The Truman Show Delusion

Umm, no. These people would be delusional about something else otherwise, they just happen to have fixated on one aspect of contemporary culture (which has been common in delusions for as long as they've been recorded). The specific delusional schema is historically informed; delusions themselves aren't, as the article points out.

"Although some psychologists scoff at the notion that cultural Zeitgeist can shape delusions, the phenomenon has precedence."

said scoffers should be stripped of any accredidation. wtf.

search "signs and symbols", a short story by nabokov, where the kid has "referential mania."

J0hn OTM: This doesn't sound all that distinct from a lot of forms of paranoia / paranoid schizophrenia, just with a new imagined technique.

One could probably have noticed the same kind of shift a few decades ago, whenever it was that lots of paranoid schizophrenics started having delusions about electronic surveillance or being surrounded by conspiracies of spies -- that's kind of a commonplace/cliche at this point, but surely nobody was harboring delusions along those lines until after WWII or so.

yeah props to the article for not going overboard and getting swept up in the seeming newness of this disorder by quoting dude talking about microchips, radio surveillance, etc

I can't wait until someone makes a movie about people with the delusion that they that they're being secretly filmed for a reality show, and then mentally ill people have meta fantasies about that scenario.

there's probably all kinds of degrees of delusion, in that this is universal and unavoidable to much smaller extent, in terms of seeing yourself as the still point of the turning world, and overestimating the importance of your role in the world around you. I could see how it could slide into something like this pretty easily if your perseption was a little off.

ah yes The Truman Show Delusion Show Delusion
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