The Social Work of Lying: Medicine and Murder in 1865

Abstract Research suggests that we may engage in cultural self-deception to maintain community. More strikingly, we may be willing to tolerate grave violence by and against some individuals in order to strengthen social constructs that are perceived to benefit the broader community. Some social beliefs, such as faith in medicine and doctors, might have such a high value that, to preserve them, the community might engage in collective self-deception that lets someone get away with murder. Engaging in collective self-deception can foster high-value cultural narratives perceived (whether consciously or unconsciously) as more important to maintain, even at the cost of human lives. To explore this concept, this article examines the sensational Scottish Dr. Pritchard murders of the mid-1860s. Here, self-deception seemed to play a key role for the murderer, for the professionals associated with the case, and, just as significantly, at scale for the culture at large. Such inquiry has become increasingly important during a cultural moment in which we face new and constantly evolving lies on a massive social scale. As humanists, we have a responsibility to explore these questions in ways that will add our voices, insights, and methodologies to those of our colleagues in the social and natural sciences.