What is Truman Show delusion? What is Truman Show syndrome? Here’s what you need to know about Truman Show delusion! Here’s what you need to know about Truman Show syndrome!
The Truman Show, which tells about a man who is broadcast to the world as a reality show every moment of the day, not only won the admiration of the audience, but also gave a name to a kind of delusion that the person thinks is being watched all the time. Let’s examine the Truman Show syndrome in all its details.
There is a magical world of art, especially cinema. During the film, we break away from the real world we live in and embark on an adventure within the film world. However, some movies also make an impact in our real lives because of the stories they tell. The Truman Show movie is one of them. The production was so impressive that a type of delusion in psychology was called the Truman Show syndrome.
Don’t get me wrong, viewers of The Truman Show don’t see this delusion. This name is not officially given to the delusion anyway, but as a grandiose delusion, one can think that every moment of it is broadcast to the whole world with cameras, and this delusion takes this name because it overlaps with the story of the movie. Let’s take a closer look at the Truman Show syndrome, which can have serious consequences if it becomes paranoid, and see how it responds in society.
What is Truman Show delusion? What is Truman Show syndrome? Here’s what you need to know about Truman Show delusion! Here’s what you need to know about Truman Show syndrome!
First of all, let’s remember the movie The Truman Show!
Peter Weir is in the director’s chair of the 1998 film The Truman Show, which draws attention with its 8.2 IMDb score. In the lead roles of the movie, we watch important actors such as Jim Carrey, Ed Harris, Laura Linney and Noah Emmerich. The Truman Show, which was nominated for Oscars in the fields such as Best Director, Best Supporting Actor, and Best Original Screenplay, was deemed worthy of many different awards in the year it was released and made a great impression.
In the movie, we watch the story of a man named Truman Burbank. Truman was adopted by a company while he was still in the womb. This company is making a kind of reality show called the Truman Show, in which Truman is broadcast live, with an ever-increasing number of cameras. Truman, who lives on an island that has been turned into a big set, thinks his life is real, but everyone around him, especially his family and friends, is an actor and every word said to him is actually whispered into the player’s ear.
Truman’s biggest dream is to go to Fiji, but according to the scenario, he is afraid of the sea because his father died in a sea accident years ago. Manipulated since the day he was born so that he never questioned the life he lived, Truman one day realizes that something is wrong. Truman, who became a real world star thanks to the Truman Show in the outside world, decides to step into the real world despite all the obstacles.
You may be interested in: 20 Movies You Must Watch Before You Die-1
Let’s come to the real issue, what is Truman Show delusion?
Truman Show syndrome, which is accepted as a type of grandiose delusions in which the person with psychosis is persecuting himself, is a delusion in which the person thinks that his life is broadcast to the whole world with a reality show, which is recorded with cameras at any moment. The person with this syndrome thinks that his family and friends are fake, that he is constantly watched by hidden cameras, that his life is broadcast to the whole world, that is, everything in his life is fake, just like in the movie.
The term The Truman Show delusion, or Truman Show syndrome, was first used in 2008 by brothers Joel Gold and Ian Gold, a psychiatrist and neurophilosopher. It is not an official diagnosis as it is not included in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of the American Psychiatric Association, but it is defined by important medical journals such as the British Journal of Psychiatry as it is a type of grandiose delusion.
The Truman Show isn’t actually the only show with this kind of story.
As we mentioned in the introduction, people do not get this type of syndrome after watching the Truman Show movie. Because with the developing technology, people already had the fear that their lives could be recorded and broadcast long ago. In fact, there are many stories based on this fear before the Truman Show movie.
In the Special Service episode of The Twilight Zone, one of the cult television series, a person who finds a camera in the bathroom mirror is described. Science fiction writer Robert A. Heinlein, in his novel They, published in 1941, told a story based on the belief that one is one of the few real people in the world. In the novel Time Out of Joint, written by master science fiction writer Philip K. Dick, there is a story in which the person is kept with his family and friends by paying money.
When we look at all these productions, we see that one of the most basic fears of people is that their life is based on a lie. For example, in Capgras syndrome, the person experiences the delusion that their family and relatives have been replaced by their false counterparts. In Truman Show syndrome, the person only takes this work a little further and has the delusion that this game is watched by the whole world.
You may be interested in: Truman Show Syndrome: Why People Think They’re Living In A Reality Show
Such delusions can have dire consequences if they progress!
The brothers Joel Gold and Ian Gold, who named Truman Show syndrome, came across very interesting examples when they examined such cases. For example, a person living in the USA said that he wanted to go to the FBI building in a different state and switch to another show to see if the September 11 attacks were part of his personal show.
In another case, a former reality show assistant said that the 2004 US elections were secretly recorded with cameras and that George W. Bush was Judas. In a more serious case, a former war veteran tried to commit suicide, saying he didn’t want to be on the show anymore.
Unfortunately, there is another much worse example. A young person living in Australia killed both of them because of delusions due to Truman Show syndrome, because he thought that his father and sister were recording and broadcasting him with cameras. In other words, although the name sounds funny, when it reaches the paranoid point, delusions caused by Truman Show syndrome can result in suicide and murder.
You may be interested in: 10 Ways to Help Your Mental Health!
So is there a cure for Truman Show syndrome?
As we have given examples above, the biggest fear of people for many years is that their lives are based on a lie. Yes, from time to time we may all have slight doubts due to the movies, novels and stories we have been exposed to, or we may wonder if we are living in some kind of simulation. Especially at a time when we are so overwhelmed with technology, such fears are not unfounded.
If you are experiencing such doubts and it has come to the point that it will even affect your daily life, you should definitely seek help from a specialist. We answered the question of what is Truman Show syndrome, in which the person has the delusion that he is watched all the time and is broadcast on a reality show with cameras. What we describe is for informational purposes only. If you think that you are experiencing this type of delusion or that someone around you is experiencing this type of delusion, you should definitely consult a specialist.
