EVERYBODY WANTS TO BE A STAR

A pair of psychiatrists in Montreal have begun research into a new form of mental illness in which a person believes that his or her entire life is the central story of a reality television show. The syndrome has been dubbed the “Truman Show Delusion” by doctors Joel and Ian Gold who have personally studied five patients suffering from the delusion and have learned of six more cases since they started discussing this topic at psychiatric conferences. The Truman Show Delusion supposedly differs from more traditional mental illnesses because entire worlds are created by the person at the center of the paranoia. "I realized that I was and am the centre, the focus of attention by millions and millions of people," explained one of the patients the Golds are studying. "My family and everyone I knew were and are actors in a script, a charade whose entire purpose is to make me the focus of the world's attention." (National Post)