The Liar

Lydia Parker returns to Rivers End after years away and asks Dr. Christian for help with her twin sister Lucy. Lydia says Lucy has become a compulsive liar, inventing pointless stories about where she has been, what she has done and whom she has seen, and that the behavior has worsened since the death of Lucy's husband Emil. Christian listens carefully as Lydia describes their lifelong closeness and insists that Lucy is physically healthy but emotionally disturbed. He suggests rest and familiar surroundings and avoids directly challenging Lydia's account. Only after Lydia leaves again, supposedly taking Lucy to relatives in California, does the truth emerge: Lucy died of pneumonia in the spring of 1901, nearly forty years earlier, and Christian himself was a pallbearer at her funeral. Lydia never accepted her twin's death and has continued to live as though Lucy were beside her, creating new stories to explain her supposed activities. Because Lydia remains harmless and otherwise functions normally, Christian chooses compassion over a brutal confrontation with the fantasy, arguing that the lonely woman's private reality deserves understanding rather than ridicule.

This Dr. Christian broadcast aired on July 25, 1945. It is listed as episode 348 in the archive. CBS Radio Network carried the broadcast. The cast includes Jean Hersholt and Rosemary De Camp. Other credited names include Bob Anderson as announcer.

The surviving recording runs about 25 minutes. The broadcast is also associated with Vaseline.