To some psychiatric patients, life seems like TV

[Hannah Bell]

NEW YORK – One man showed up at a federal building, asking for release from the reality show he was sure was being made of his life. Another was convinced his every move was secretly being filmed for a TV contest. A third believed everything — the news, his psychiatrists, the drugs they prescribed — was part of a phony, stage-set world with him as the involuntary star, like the 1998 movie "The Truman Show."

Researchers have begun documenting what they dub the "Truman syndrome," a delusion afflicting people who are convinced that their lives are secretly playing out on a reality TV show. Scientists say the disorder underscores the influence pop culture can have on mental conditions.

"The question is really: Is this just a new twist on an old paranoid or grandiose delusion ... or is there sort of a perfect storm of the culture we're in, in which fame holds such high value?" said Dr. Joel Gold, a psychiatrist affiliated with New York's Bellevue Hospital.>>


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081124/ap_on_re_us/truman_syndrome


I've had this sensation, not of "literally" believing i'm on a stage set, but of feeling events were phony/meaningless/unnecessary/senseless - "as if" it were a stage set, a play, all surface.

I don't think it has so much to do with fame having high value though...anyone else?

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

1. Yes, an alien feeling (as in alienated)

and the thought of fame never entered the picture.

The odd part of the OP is that someone would ask for help at a Federal building. That's some very depressing scenery in this show.

:rofl:

[fasttense]

2. Sometimes the dominant psychiatric illness in a society

seems almost poetic. It puts into a physical reality the social norms of the times.

During Sigmund Freud's lifetime, one of the dominant psychiatric illnesses for upper and middle class women was hysteria or hysterical paralysis. Women would lose their voice, the use of their arms, hands or legs with no apparent medical problem. Woman were practically powerless during Freud's lifetime. Except for a female Queen in England, women had no right to own property, could not vote and were purposely left uneducated. They were frequently used as pawns in marriage to gain wealth and status. Hysterical paralysis was simply the physical manifestation of what society had already done to most women.

Perhaps this is the same thing only it isn't gender specific.

[Hannah Bell]

3. so hysteria was the characteristic neurosis then, alienation now?

modern movies with this theme: the world you're looking at isn't the real world...

truman show, the matrix, they live...there are some other big ones, but i can't think of them at the moment...

[cobalt1999]

4. For many people with psych issues is that there is an ego component.

The "I'm Jesus/God", "the government is reading my thoughts", "the world is talking about me" and this Truman show syndrome all mean that the person is so important that they are worth all this technology/manpower/stage setup/etc. That's an ego.

Part of that may also be the disassociation the person feels with the world when mental illness strikes so the "stage" feel of the world is probably reinforced.

The good news is there isn't anyone in the real world that would give a tinkers damn about watching any of our lives 24/7, so no Truman show would work on us.

[arcadian]

5. It ain't just psychiatric patients, Most Americans can't differentiate between TV and reality.

Evidenced in the celebrity status a lot of politicians have gained. When it comes to "real" things on the TV like current events and politics most people simply view it as a soap opera with little or no consequences.

[surrealAmerican]

6. This is nothing new.

It should be remembered that works of fiction like "The Truman Show", "The Matrix", and numerous Twilight Zone episodes are written by authors who are playing on this sensation that they have experienced. It's a pretty common feeling that your life is some kind of "set up", especially among children. It's not so surprising that the sensation can develop into a full-blown delusion.

[rucky]

7. "All the world's a stage"

that was one of my favorite lines from The Truman Show

:eyes: