British psychiatrists claim to have discovered three particularly (post)modern forms of 'culture-bound delusion' at the intersection of mental illness, culture and society. They have termed these psychoses 'Truman syndrome', 'internet delusion' and 'climate change delusion':
Psychosis in the 21st century looks something like this: You think your every move is being filmed for a reality television show starring you, and that everyone in your life is an actor.
Or you think you are under intense surveillance by an army of spies, whom you refer to as the "www people," as in the World Wide Web, and they wiretap your furniture and appliances.
Or else you refuse to drink water because you fear that another cup drawn from your faucet will, once and for all, deplete the world's water supply.
Some psychiatrists say these delusions represent underlying mental disorders that have been influenced by the cultural landscape.
But the obvious counterpoint is this: most of us really are under constant surveillance by cameras wherever we go, and by our web browsers when we're at home, and climate change really is a silent apocalypse unfolding all around us. So how are fears about this anymore delusional than, say, exaggerated fears of spiders and clowns?
According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), a delusion is a false belief not grounded in reality and held with absolute conviction despite all evidence to the contrary. Conversely, the so-called delusions described in the British report seem to be quite substantially grounded in reality, although undoubtedly exaggerated.
To ask the obvious: Why aren't the Bush administration, who've consistently denied the existence of widespread government surveillance and the reality of global climate change, considered clinically delusional, and the poor subjects of the British study considered at least somewhat sane?
Now that the RNC is over and the riot police have gone home, I guess I can at least stop wearing my tinfoil hat.
