# Superego Laucuae (Pathological Liars column) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [August 5, 2004, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/superego-laucuae-pathological-liars-column/258434 "2004-08-05T12:37:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Bozvotros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/90ced4/32.png) [@Bozvotros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bozvotros)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2004, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/superego-laucuae-pathological-liars-column/258434/1 "2004-08-05T12:37:53Z")
Cec, you are right about lacunae being fun to say. As you know doubt know but did not say, superego lacunae refers to one having a superego (more commonly known as a conscience) which is full of holes. These holes allow one to escape one’s own judgement on oneself or even notice that one is, as you say, a lying sack of excrement. It also allows you to project your defects and perversions onto others and condemn them for it without your head exploding. It helps explain certain Republicans with intact craniums. It is my observation that the superego lacunae is a helpful concept in understanding how Henry “Home Wrecker” Hyde, Newt “Skin Flute” Gingrich, Bob “Stripper Bar” Barr and others of similar ilk, had no problem sounding off in somber moral tones about Clinton’s dalliance with the lovely Lewinski, without a shred of ambivalence or ambiguity. Superego lacunae are common in small children, who are known to deny stealing candy while their hands and mouth are full of it. Adults with superego lacunae however are far more dangerous even theoretically capable of killing and maiming thousands of innocent people by manufacturing bogus evidence for a war they had planned for years and when caught at their parade of lies, say in a straight-forward, comfortable-in-their-own-skin kind of way that it doesn’t matter because it was still the right thing to do. Know what I mean? ---
**Author:** ![Bozvotros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/90ced4/32.png) [@Bozvotros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bozvotros)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2004, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/superego-laucuae-pathological-liars-column/258434/2 "2004-08-05T12:44:24Z")
[http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a4\_094b.html](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a4_094b.html) ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2004, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/superego-laucuae-pathological-liars-column/258434/3 "2004-08-05T21:26:48Z")
Or insist that your reporting is “fair & balanced,” when everything you say is explicitly partisan. Yup yup. (& yes, I know it’s not just on the Right. Did I say it was just on the Right? Yeesh!) ---
**Author:** ![Bozvotros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/90ced4/32.png) [@Bozvotros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bozvotros)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2004, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/superego-laucuae-pathological-liars-column/258434/4 "2004-08-06T13:38:09Z")
What are the chances you’ll hear Michael Moore or Al Franken describe themselves over and over as Fair and Balanced? They couldn’t do it. A Democrat might lie about whether he was getting a hummer by quibbling over whether it was sexual relations but he wouldn’t call it something it clearly wasn’t. Not so with the other side of the aisle. Exhibit A: Compassionate Conservatism, The Clean Air Act, Healthy Forest Act, Leave No Child Behind Act, the economy is booming, torture as a college prank, empty trailers as mobile weapons labs… You get the picture. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2004, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/superego-laucuae-pathological-liars-column/258434/5 "2004-08-24T23:54:41Z")
You might like this article: [http://polaris.gseis.ucla.edu/pagre/conservatism.html](http://polaris.gseis.ucla.edu/pagre/conservatism.html) I think he’s not wholly wrong, but pulling an argument from generality. Compare to the analysis of Americans’ politix here: > **[A multiparty system is better than a two-party system!](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=269169)** > > I have started, or contributed to, several GD threads about electoral reforms that would open the field in American politics to parties other than the Republicrats: “What do you think about proportional representation in the US House of Reps?” ... ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2004, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/superego-laucuae-pathological-liars-column/258434/6 "2004-08-25T00:07:50Z")
Welcome to the SDMB, \*\* Bozvotros\*\* ! 🙂