You know how I like to pick apart professionals who make all sorts of logical fallacies when suggesting new diagnoses off the cuff because they’ve personally seen a rise of such cases. Sorry, it’s my failing, and I’m working on it. But in the meantime…
It’s funny, but once you start thinking you’re an expert on a new disorder (that you either created from your imagination — or your patients’ imaginations, or helped to do so), suddenly people start flocking to you for help. I call it the “moth to the light” phenomenon. Then you think it’s a “real” diagnosis, because suddenly of all the people who come to see you. Can you say “self-fulfilling prophecy?”
Meet Joel and Ian Gold — brothers and psychiatrists — who believe in something they call the Truman Show Delusion:
While traditionalists insist that this delusion offers nothing new — it is no different from, say, a deranged man who believes that the CIA has planted a microchip in his tooth — the Gold brothers argue otherwise. [...]
He also says that The Truman Show had an impact on patients that other films did not, no matter how powerful they were. “I never heard people say, ‘ The Godfather, that’s my life.’ ”
Sure. And if we start diagnosing people based upon how much they identify with a particular movie, wow, we’ll have tens of thousands of new diagnoses tomorrow! In fact, I see so many teenage and young adult men who think they’re Batman and really identify with that character, I’m officially coining the “Batman Delusion.” (You heard it here first.)
I mean, who cares — from a diagnostic standpoint — what the delusion is? The specific delusion helps inform psychotherapy treatment, but it doesn’t tell a professional, “Oh, he thinks he’s the King of the World, that means 20 mg of Prozac.” And in terms of psychotherapy techniques or specific treatments for a particular delusion, well, our level of science and data isn’t anywhere near that level.
So while intellectually, this may be a fun and interesting exercise to suggest the Truman Show Delusion is something new and diagnosable, it’s really nothing more — in my mind — than professional grandstanding.
Excuse me, but there’s a couple of emails from people now in my inbox wanting to get treatment for my new Batman Delusion. I have some replies to get working on.
Read the full article over at the National Post: Reality bites: Patients believe their lives are on TV: MDs
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Links to This Article
» DSM-VI: Reality TV Disorder? (7/21/2008)
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4 Comments to
“DSM-VI: Reality TV Disorder?”
Great post 
I’m trying to think of all the different movies people could potentially identify with the characters of leading to new disorders, I wonder what kind of licensing arrangments could be invovled with different studios. Perhaps Hollywood might become as influential as Big Pharma when it comes to continuing education 
of course, I’m still rooting for Depressive Personality Disorder to become a new diagnosis, but I suppose its due to self-interest in that I own http://www.DepressivePersonalityDisorder.com
Perhaps the Psychiatrists have some interest in royalties from the Truman Show? I have to be honest though, I can quote the Godfather and I vaguely remember that Jim Carrey was in the Truman Show. I would think that Godfather may have had more of a lasting influence on many of our patients, though I suppose this whole comment is a bit of a tangent I certainly wouldn’t argue a Godfather Personality Disorder for someone walking around committing Antisocial Acts such as murder but attending the funeral and saying it was just business, nothing personal
I guess I’m not well-informed; I think of reality TV as people so desperate for what might be fifteen minutes of fame they beg for public humiliation and willingly risk their relationships with family. So I wasn’t aware some psychiatrists are diagnosing people with “TV illnesses”. With that in mind, my youngest daughter is pre-delusional, reading everything about the yet-to-be-released movie “Twilight”. My sons, who aren’t in love with any movie or television show, must have disassociative disorders, while their older sister, who is passionate about different bands at different times, obviously has multiple personalities. But my husband…wow. He’s a huge movie buff, and I don’t know how many–from The Breakfast Club to The Godfather–he can recite word-for-word. I thought he was the sane one, but I guess he’s, what? Schizophrenic?
I don’t like TV. Maybe I’m dead.
NO! This is a real disorder, I was diagnosed with bipolar and skitzophrenia (spell?). But I NEVER told anyone what the real problem was. I THOUGHT I was on a reality show, and everyone in the world was involved. I thought everyone was acting and I was playing a part. It got really bad, I never told anyone that part. And I just found out about this. I’m going to tell my doctor today. I would never have believed that someone else was going through the same thing. This is really extreme
Is “TV Disorder” a valid diagnosis in the mental health world and what behaviors and thought processes does it include?
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Last reviewed: By John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on 21 Jul 2008
