Truman syndrome: what it is, symptoms, causes and treatment

Truman syndrome leads people to think that they live in a "reality show". Let's see how it is.

One of Jim Carrey's most famous movies is "The Truman Show", a film that narrates the life of Truman Burbank who, unbeknownst to him, is part of a reality show where the people he interacts with and the environment in which he lives are not real, but actors and sets of a television program watched by millions.

This film, which is already a classic and a cult work in the film industry, has served to give its name to a peculiar syndrome in which delusions of persecution and delusions of grandeur are shown in equal measure: Truman syndrome.

This peculiar disorder is not very well known, although there are already a few documented cases of people who claim to have been victims of their own reality show. Let's take a closer look at what this modern man with a movie name is all about.

Truman syndrome - what is it?

Truman syndrome, also known as the delusion of The Truman Show (The Truman Show delusion), is a disorder with delusions of persecution and delusions of grandeur in which the patient believes that he is part of a reality show and that he is the protagonist of the show.. He may also believe that his life is a theatrical play or that in some 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 is named after one of the most famous and emblematic films of the Canadian-American actor Jim Carrey, "The Truman Show" (1998).. The film depicts the life of Truman Burbank, an individual whose life is recorded 24 hours a day and broadcasted on television without his knowledge. The protagonist, who believes he is nothing more than an insurance salesman living in a small town, does not know that the exposure 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 his reality show.

As 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, relationships with others, the world around them... they believe that everything has been created to satisfy the audience of the show, strategies of the show's director to keep viewers happy. They believe that their life is nothing more than a play, and that if they want to live a truly independent life they have to run away from it, no matter what.

History of this syndrome

The main researchers of the Truman syndrome are the 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, a patient who claimed that his relatives were actors in an unscripted television show. His delirium 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 in the psychiatric hospital where Gold worked.

After seeing a few cases, the Gold brothers became experts on this syndrome, who decided to christen it Truman syndrome not only because of the clear similarities between the patients' cases and the film, but also because most of them had seen "The Truman Show" and felt and had identified with it. One might even say that some cases had made the inflection believing that the movie had been a kind of cue to conclude that their life was a show.

Although Joel and Ian Gold had been seeing patients with delusions of this type since 2002, the term "Truman syndrome" was first coined, they coined the term "Truman syndrome" in 2008 when they noticed a pattern among cases of the same type.. Joel Gold, 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 young white men between the ages of 25 and 34.

As a result of their clinical experience, the Gold brothers have written a book in which they explain this delirium, as well as exemplifying it with the history of many patients: "Suspicious Minds: How Culture Shapes Madness". In this publication, the Golds explain that delusions can be strongly influenced by the brain's interaction with the social world, and are not only the result of biology or dysfunctional brain connections. Culture and the media can exert a significant influence on the way mental disorders manifest themselves, as in the case of the syndrome of mental retardation.as in the case of Truman syndrome.

Despite their research and the many publications by the Gold brothers, 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 the psychotic disorders and with delusional features, such as schizophrenia.

Symptoms of Truman syndrome

As we have highlighted above, Truman syndrome is not found in the DSM. However, it is possible to highlight a series of symptoms that characterize people suffering from this peculiar psychological problem of a delusional nature, with symptoms and features that coincide with those of psychotic disorders.:

• The onset of psychotic disorders usually manifests between the ages of 18 and 30 years.
• Disorganized language or thoughts.
• Delusions or hallucinations.
• Affective disturbances.
• Inappropriate behaviors.
• The individual feels watched and persecuted, and tries to escape from that feeling.

The Truman syndrome involves several effects on health, since the sufferer engages in irrational and inappropriate behaviors.. In the most severe cases, the syndrome can worsen and end up in mental disorders such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, chronic stress and anxiety and depression.

Health consequences

Truman syndrome 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 their social environment is not real, that they are actors and that they are being kept trapped in a reality show, they may try to break free by resorting to violence.

Although this syndrome is not well known, there have been several cases of people who have There have been several cases of people who have injured or even killed their family members and acquaintances in order to escape from the reality show.. Among these cases we find the following.

Two with names and surnames 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 he could escape his own Truman show. Arriving in New York, he attacked two children and their mother.

One of his most curious cases involved a man who traveled all the way to New York after the events of September 11, 2001, to to make sure that the terrorist attacks were a plot twist in his own Truman show.. The guy went there to check if the World Trade Center was still there and prove that it was all 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 show's cameras were secretly recording him, even on election day 2004. The patient said that this was happening to him because he believed that the president of that legislature, George Bush, was a Judas and therefore had captured the attention of the media and that he had created his own show so that the authorities would be aware of his opinions and, thus, be persecuted by them.

One of the Gold brothers' patients was an upper-middle-class war veteran who wanted to climb the Statue of Liberty because he believed that, by doing so, he could free himself from his own show. 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 for thousands and thousands of people .... My family and everyone I know were and are actors following a script, a farce whose purpose is to make me the center of everyone's attention."

Treatment

The treatment of Truman syndrome shares features with those applied for the rest of psychotic and delusional disorders. The main route is the pharmacological treatmentusing atypical antipsychotics as first option, combined if necessary with benzodiazepines, antidepressants, hypnotics and eutimizers. Electroconvulsive therapy is also an option, although not as popular among patients and their families.

The psychotherapeutic option resorts to the classic cognitive-behavioral treatment. However, this treatment is difficult because the patient may come to believe that the psychotherapist is playing a role as well, 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 in a reality show. These are complicated cases to treat.