Remember Jim Carrey’s 1998 movie The Truman Show? In it, the main character’s life was recorded by a series of hidden cameras and the people with whom he interacted were paid actors.
Increasingly, real-life average Joes are beginning to believe their lives are being documented on a reality show, a condition researchers have coined as the “Truman syndrome.”
The Hollywood Reporter tells the tale of one man showing up at a federal building, asking for a release from the reality show being made of his life. He believed everything in his world was a fake, from the news and world events to his psychiatrists and his meds.
The delusion is affecting more and more patients, who sometimes specifically refer to Truman.
New York psychiatrist Joel Gold told THR he’s seen five such patients over the past two years, and has learned of at least 50 more since he and his brother began presenting their findings in 2006.
The brothers are currently working on a research paper, while researchers in London have published findings on a British patient – a 26-year-old postal worker who believed the world was unreal, and he was the hero it revolved around.
Those affected by Truman syndrome rarely take pride in their delusional celebrity status, but are upset, afraid or even horrified at the perceived invasion of privacy.
The increase in reality television programming and the general pop culture trend are cited as two reasons for the growing number of Truman patients.
Delusional patients often believe their relatives or friends have been replaced by fakes, but Truman patients take it to the larger context of society as a whole.
Thoughts? amber@tvguide.ca
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