people working for the real Resistance during a war, in which that person can easily justify lying, making false documents, perhaps even assassination, for the sake of the greater good. Right now, for example, if a person believes, truly truly believes, that the right is waging a War on Women, let’s say, and that women’s very liberty is at stake if the evil Kavanaugh gets on the Court, that person could easily justify lying in order to take him down.
(9) You once had something similar happen to you at the hands of someone else, and that person shares a lot of traits with the person being accused. That person who did something very upsetting to you never apologized or looked back, and may have even gone on to great glory and fame and achievement in life. You want justice and never got it. For some people in that circumstance, it becomes easy to tell themselves that there’s nothing wrong with telling a little white lie to expose what a scumbag that new person must be.
[Neo is a writer with degrees in law and family therapy, who blogs at the new neo.]
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10) Hate.
11) You enjoy hurting people (related to 3, but not couched)
Oh Christ ,with this bunch it is pure evil and a 6 figure go fund me
Bingo – how can people say ‘she has nothing to gain”?
Pure evil.
13. liberalism/progressivism/socialism/communism.
I believe that Ford has a false recovered memory, probably implanted and/or enhanced by therapy. That is why she honestly believes what she has said (except for not being able to fly to the hearing), but the people she says were witnesses all agree that it never happened.
After 36 years, it is easily possible that she has become convinced of a false memory. I have a close friend (a psychiatric social worker) who has a false memory that has destroyed her relationships with some of her family members.
False memories tend to be dreamlike, where the trauma is vivid and detailed, and other details (like when and where it happened, and how you got there) are missing. Ford’s testimony is much like my friend’s description of her false memory; the trauma is vivid, but the details escape them. The evidence and the facts will never convince either of them otherwise.
Here are some articles on false recovered memories. The symptoms seem to apply equally well to my friend and to Ford.
(This is my opinion. I am not a psychotherapist and don’t want to be one.)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_memory_syndrome
https://thepsychologist.bps.org.uk/volume-19/edition-6/recovered-and-false-memories
there is a comment over at volokh conspiracy by CJA
She appears to honestly believe that the event happened as she described.
CJa’s theory is that it possibly a dream sequence that somehow got embedded as a real event.
https://reason.com/volokh/2018/09/28/politico-symposium-on-the-kavanaugh-sexu#comment
As a further comment on CJS’s theory, most everyone has had a dream or two where they wake up and spend 20-30 secs making sure the event was just a dream.
Even though she came across as credible and honest, she also came across as being both ditzy / loopy. That being said, the dream got embedded and it has become a true life event for her.
The only items that I find which would support the event having actually occurred was that she was able to name Kav plus two others who were good friends.
We don’t know the psychologist’s involvement in all this. She could well have fed Kavanaugh’s name to Ford. It’s unethical but it’s the kind of thing a progressive true believer would do.
Ford could easily have been fed the other two names by Democrat handlers since we don’t know how much contact Ford has had with those people. She “remembers” two people, they helpfully give her the names, which she now “remembers”.
I believe the entire fictional story was cooked up by the prog party and Ford is a willing participant.
Sometimes the person is just a convincing liar.
If a memory can be “repressed” is it a stretch to think that the memory can be altered?
Those who support an accuser, when the evidence in an accusation is thin, will often ask rhetorically, “Why would this person lie?” It’s a rhetorical question offered as proof. It’s probably wiser to ask, “Why would this person tell the truth?”
The supporter of farce may hope it’s rhetorical, but there are plenty of answers…hence the list.
$
Attention/Fame/Notoriety
Schadenfreude
Another motive is a civil litigation ghetto lottery bid.
As an alternate to #5. That’s too shallow. I don’t believe anybody actually paid Ford to lie.
BUT, as Anita Hill has proven, you can make a VERY lucrative career AFTER your lies.
Ford already has hundreds of thousands of dollars in that ridiculous GoFundMe account (seriously how is crap like this allowed to continue), and I guarantee she’ll get MILLIONS from the idiotic book that she’s sure to write in the next year.
So nobody has ‘paid’ her to lie, but money is 100% a contributing factor to this clown show.
The Dems rushed in to reinforce her “repressed memory”. Getting this out would be a form of “therapy” and “justification” for her inner problems.
It would not surprise me if much of her “memory” has been filled in very, very recently by “helpful” individuals.
Forgot to say influencing political outcomes…we can safely add that one to the list now.
I think with have a whole lot of #8 in these cases with the fringe benefits not far behind.
The single most notable false rape accusation is that of Steven Avery.
Netflix is made a documentary of it, “Making a Murder”, 8 parts, almost as popular as OJ.
Several factors played into it, When the cops heard the description they said, “That must be Steven Avery” which had gotten back to the sketch artist who had seen a mug shot of Avery. From her description, he drew something that was almost exactly like the mugshot. She then picked Avery out from a set of photos and a lineup. Later proved not guilty by DNA.
Reason, similarities in looks, contamination of the sketch artist and the victim.
Vanity; narcissism; egotism; messianic fantasies of being the “Resistance’s” Valkyrie/Deus Ex Machina, simultaneously slaying the Trump-Kavanaugh dragon and saving abortion rights from the rabid Christian zealots. Self-perceived notions of moral and intellectual superiority over conservatives; longstanding twin pillars of the Left’s nauseating sanctimony. A Divine jihadist imperative, sent from the Leftists’ Gods of Statism and Totalitarianism. Possible sociopath personality, needing attention to find/create meaning in her life.
Ford will ride to Valhalla on the wings of the media’s adulation and hosannas, to be feted for all time as a Leftist “hero.”
Secondary motivations — I think that Ford is a deeply unhappy and unfulfilled woman, stuck in an unhappy marriage, and is manifestly resentful of Kavanaugh’s quite transparent happiness and fulfillment in faith, family, professional career and charitable works.
I don’t care what their motive is, unless it is useful in predicting other actions. In this case, Christine Blasey Ford’s motivations are irrelevant: she isn’t the one driving this process; she’s not the one calling the shots.
The Democrats’ motives are crystal clear.
Folks, there are demonic forces at work by the Father of Lies to keep abortion legal.
It really does not matter WHY people impart false information, be it intentionally or unintentionally. That is why our system of justice insists that the be corroboration for any statement made by an accuser. A person can not be convicted upon the mere fact that he confessed to committing a crime. A person can not be convicted solely upon the word, of an accuser, that he committed a crime, unless there is some corroboration that such a crime was actually committed, in the first place. We have spent 400 years simplifying the Western code of justice, to require the existence of corroborating evidence before any accusation can be acted upon. Proving that a statement is not true is not part of our justice system. Proving that ti is true, is the basis of our system. Why? Because people lie or are mistaken.
Now, however, we have reverted back to the days of colonial Salem, the inquisition, and the Star Chamber. No more presumption of innocence. The unqualified acceptance of any accusation, especially if a person is a member of one of the current privileged classes. we have been there before. It was a disaster. And, we are going back there again.
We are going back there again.
Under full sail, to judge by statements attributed to the former head of the New Hampshire Republican Party: (https://apnews.com/f14eaaf9cedb4074b23a024bd93277b9/Republicans-fear-political-fallout-from-Kavanaugh-turmoil)
“Horn, a lifelong Republican and frequent Trump critic, described Ford as “the most credible person I have ever seen publicly talk about this.” One young friend of Horn’s family was so inspired by the testimony that she revealed her own painful experience with sexual assault on social media for the first time Thursday.
“Republicans have to ask themselves if they’re willing not only to sell the soul of the party, but sell their own souls to get this particular conservative on the Supreme Court,” Horn said in an interview.
It’s amazing how these people can be so certain that she is telling the truth, that it all happened the way she describes, and that he is lying. How do they know all that?
The answer is that they don’t: they are simply trying to identify with the politically correct side, or the side they find more sympathetic.
People also absolutely cannot stand not knowing which version is true. They simply won’t comprehend the ambiguity of uncorroborated, contradictory testimony. They also don’t understand that it is impossible to prove a negative. NO ONE CAN DISPROVE AN UNSUBSTANTIATED ACCUSATION. Tyrants have relied upon this for millennia.
Puritanism has emerged as the driving force behind political correctness and the feral branch of feminism.
Ford struck me as a little girl to whom things just happened. She looked questioningly whenever questions whenever questions were asked of her, looking to the questioner and either or both of her attorneys for support.
I would say she is immature, but that denotes a normal but temporary condition where this seems permanent in her case. Something isn’t quite right with her apprehension of the world around her.
Kavanaugh’s daughter is right, we should pray for Ms Ford. And we should take the time necessary to expel Ms Feinstein from the Senate for that socialist devaluation and destruction of the individual we saw on the part of her and her party
Very much like Salem witch trials. I’m surprised no one ever mentions spectral evidence, since apparently Kavanaugh’s spirit or spectral shape appeared to Ford at the party while his body was elsewhere. I’m surprised Cotton Mather was not at the hearing.
Narcissitic loss, and revenge upon anyone but the narcissist.
Ford is a malignant nercissist, as is all these creepy ‘women’ coming out of the woodwork.
Stamp them out now, or they ruin more lives at the left’s behest than Stalin.
on #1… it’s not just revenge- it’s a legal tactic exploited by divorce lawyers… hubby goes broke /loses faster fighting 2 legal battles- one of which contains a restraining order which quickly can be escalated to a felony and 100% loss of custody of the kids.
memory can be pretty easily manipulated. For example
When I was 16-17 year old (and the typical evil older brother), I started telling my younger sister (who was 10 or 11 at the time) about the time she got lost walking along the local highway, then got kidnapped, another sister chimed in with a few other ridicules details. I and my other siblings were obviously just making stuff up – but the point was that the little sister was believing everything we told her. Only relaying this story to show how easy it is to create false memories
Not sure where this falls on the list, but it was something that was encountered numerous times in various pain clinics. It was often a woman (not sexist, it just was), who was in a relationship where they either were, or felt that were, being ignored. Then a medical event happens, which required care, and suddenly they are getting the attention that they craved but were not receiving. At some point the medical condition clears up, and suddenly the attention disappears. This is where the psychopathology kicks in. They now report a new fake condition which requires attention, but it also requires a medical diagnosis. But no explanation can be found, yet the “pain” (my area of knowledge) continues to get worse. Further workups are done, more specialists are seen, and in extreme cases, a surgical intervention is done. Sometimes the surgical intervention introduces an actual organic basis for a pain complaint. We were pretty good at sussing these out, but often the true damage had been done long before they got to our service. I have seen men give up their jobs to care for an individual with a completely factitious disorder. There are just so many aspects of the Ford situation which are causing my BS bell to go ding ding ding. It might very well be a case of Ford nurturing this affliction to the point where she is incapable of separating it from reality, in which case a polygraph might be legitimately fooled. I witnessed one case where a patient passed the capsaicin test, and that was just freaky, so I know just how far a psychological disturbance can distort an individuals perception of reality.
Fortunately, all that is required is for the members of the committee and the public to see the charade as absolute BS. It isn’t up to them to fix Ford. I still believe that there need to be consequences for her actions, either she is sane and is called out for the lies, or she is insane and needs to be hospitalized so as to not damage others. There should be no option c) of telling lies and walking away with a huge gofundme paycheck.
Is the behavior you describe a variation of Munchausen syndrome?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Factitious_disorder_imposed_on_self
I look upon Munchausen’s as a pattern of afflictions as opposed to a single case, and not requiring an actual malady at the start. Of course, they pale in comparison to Munchausen’s by proxy. Some of the more prominent SJW’s would fall within the scope of that definition.
I for one get the strong impression that she believes it did happen – irrespective if it actually occurred, was Kav or any number of other individuals.
There are several things to also set off my BS alarms.
1) while she seemed credible, she also came across as ditzy/loopy/ unaware of a lot of aspects of the case, fear of flying/what is a polygraph, who paid for it, offer to testify in CA, widely published in the newspapers, etc,
Did not seem knowledable/aware of a lot of everyday things.
2) she has degree in psychology which is a profession with a high percent of practioners who have their own issues.
14) Global warming.
I think the lie Ford told about flying is telling. What she did was admit to lying in order to manipulate the Judiciary Committee into coming to her. She was perfectly fine with doing so. I’m certain she’s told lies like that many times. So, what we have is someone who lies to get what she wants. I know people like that and their lies get more significant and more numerous as they find success with them.
‘So, what we have is someone who lies to get what she wants. ”
I think you are spot on. It is the same motivation that caused her to sleep with 60+ men before graduating from college. Immediate gratification (attention) with a total disregard for the consequences of her actions.
I think she lied about being 100% sure.
I think she talked about it on social media with her “beach friends”.
( Notice how she paused when she was asked who? )
I think she expressed doubt on social media and they convinced her.
That is exactly how vague memories become 100% certainties.
I think the most common is guilt. When we do something we are ashamed of, we start by rationalizing how it really was not our fault. In short, we make excuses. The problem is, if it wasn’t really our fault, that usually means it must have been someone else’s fault. Humans are really, really great at rationalizing, and it is so much easier when you have a cause as well. It is very easy to convince oneself.
I would never trust someone’s memory concerning an event long ago that they would have any reason to be embarrassed about – unless they are admitting their own responsibility.
The #MeToo movement should focus on encouraging genuine victims of sexual assault to report those cases to police immediately. If young, report it to parents. That won’t prevent false accusations, but it will assure that most actual victims will see justice done. Of course, that is not the objective of the #MeToo movement.
15) Toxic femininity.
16) Hatred of men in general but white men in particular.
17) Self-loathing.
Something happened to this woman. SHe wants TWO Front Doors. If you were terrified and wanted to escape from a situation that occurred in a room , you wouldn’t want MORE obstacles preventing escape. HOWEVER If someone enter your room from a closed door you would want MORE obstacles in the way. This woman was molested by her father or a family member. PERIOD!@
I agree with you. I mentioned to a friend that she was probably molested by an uncle or a parent’s friend back then. Fellow commenters here downvoted you (and will undoubtedly downvote me), but this exact event happened around 45 years ago to somebody I know.
I have read reporting that suggests the purpose of the second front door was to use a portion of her house as a home office, presumably to gain a significant deduction from their state and federal income taxes. Having a second front door through which business clients enter, irrefutably justifies what was likely a giant tax writeoff. That same report debunks Ford’s timeline of her home remodel as having been the trigger for her marriage counseling and subsequent recollection of her alleged assault when age 15.
I wonder if the current FBI investigation will look into this, or treat the Fords with ‘kid gloves’?
Ford’s fake little girl voice, and her fabricated story about the second front door’s timeline and purpose, combine to eliminate all credibility. Her numerous other lies and contradictions show a pattern of deceit; for example, her statement that she is “non-partisan” yet was seen on video marching in an anti-Trump rally wearing a pink pussybrain hat.
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2018/09/this-doesnt-look-good-business-was-listed-operating-out-of-christine-fords-home-would-explain-second-door/
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2018/09/far-left-activist-and-kavanaugh-accuser-christine-ford-spotted-at-anti-trump-march-in-la-video/
The home office deduction may have been a partial motive.
However, she likely would have never qualified for a home office deduction (see the Soliman 506 us 168, 1993). Secondly, the home office deduction is generally very small. 39.5 year depreciable life for only the portion of the home used as a home office. works out to be much smaller than you would expect.
18. TRRUUMMPPPP !!!!
What motives drive false accusers?
1-Knowing sessions is in the bag, and there will be no repercussions for any kind of perjury or other criminality; and
2-now that the law has been neutered by sessions, a job at CNN awaits.
liberalism is not only a mental illness. it is also pure evil. just for the sake of killing babies liberals will say and do anything to anyone who might get in the way of their god, abortion. in “lord of the rings” the love of his precious drove gollum insane. it is exactly the same for liberals. the love of their precious, abortion, has literally driven them insane. we are in a literal war and if republicans in congress don’t start fighting like we are this country is going to fall.
Basket Case
I feel sorry for this women because she has a life long history of struggle based on her own mind continually sabotaging herself!
She is a victim of herself and now the Demoncrats have joined in the abuse!
I think its’ a sociopathology that incorporates 7&9 to make it convincing. The fact that she passed a polygraph, no matter how inadequate it was, proves this out because sociopaths convince themselves that what they are saying is true.
.
I would add a 10th option. She’s a nutcase on the level of the guy who traveled hundreds of miles with a high power rifle to kill Republicans on a baseball diamond. Her smoking gun was a letter. It was designed to inflict maximum damage. It starts with two teenagers doing what teenagers do when you mix a little alcohol with hormones. Not good enough. Let’s put another boy in the room. Still not good enough. Let’s say I scream and try to get away. This is still not good enough because kids do have second thoughts in these situations. Still in the normal range so not good enough. Now he covers my mouth and continues to try to take my clothes off. Now it’s arguably rape. But we need more. I think he might accidentally kill me!!! Now we have a serious crime. BINGO! Rape and attempted murder. I’m sure there’s more in there like entrapment and kidnapping?
.
Totally contrived. I wonder how many drafts of this letter there were? It’s too perfect. She cleaned her gun, calibrated her scope, bought extra bullets, went to the shooting range and drove to the baseball diamond.
There won’t be a “Gender Studies” department anywhere in the country that won’t pay lucrative speaking fees to this person. She embodies the role of victim as the new American hero. This charge against Kavenaugh is pure resume-enhancement. And Kamala Harris has the nerve to ask what she has to gain?!
Harris was asking because she wants to add it to her own tool kit.
“Merlin01 | September 30, 2018 at 7:05 am
Basket Case
I feel sorry for this women because she has a life long history of struggle based on her own mind continually sabotaging herself”
I can’t even wrap my brain around feeling sorry for a woman like this who is a sexual accuser predator…destroying lives for her own selfish reasons and motives. How is she any better than actual rapists?
Competition, displacement, resentment, envy, “burden”, GDP.
#HateLovesAbortion
Diversity (i.e. color judgments). Unrequited love, lust. False or missing links in recovered memories. Secular incentives including money, status, security.
Fame and fortune in the form of a $900,000 GoFundMe account
My first marriage was to a childhood sexual abuse survivor. Her abuser was always the shadowy figure in our marriage that undermined trust, intimacy and left untreated (read: she *refused* to confront the elephant in our marriage) became a monster to great to defeat, much less engage. In the end, it turned to hatred of all men and to her even accusing me. Reminded that everything was always consensual, she said “yes, but in my heart I didn’t want to and that makes it rape”.
I tried for years to wrap my head around that, but in the end concluded there’s just no way to understand self-induced insanity. Nursing the injury gave rise to a perpetual victim-hood which turned frustration to vile anger and she came to see her anger as her shield and strength.
There’s just no understanding that for the rational and emotionally healthy. No dealing with their delusions of super-hero like power …
Reason #384: You’re in couples therapy because you have a dead bedroom, you’re not really interested in doing much about that but (for other reasons) don’t wish to terminate the relationship.
So, you need a reason why you’re not so motivated to do much. And the reason is: you were traumatized by a sexual assault in your distant past.
So many, many reasons why one might “lie about that.”