" TRUMAN SYNDROME ", a delusion afflicting people who are convinced that their lives are being played out on a reality TV show. Scientists say that the disorder underscores the influence on mental conditions of a patient. Many patients believe that their every move is being filmed for a TV show.The question is : 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 are in,in which fame holds such high value?
A psychiatrist,Dr Joel Gold, says that he encountered five patients with delusion related to the reality TV. Several of them specifically mentioned " The Truman Show " the Oscar-nominated movie stars Jim Carrey as Truman Burbank. He leads a merrily uneventful life until he realizes his friends and family are actors,his seaside town is a TV sound stage and every moment of his life has been broadcast. Dr.Gold and his brother, a psychologist,have started research and present their observations at medical schools since 2006. They have learned of about 50 more people with the similar symptoms and are now working on a scholarly paper.
One of a patient in Austria believed that she had become a walking webcam and according to Austrian patient's psychiatrist, 'Reality Television may help such patients convince themselves their experiences are plausible. That's not to say reality shows make healthy people delusie but the people who become sick are becoming sick quicker and other researchers aren't convinced,but still find the " Truman Syndrome " an interesting example of culture and mental health.
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