Baggage Check: Reality Delusions

Dr. Andrea Bonior dives into the world of psychology.

IN A NEW example of life imitating art — if you are so bold as to call reality television art — researchers are beginning to collect examples of individuals who have delusions that they are in a reality show.

Such people are plagued with thoughts that their everyday lives are being played out for a television audience, just like Jim Carrey's character in the 1998 film "The Truman Show." The difference here, of course, is that in Truman's case, the show was real and he was unaware of it (until the very end of the film). In the case of the delusions, no show exists, but those suffering cannot be convinced of that.

This is a classic reminder of how cultural forces shape the ways our biological vulnerabilities manifest themselves. Delusions — serious and distressing symptoms that are most commonly associated with thought disorders like schizophrenia, severe mood disorders, or long-terms substance abuse — are not themselves caused by the advent of reality shows. But once someone has the genetic propensity and additional environmental stressors to develop them, that's when these cultural nuances take hold, and can create the differences between the delusions of 2008 and the delusions of 1940.

Psychologists call this combination of factors the diathesis-stress model; it helps explain one's proclivity for developing anything from depression to eating disorders to a fondness for girls with tattoos of dolphins. It's not just nature or nurture, but the complex interaction of both of those elements that cause us to be who we are.

It's rare, though, when an example is so striking. One can only imagine the delusions that might exist in the virtual-reality world of our great-grandchildren.