system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
To all psychologists, do you think you would notice if a patient is faking a diagnostic?

First of all I don't mean faking to have a mental illness but to not have for example light to moderate depression.
Of course this really depends of the person, but I wanted to know if it's hard.
I know that this would be counter productive and a waste of time for the psychologist and patient, and I don't know if this place is the right place for such a question, but I am happy about all answers.
gpt
To be clear, you’re asking if a psychologist can tell if a patient is faking non-diagnosable issues like moderate depression? 

To that question, the answer is it depends. Depression manifests differently and especially mild or moderate depression may not functionally impair people though they may still benefit from therapy. In other words it would be fairly easy to fake mild to moderate depression initially.

However, over the course of therapy, it’s likely the psychologist would note strange things. Maybe the patient isn’t making appropriate progress. Maybe something they say is inconsistent with their past reported problems. The longer the therapy goes, the more chance the patient has to slip up. 

Alternatively, many therapists will conduct assessments on their patients. Some specific tests are able to detect impression management. That would tip the therapist off to potential malingering. 

The short answer is, maybe not at first, but probably eventually (especially if assessment is involved).