Truman Syndrome: What It Is, Symptoms, Causes And Treatment
One of Jim Carrey’s most famous films is “The Truman Show”, a film that tells us the life of Truman Burbank who, without him knowing it, is part of a reality television show where the people he interacts with and the environment in which he lives are not real, but actors and scenery of a television program watched by millions.
This film, which is already a classic and cult work in the film industry, has served to give its name to a peculiar syndrome in which delusions of persecution and grandeur are shown equally: Truman syndrome.
This peculiar disorder is not well known, although there are already a few documented cases of people who say they have been victims of their own reality television show. Let’s take a closer look at what this modern thing with a movie name consists of.
Truman syndrome, also known as The Truman Show delusion, is a disorder with delusions of persecution and grandeur in which the patient believes that he is part of a reality show and that he is the protagonist of it. He may also believe that his life is a play or that in one way or another everyone is watching him, knows what he says and what he does, and that there is some public interest in his life. He may even believe that he is being recorded 24 hours a day.
This peculiar syndrome It is named after one of the most well-known and emblematic films by Canadian-American actor Jim Carrey, “The Truman Show” (1998).. The film exposes the life of Truman Burbank, an individual whose life is recorded 24 hours a day and broadcast on television without him knowing it. The protagonist, who believes that he is nothing more than an insurance salesman who lives in a random town, does not know that the exhibition of his most intimate experiences is a television success, until he discovers it and begins to have a conflict with himself and with the actors of their reality television.
Just like what happens to Truman in the movie, people who suffer from this syndrome believe that their life is a reality show and that everything that is part of it is false: their beliefs, their relationships with others, the world that surrounds them. surrounds… they believe that everything has been created to satisfy the audience of the show, strategies of the director of the show to keep the viewers happy. They believe that their life is nothing more than a work, and that if they want to live a truly independent life they have to escape from it, no matter what.
The greatest researchers of Truman syndrome are brothers Joel (psychiatrist) and Ian Gold (neurophilosopher). The first documented case of this syndrome was treated by Joel Gold at Bellevue Hospital in New York in 2003, being a patient who claimed that his relatives were actors from an unscripted television show. His delusion did not stop there, as he also believed that he had video cameras implanted in his eyes. Because of this, this patient traveled to New York to request asylum from the United Nations. He ended up admitted to the psychiatric hospital where Gold worked.
After seeing a few cases, the Gold brothers became experts in this syndrome, who decided to name it Truman syndrome not only because of the clear similarities between the patients’ cases and the movie, but also because most of them had seen “The Truman Show.” and they had felt identified. It could even be said that some cases had made the inflection believing that the film had been a kind of sign to conclude that their life was a show.
Although Joel and Ian Gold had been treating patients with delusions of this type since 2002, The term “Truman syndrome” was coined in 2008 when a pattern was evident among cases of the same. Joel Gold, after having seen thousands of patients with delusional disorders, began to see that this type of paranoia with persecutory and delusional features was more common among white men and young people between the ages of 25 and 34.
Based on their clinical experience, the Gold brothers have written a book in which they explain this delusion, in addition to exemplifying it with the stories of many patients: “Suspicious Minds: How Culture Shapes Madness.” The madness). In this publication, the Golds explain that delusions can be greatly influenced by the brain’s interaction with the social world, and that they are not only the result of biology or dysfunctional brain connections. Culture and the media can exert a notable influence on the way mental disorders manifest.as is the case of Truman syndrome.
Despite their research and the many publications the Gold brothers have done, Truman syndrome is not in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), and probably never will be. It is quite likely that, as it becomes better known, it will be diagnosed more frequently but within psychotic disorders and with delusional features, such as schizophrenia.
Symptoms of Truman syndrome
As we have highlighted before, Truman syndrome is not found in the DSM. However, it is possible to highlight a series of symptoms that characterize people who suffer from this peculiar psychological problem of a delusional nature, with symptoms and traits that match those of psychotic disorders:
Truman syndrome has several health effects, since Those who suffer from it carry out irrational and inappropriate behaviors. In more severe cases, the syndrome can worsen and lead to mental disorders such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, chronic stress and anxiety, and depression.
Health consequences
Truman syndrome It is very dangerous, not only for those who suffer from this delirium, but also for the people around them.. Since the affected person believes that his social environment is not real, that they are actors and that they are keeping him trapped in a reality television show, it is possible that he will try to free himself by resorting to violence.
Although this syndrome is not well known, it is There have been several cases of people who have injured or even murdered their relatives and acquaintances in order to escape from the reality television program.. Among these cases we find the following.
Two with first and last names are those of Anthony Waterlow and William Johns III. The first was an Australian who murdered his father and sister believing he was being recorded. The second was an American psychiatrist, who traveled from Florida to New York convinced that in this way he would be able to escape from his own Truman show. Upon arrival in New York he attacked two children and their mother.
One of his most curious cases was that of a man who traveled to New York after the events of September 11, 2001 to making sure the terrorist attacks were a plot twist from his own Truman show. The guy went there to check if the World Trade Center was still there and prove that everything had been a hoax. As one might expect, he was in for a surprise.
Another patient had worked as an intern on a reality show and believed that the reality show’s cameras were secretly recording him, even on election day in 2004. The patient said that this was happening to him because he believed that the president of that legislature, George Bush , he was a Judas and that is why he had captured the attention of the media and that is why he had created his own show so that the authorities were aware of his opinions and, thus, be persecuted by them.
One of the Gold brothers’ patients was an upper-middle-class war veteran who He wanted to climb the Statue of Liberty because he believed that by doing so he could free himself from his own show.. The patient himself described his condition as follows:
“I realized that I was and am the center of attention of thousands and thousands of people… My family and everyone I know were and are actors who follow a script, a farce whose purpose is to make me the center of attention of everything the world”.
Treatment
The treatment of Truman syndrome shares features with those applied to other psychotic and delusional disorders. The main route is pharmacological treatment, using atypical antipsychotics as the first option, combined if necessary with benzodiazepines, antidepressants, hypnotics and euthymizers. Electroconvulsive therapy is also an option, although not as popular among patients or their families.
The psychotherapeutic option uses the classic cognitive-behavioral treatment. However, this treatment becomes difficult because the patient may come to believe that the psychotherapist is also playing a role, that he is part of the program and that he is there to make him believe that he is crazy and that he does not know that he is on a reality television program. . They are complicated cases to treat.
