A Lie of the Mind
E231456
A Lie of the Mind is a 1985 play by American playwright Sam Shepard that explores themes of family dysfunction, violence, and the fragility of identity in the American West.
All labels observed (5)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| A Lie of the Mind canonical | 10 |
| Act II (A Lie of the Mind) | 2 |
| Act III (A Lie of the Mind) | 2 |
| A Lie of the Mind (play text) | 1 |
| Act I (A Lie of the Mind) | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T2081327 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: A Lie of the Mind Context triple: [Sam Shepard, notableWork, A Lie of the Mind]
-
A.
A Delicate Balance
A Delicate Balance is a Pulitzer Prize–winning play by Edward Albee that explores the fragility of family relationships and the existential anxieties underlying upper-middle-class life.
-
B.
Rabbit Hole
"Rabbit Hole" is a 2010 drama film, adapted from David Lindsay-Abaire’s Pulitzer Prize–winning play, about a couple coping with the grief of losing their young son.
-
C.
The Pillowman (Broadway production)
The Pillowman (Broadway production) is the acclaimed Broadway staging of Martin McDonagh’s darkly comic, psychologically intense play about a writer interrogated over gruesome stories that resemble real-life child murders.
-
D.
The Awful Truth
The Awful Truth is a 1937 screwball comedy film starring Cary Grant and Irene Dunne, celebrated for its witty dialogue and influential role in defining the genre.
-
E.
Krapp's Last Tape
Krapp's Last Tape is a one-act monodrama by Samuel Beckett that explores memory, aging, and regret through an old man listening to recordings of his younger self.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: A Lie of the Mind Target entity description: A Lie of the Mind is a 1985 play by American playwright Sam Shepard that explores themes of family dysfunction, violence, and the fragility of identity in the American West.
-
A.
A Delicate Balance
A Delicate Balance is a Pulitzer Prize–winning play by Edward Albee that explores the fragility of family relationships and the existential anxieties underlying upper-middle-class life.
-
B.
Rabbit Hole
"Rabbit Hole" is a 2010 drama film, adapted from David Lindsay-Abaire’s Pulitzer Prize–winning play, about a couple coping with the grief of losing their young son.
-
C.
The Pillowman (Broadway production)
The Pillowman (Broadway production) is the acclaimed Broadway staging of Martin McDonagh’s darkly comic, psychologically intense play about a writer interrogated over gruesome stories that resemble real-life child murders.
-
D.
The Awful Truth
The Awful Truth is a 1937 screwball comedy film starring Cary Grant and Irene Dunne, celebrated for its witty dialogue and influential role in defining the genre.
-
E.
Krapp's Last Tape
Krapp's Last Tape is a one-act monodrama by Samuel Beckett that explores memory, aging, and regret through an old man listening to recordings of his younger self.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (45)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
play
ⓘ
theatrical work ⓘ |
| author | Sam Shepard ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin |
United States
ⓘ
linked to:
United States of America
|
| creatorNationality | American ⓘ |
| dramaticForm | full-length play ⓘ |
| dramaticStructure | three-act structure ⓘ |
| firstPerformanceDate | 1985 ⓘ |
| firstPerformanceLocation |
United States
ⓘ
linked to:
United States of America
|
| genre |
drama
ⓘ
family drama ⓘ psychological drama ⓘ |
| hasMotif |
broken families
ⓘ
communication breakdown ⓘ hallucination and delusion ⓘ rural isolation ⓘ |
| hasPart |
Act I
ⓘ
Act II ⓘ Act III ⓘ |
| hasSubject |
domestic abuse
ⓘ
fragility of identity ⓘ masculinity in American culture ⓘ memory and perception ⓘ |
| intendedAudience | adult ⓘ |
| literaryPeriod | postmodern American literature ⓘ |
| mainCharacter |
Beth
ⓘ
Beth’s family ⓘ Jake ⓘ Jake’s family ⓘ |
| medium | stage ⓘ |
| movement | contemporary American theatre ⓘ |
| narrativeFocus | two dysfunctional families ⓘ |
| originalLanguage | English ⓘ |
| partOf | Sam Shepard’s body of work ⓘ |
| periodOfWork | late 20th century ⓘ |
| settingLocation |
American West
ⓘ
linked to:
Old West
|
| theme |
American West
ⓘ
linked to:
Western
family dysfunction ⓘ identity ⓘ marital breakdown ⓘ trauma ⓘ violence ⓘ |
| timeOfCreation | 1980s ⓘ |
| workType | serious drama ⓘ |
| writer | Sam Shepard ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: A Lie of the Mind Description of subject: A Lie of the Mind is a 1985 play by American playwright Sam Shepard that explores themes of family dysfunction, violence, and the fragility of identity in the American West.
Referenced by (16)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
subject linked to:
Act I
linked to: A Lie of the Mind
subject linked to:
Act I
linked to: A Lie of the Mind
subject linked to:
Act II
linked to: A Lie of the Mind
subject linked to:
Act II
linked to: A Lie of the Mind
subject linked to:
Act II
linked to: A Lie of the Mind
subject linked to:
Act III
subject linked to:
Act III
linked to: A Lie of the Mind
subject linked to:
Act III