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New. 0312420471. *** FREE UPGRADE to Courier/Priority Shipping Upon Request ***-*** IN STOCK AND IMMEDIATELY AVAILABLE FOR SHIPMENT-BRAND NEW, FLAWLESS COPY, NEVER OPENED----TABLE OF CONTENTS: Prologue xi * In the Beginning * The Bible: A Casebook 3 * Deception at First Light 29 * The Anatomy of Lying * Why Liars Lie 55 * How to Weave, and Sell, a Tangled Web 86 * The High Cost of Lying 118 * The Lying Mind * Liars, Liars, Liars! 151 * Deep Down, I Knew...162 * Lie Detection Modern and Ancient * The APEX Truth Meter 189 * The Ordeal 211 * Lying to the Enemy * Generals, Greeks, and Other Liars 229 * The Briar Patch Revisited 254 * Even Educated Flies Do It 273 * Epilogue 293 * Notes 295 * Bibliography 313 * Acknowledgments 321 * Index 323. --FROM THE PUBLISHER: With Lively Wit and Breezy sophistication, novelist Evelin Sullivan tackles the most pervasive of human sins, using history and mythology, anecdote and analysis to discover the truth about lying. Beginning with the nature and characterization of deception in ancient texts from the Bible to Greek myth, Sullivan asks why people lie; what makes an effective lie; what are its consequences; and how has society tried to counteract human deception. Touching on philosophy, literature, history, and psychology, The Concise Book of Lying is a stylish and erudite tour of the twilight realm of trickery. FROM THE CRITICS-Book Magazine: Note that there are two books being reviewed; The Concise Book of Lying and The Liar's Tale If there were a college for aspiring prevaricators, where budding pupils could be introduced to the kinds of lies that humans tell, The Concise Book of Lying would be their freshman text. The Liar's Tale, on the other hand, would be a graduate-level survey, concentrating on the history of philosophy, on both its assault and perpetration of lies. Because I'm a novelist and, therefore, a professional liar, I found both books often fascinating. Those professionally or personally concerned with the truth have much to learn from and enjoy in each. -The Concise Book of Lying begins with a fine analysis of the different attitudes toward lying found in the Old Testament and in ancient Greek literature. Sullivan says that humans identify with trickster figures, such as the crooked messenger Hermes (one of the sons of Zeus in Greek mythology), because they use underhanded methods—such as blatant lying and deception—to combat authority. The historical information that Sullivan provides is engaging, but when she moves on to a contemporary discussion of the nature, motives, techniques and effects of lies, she introduces material that is often brutally obvious and illustrated with banal examples from television and film. Sullivan regains her rigor in a section called "The Lying Mind, " where she describes types of pathological liars and provides psychiatric analyses of each. One of the most picturesque is the "pseudologue, " who mixes fact and fantasy to create a dramatic and flamboyant past. Also featured is a handy list of fifteen ways that humans can lie tothemselves according to Freudian psychology, including displacing one's feelings onto less dangerous objects than those that aroused the emotions, and sublimating one's sexual desires "by substituting for them nonsexual activities socially accepted by one's culture." Probably the most purely informative section of this book deals with lie detection. Sullivan tells the history of the polygraph, its critics and those who foil it. Even more interesting is her research into earlier days of lie-detecting or truth-demonstrating. In medieval times, for example, those accused of lying could choose to deliver grandiose oaths to prove their sincerity or undergo a battery of tests, such as grasping a burning iron. Sullivan closes by illustrating the important role deceit plays in the world of plants and animals, and some of her examples shame the inventions of most novelists. A variety of organisms can employ...
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Fair. Used book-May contain writing notes highlighting bends or folds. Text is readable book is clean and pages and cover mostly intact. May show normal wear and tear. Item may be missing CD. May include library marks. Fast Shipping.