Personality disorder of Stephen Glass

So the first thing that I noticed was that Steve always asked his bosses, "am I in trouble? Are you mad at me?" And he would blow small issues way out of proportion to deflect from the larger issue. For example, when his first boss called him out on the mini fridges at the Republican Convention, he said something to the effect of, "they rented a mini-fridge from the hotel. I just assumed. I'll understand if you want to fire me. I made a mistake, I'm sorry." It got on my nerves that he asked those childish questions repeatedly.

And then at the end, when it turned out he didn't even speak to the journalism class, even that was a figment of his imagination, it was like, did he tell the truth about anything? Does he know what the truth is?

He was a very personable person and a great story teller. He definitely made you want to trust and believe and like him. But between the lying, deflecting, vivid imagination, and need for approval, it seems he has some sore of disorder.

After very brief research, I found that he was never examined by a psychologist, so no definitive diagnosis but that he, "is a compulsive liar, ego-maniacal, needy, and to round things off has signs of a narcissistic personality." 

I think his psychology is very interesting. It is interesting how he was able to pull the wool over so many people's eyes for so long and how ardently they stood up fro him until the end--like the female co-workers. I think journalism is one of those professions where the benefit of doubt and personal feelings for a person should not be allowed to cloud reasoning in determining fact from fiction. I understand the fact checking issues related to the notes he brought to his editors, and how he was able to evade being caught for so long. But from the beginning, I felt I could see the compulsion and neediness in him and he had an answer for everything. If he weren't so darned friendly and personable, perhaps they would have caught his lies earlier. And in the end, it was his incessant talking and lying that pushed him further and further away from people. His neediness turned into desperation, but he never seemed to come clean or truly feel bad about his choices. And from people I've seen who are compulsive liars and have borderline personality disorder, they never truly understand that their actions were wrong--they never admit they did something bad.

So that is my completely undiagnosed personal opinion. He had borderline personality disorder and was a compulsive liar.

Kristin Garletts
Rio Rancho High School
Rio Rancho New Mexico