Mary Tenney Healy

Mary Tenney Healy was an American writer and researcher best remembered for Pathological Lying, Accusation, and Swindling: A Study in Forensic Psychology, first published in 1915. Reliable catalog and public-domain book records consistently identify her as the co-author of this work with William Healy, and they suggest that this is the book for which she is chiefly known.

The book grew out of early twentieth-century work in juvenile and forensic psychology. Rather than offering abstract theory alone, it used detailed case studies to examine lying, false accusation, and fraud, helping place those subjects within a more systematic psychological framework. That mix of observation, analysis, and practical interest is a big part of why the book continues to be reprinted and read.

Biographical details about her are sparse in widely available sources. A later summary connected to William Healy indicates that she died in 1932 after a long illness, and genealogy-style records place her birth in Wisconsin and her death in Boston, but the clearest confirmed picture is her role as an early co-author in a field that was just beginning to define itself.