Friday, March 12, 2010

The Truman Show Delusion

Joel Gold, a psychiatrist at the Bellevue Hospital Center, revealed that by 2008, he had met five patients with schizophrenia (and heard of another twelve) who believed their lives were reality television shows. Gold named the syndrome "The Truman Show Delusion" after the film and attributed the delusion to a world that had become hungry for publicity. Gold stated that some patients were rendered happy by their disease, while "others were tormented. One traveled to New York to check whether the World Trade Center had actually fallen — believing 9/11 to be an elaborate plot twist in his personal storyline. Another came to climb the Statue of Liberty, believing that he'd be reunited with his high-school girlfriend at the top and finally be released from the show.'"[42]
In August 2008, the British Journal of Psychiatry reported similar cases in the United Kingdom.[43] The delusion has informally been referred to as "Truman syndrome," according to an Associated Press story from 2008.[44]

6 comments:

  1. WillBeFine12 March, 2010

    Did the writer of the "The Truman Show" have his own delusions?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hey WBF

    Not according to wikipedia. Actually the whole reason for this post was because I just finished a book "Time out of Joint" by my new favorite author - Philip K. Dick, and firmly believe that the Truman SHow author got the bulk of his story from Dick's book. Interestingly - Philip K. Dick definitely suffered delusions and psychoses for large parts of his life (was even diagnosed as Schizophrenic a few times)

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  3. P.K. Dick writes some... pretty strong stuff I'm told. I wonder if it was from all those drugs.

    I'm "that way" naturally so drugs would have the exact opposite effect. (ie. "normal")

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  4. Ah... a drug that instills normality... they've all eluded me - Prozac, Fluozetine, Lamictal...

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  5. Ah... a drug that instills normality... they've all eluded me - Prozac, Fluozetine, Lamictal...

    Actually... I didn't mean these kind of drugs. :D But from what I'm told I might be better off staying with the regular kind, anyway.

    Of course that "normality" comes at a price, that's why I don't do them anymore.

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  6. i believe all the greatest artist took drugs or drinking alcohol. In our society, a great mind and spectacular ideas are dare to come out only in that way.

    ReplyDelete

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