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Iirc a key component is lying when there is no gain.
No logical gain to the rational observer.
There's no consensus on this but some clinicians make a distinction between compulsive and pathological liars, with the latter a specialised type of the former. For the latter, a lot (but not all) of the lying has a focus and goal, manipulating the people around them for clear aims, and they can be very effective because the basic condition has made them so practised at lying. I suppose you could say they're the ones who have learned to game their condition. Santos would likely fall into that category; he's gotten pretty far despite a chunk of the Net and media laughing at him. He'd have found it a lot easier in the days before the Net and 24 hour news.
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itsbruce
I listened to a really interesting talk on this years ago that I've forgotten most of.
Iirc a key component is lying when there is no gain. Ie lying for a gain is logical, regardless of whether it is moral. However, compulsive liers lie even when there isn't a conscious link to a gain/avoidance of pain.