This is Albert.
Albert is a twenty-six-year-old, single man from western Pennsylvania.
Albert lives with his parents, is an only child, and works at a nearby assembly plant.
Albert believes that he is the star of a reality TV show, filmed by cameras implanted in his
eyes.
He thinks the people in his life are actors, working together to keep the truth from him.
One day, Albert heads to the United Nations in New York City to seek asylum from this
show.
At the U.N., a guard stops Albert at the gate, so Albert throws a punch at the guard and
is taken to Bellevue Psychiatric Hospital.
No one knew it at the time, but Albert was the first patient to be diagnosed with the
Truman Show Delusion.
People with Truman Show Delusion often say their lives are just like Truman Burbank,
from Peter Weir’s 1998 film, The Truman Show.
In the film, Truman is adopted at birth by a television network and brought up on set.
Little does Truman know, but everyone in his life is an actor, and the town he calls home
is actually a giant sound stage in the Hollywood Hills.
But for people with Truman Show Delusion, the opposite is true.
They think they’re the star of a movie or reality TV show when in fact...
they’re not.
Delusions are those ideas that are wrong, that are totally false, that people hold onto
in spite of overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
There are twelve types of delusions that have stayed stable throughout time.
But what does change is the content of the delusions.
In the past, if you experienced a persecutory delusion you might have thought the KGB was
tapping your phone, these days you might think ISIS is after you.
If you experienced a grandiose delusion you might’ve thought you were Napoleon, today
you think you’re the star of a TV show
Delusions aren’t a mental illness in their own right - they’re a symptom.
A symptom of psychosis.
And lots of things can make someone psychotic; dementia, substance abuse, or a mental illness
such as bipolar, or schizophrenia.
But what’s going on inside the brain of people who are experiencing a delusion?
This is Joel, who also works on BrainCraft and spoke to a psychiatrist about delusions.
He recently produced a podcast about all this stuff.
But it was another Joel, Dr Joel Gold, who treated Albert, and first recognized the Truman
Show Delusion is even a thing.
He and his brother, philosopher Ian Gold (not a Joel), have come up with a pretty neat theory
that explains how delusions are formed.
At the heart of their idea are two interconnected systems that link brain, mind, and the environment;
the Suspicion System, and the Reflective System.
The Suspicion System evolved to quickly identify threat.
It’s a reflex, or an instinct, and it’s thought to reside in an area of the brain
called the amygdala.
The Reflective System responds whenever the Suspicion System is set off.
It evaluates whether or not the threat it detected is real.
It’s conscious thought, based in the prefrontal cortex.
Like, say one day you’re just hanging out and suddenly you think, “Hmmm, my girlfriend
seems a bit odd today..”
Maybe she has a new hairstyle, or maybe she’s in a bad mood, or maybe she’s been abducted
and replaced by a robot wait WHAT?!
No way she’s a robot.
This is what happens in a healthy brain.
Your Suspicion System thought maybe your girlfriend’s acting weird because she’s been abducted
and replaced by a robot.
Your Reflective System evaluated the idea, and concluded - no way, that’s ridiculous.
But for some people, the systems goes awry and, according to the Gold brothers, this
is when delusions arise.
If the Reflective System can’t override the whole robot idea - then you have to keep
with that thought.
The Suspicion System will just keep firing, no matter what.
And here’s the thing - over time, the Suspicion System wins out.
Eventually, the Reflective System just gives up, and starts integrating the idea - my girlfriend’s
been replaced by a robot - into how you view the world.
And that’s a delusion.
And why does it matter?
Well we can better understand mental illnesses if we understand the symptoms – in this
case, delusions like the Truman Show delusion.
And in case I don’t see you, good afternoon, good evening and goodnight.
Hey there!
It’s Joel again.
Follow me over to ABC’s All In The Mind to hear my full story with Joel Gold and a
patient who has actually suffered from the Truman Show Delusion.
Follow the link in the description below and check out the full podcast.
It’s worth your while!