The Truman Show delusion

The Truman Show delusion, informally known as Truman Syndrome, is a type of persecutory/grandiose delusion in which patients believe their lives are staged plays, reality television shows, or are being watched on cameras in general. The term was coined in 2008 by brothers Joel and Ian Gold, a psychiatrist and a neurophilosopher, respectively, after the 1998 film The Truman Show. It is not officially recognized nor listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of the American Psychiatric Association.

Rapid expansion of technology raises questions about which delusions are possible and which ones are bizarre.

The Truman Show is a 1998 comedy-drama film directed by Peter Weir and written by Andrew Niccol. Actor Jim Carrey plays Truman Burbank, a man who discovers he is living in a constructed reality televised globally around the clock. Since he was in the womb his entire life has been televised, and all the people in his life have been paid actors. As he discovers the truth about his existence, Burbank fights to find an escape from those that have controlled him his entire life.

The concept predates this particular film, which was inspired by a 1989 episode of The Twilight Zone in its 1980s incarnation, titled "Special Service," which begins with the protagonist discovering a camera in his bathroom mirror. This man soon learns that his life is being broadcast 24/7 to TV watchers worldwide. Author Philip K. Dick also wrote short stories and, most notably, a novel, Time Out of Joint (1959), in which the protagonist lives in a created world in which his "family" and "friends" are all paid to maintain the illusion. Later science fiction novels repeat the theme. While these books do not share the reality-show aspects of The Truman Show, they do have in common the concept of a world that has been constructed, by others, around one's personal aspects.

...
Wikipedia