I tuned into Oprah this morning. The topic was pathological liars. Of course, I was fascinated and glued to the show. A woman, a mother of two, who was married confessed to her life as a pathological liar. She told the world the truth: Her every move was calculated. It was a lie. From what she ate to where she went on vacation to faking her own children’s illnesses.

It was all just to get attention.

She craved love, acceptance and attention — and she lied to get it. Constantly. She even took her three week old baby to the hospital and said she stopped breathing. She was willing put her own child through a very painful, needless, and dangerous spinal tap to diagnose something that wasn’t there– all for ATTENTION.

The worst part of the story? Lisa confessed that no matter what she did, she DID NOT feel any guilt.

This is typical of a pathological liar. She confessed that when she looks at people, she doesn’t “see them”.

I have known the fury of a pathological liar. They are the masters of “ice cold” callousness.

Oprah had on a psychologist to address this woman and while I agreed with much of what she had to say — that pathological liars hate themselves, are insecure deep down to the core, and that nothing is ever good enough for them so hence they lie to disguise it — I disagreed with one of her core beliefs — that pathological liars can be “cured” with the right treatment.

How can you cure and teach a human being to have two of the most fundamental emotions: empathy and compassion?

You simply can’t do that — no matter what treatment you offer. You simply can’t teach an emotion. It must be there from birth or you have a serious physical flaw — perhaps deep in the brain — that we haven’t yet discovered. That’s my personal opinion, anyway.