＜prologue＞
I started a blog called “The Baby Boomer Generation’s Miscellaneous Blog”（Dankai-sedai no garakutatyou:団塊世代の我楽多（がらくた）帳） in July 2018, about a year before I fully retired. More than six years have passed since then, and the number of articles has increased considerably.
So, in order to make them accessible to people who don’t understand Japanese, I decided to translate my past articles into English and publish them.
It may sound a bit exaggerated, but I would like to make this my life’s work.
It should be noted that haiku and waka （Japanese short fixed form poems） are quite difficult to translate into English, so some parts are written in Japanese.
If you are interested in haiku or waka and would like to know more, please read introductory or specialized books on haiku or waka written in English.
I also write many articles about the Japanese language. I would be happy if these inspire more people to want to learn Japanese.
my blog’s URL:団塊世代の我楽多（がらくた）帳 | 団塊世代が雑学や面白い話を発信しています
my X’s URL:団塊世代の我楽多帳（@historia49) on X
<Update: September 10, 2020> Case of Infant Abuse by Mother with “Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy” Occurs
“Munchausen syndrome by proxy” is a mental illness characterized by a person intentionally creating illness in their child and then caring for them in an attempt to gain attention from those around them. It is a form of child abuse.
It is named after Baron Munchausen, famous for being the “Baron of Lies.”
In a case reported yesterday, a mother forced her two-month-old son to drink blood and vomit, leading to suspected cases of “Munchausen syndrome by proxy.” In 2010, a mother with “Munchausen syndrome by proxy” poisoned the IV drips of her three hospitalized daughters, resulting in their deaths and injuries. The mother was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
“Munchausen syndrome by proxy” is a mental illness characterized by factitious behavior in which individuals feign illness or injure themselves in order to gain attention or sympathy from others.
I’m sure you’ve all heard the story of “The Baron Liar.” You may also occasionally hear the term “compulsive liar.”
Today, I’d like to think about this.
1. What is “The Baron Liar”?
The “Baron Munchausen” refers to Baron Karl Friedrich Hieronymus Munchausen (1720-1797), the protagonist of the fantastical tale “The Adventures of Baron Munchausen.”
He was a Prussian aristocrat who loved to talk, and in his later years he would gather people at his mansion and recount his personal experiences, mixed with fiction. His stories were so entertaining that someone decided to record them and publish them without his permission. When the baron heard them, he became angry and tried to stop the publication, but the book was eventually sold and became a huge hit. However, the baron died in such rage.
In his youth, he was renowned for his witty storytelling, but he was also considered a “sincere man” in practical matters.
In 1989, Terry Gilliam’s film “The Baron” was released, which was an adaptation of “The Adventures of Baron Munchausen.”
In Japan, parody works include Hoshi Shinichi’s “Baron Muttering: A Modern Adventure” and Terayama Shuji’s “Picture Book: Baron Muttering.”
2. What is “Compulsive Lying”?
One of Aesop’s Fables is “The Lying Boy.” It’s sometimes titled “The Boy Who Cried Wolf” or “The Wolf and the Shepherd.”
The story goes that a shepherd boy, trying to kill time by shouting, “A wolf is coming!”, causes a commotion. At first, the adults are fooled and go out armed, but their efforts are futile. As the boy continues to tell the same lie, the adults lose trust in him, and when a wolf really does appear, no one comes to help. As a result, all of the village’s sheep are eaten by the wolf.
Because of this fable, people who repeatedly lie are sometimes called “the boy who cried wolf.”
Incidentally, “compulsive lying” is a technical term used to describe “the tendency of a person to lie without being able to help,” and was coined by German psychologist Anton Delbrück in 1891.
The tendency is to “tell lies in order to appear more important than they actually are, driven by vanity and conceit,” and can also be described as “a variant of inferiority complex.”
It seems that illnesses such as “factitious disorder,” “schizophrenia,” “histrionic personality disorder,” “paranoid personality disorder,” and “Munchausen syndrome” may also be related.
“Factitious disorder” is a mental disorder in which a person intentionally acts as if they are ill, despite the lack of any motivation to avoid obligations or gain any personal gain.
Recently, in murder cases, it seems that there have been many cases in which suspects claim to have been in a “mentally impaired state” at the time of the crime, or deliberately tell incomprehensible stories to disguise a mental disorder. This is “malingering.”
Recently, when listening to young entertainers boasting about being poor on TV variety shows, I often feel that they are “extending a lot” to make their stories more entertaining.
For example, there is a young female entertainer who says she ate “weeds” because she was extremely poor, and another who says she once ate “dog food” because she was so poor.
However, the “Seven Herbs of Spring” – parsley, shepherd’s purse, barberry, chickweed, and hamburger weed – are all weeds that are added to “Seven Herb Rice Porridge,” so eating weeds is not surprising.
Also, since dog food is now often more expensive than human food, the question remains: “Did he really eat dog food?”
Perhaps this should be called a celebrity’s “habit of lying” for marketing purposes.
As an aside, in June 2019, popular “big talker manzai comedian” Takashi Yokoyama, known for his gold-plated costumes and his well-behaved, rich-boy character, passed away at the age of 70. May he rest in peace.