Episode 034: This is One Reality Show That Definitely Isn’t Ethical—The Truman Show (1998) with Mehwish Safdar

Join Alex and Virginia Commonwealth University undergrad Mehwish Safdar in a discussion of the various psychological concepts in the wildly unethical, but touching lark The Truman Show (1998). The film stars Jim Carrey, in a shift from his sillier roles earlier in the 90s, as the titular Truman Burbank. He’s the real person in an elaborate reality show. Joining him are Ed Harris and Laura Linney as the creator Christof and his fake wife, respectively. It’s a fantastic ride and could be useful in discussions beyond ethics!

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Legal stuff:
1. All film clips are used under Section 107 of Title 17 U.S.C. (fair use; no copyright infringement is intended).
2. Intro and outro music by Sro (“Self-Driving”). Used under license CC BY-SA 4.0.
3. “Et Voila” used under license.

Episode Transcription

TRUMAN: Good morning.

LITTLE GIRL: Morning.

WOMAN: Good morning.

TRUMAN: Oh, and in case I don’t see you, good afternoon, good evening, and good night.

ALEX SWAN: Yes, it’s a really good catch phrase, but I’m curious as to the situation that you developed that in, like what made you think, “OK, I’m going to come up with a catchphrase to say good morning and then because I don’t think I’m going to see them, I’m going to say all the rest of them. Good afternoon, good evening, and good night. I don’t I don’t get that. Where does that come in? Because if I could somehow bottle that catch phrase juice. I’d totally use it myself. There we go. The psychology… where psychology meets. film… hmm. I like that, hmm.

ALEX: Hey, everybody, and welcome to the CinemaPsych Podcast, the podcast where psychology meets film. I am your host, Dr. Alex Swan. And today’s episode, we are going to delve into the early workings of what probably was the beginning of the reality TV movement. That’s right. We are going to be talking about the Truman Show. Film came out in 1998. Of course, some reality TV shows had been on the air before that. The Real World and Road Rules on MTV. But honestly, this is like the intro to the last 20 some years of watching people be themselves, I suppose. But there is one big difference. The Truman Show is about a guy who has no idea that he’s being watched and the film watches him and we watch him in this film, sort of a meta-watching of a-of somebody watching… In any case, we watch him realize that his life is a bit-of a bit fake. We’ll say a bit, a bit, just a just a bit fake. The film stars Jim Carrey as the eponymous Truman Burbank and some other big names are in here. Ed Harris plays Christof, who will be referring to quite a bit. He is the creator and executive producer, director, I’m sure a writer. I’m sure he has all all of the hats for The Truman Show. Specifically, Laura Linney plays Truman’s wife, Meryl. Noah Emmerich plays his best friend, Marlon. Natasha McElhone, I think that’s how you say it. I’m I’m not very good sometimes with Scottish names, but—or Irish names. But she plays Lauren, the sort of person that is the impetus for all of the thinking in Truman’s head that this isn’t real. Oh, and then a couple of other big names appear in very small roles. I was surprised to as I watched this, I’ve probably seen it maybe three or four times, but it has been a while since I’ve seen it. I was surprised to see Paul Giamatti as a, you know, guy with a few lines. He plays the director or at least the control room director. I was surprised to see him, but there he is. Yeah. So you know this film has been a staple, I think, in Jim Carrey’s career, and we are going to explore this in our episode. The other thing that I wanted to mention is that the podcast, as I think I’ve mentioned in maybe one or two episodes previously, the podcast was granted a small amount of money from the Society for the Teaching of Psychology, APA Division Two. So we are-have been supported by organizations. So we we have we have made it y’all. We have made it. And with that, let’s jump in to this film discussion, the psychology of The Truman Show.

ALEX: My guest host today is Mehwish Safdar. Now, this is a bit of an interesting guest because she is not a professor or an instructor of psychology. She’s actually a psychology undergraduate. And I wanted to do this special episode because she cold-emailed me, well through Dr. Ellen Carpenter at Virginia Commonwealth. Cold-emailed and was like, hey, I’m interested in talking about movies and psychology. And I thought to myself, now that’s a go-getter. So if she wants to be on the show and you’re going to love it. Mehwish is a junior at Virginia Commonwealth University studying psychology and sociology, which is an awesome combo. Really perfect combo, especially with our conversation today. She enjoys film. I mean, that’s a bit of a no-brainer if she’s going to be on the show, right? And finding the psychology in those films. So Mehwish, welcome to the show!

MEHWISH SAFDAR: Thank you. And also a shout out to Dr. Ellen Carpenter for introducing me to you, which led me to this opportunity. I’m so excited.

ALEX: Yeah, exactly. Great. Well, I am happy to have you on. And so, as I do with all my guests, regardless of who they are, I first want to ask you about film. As-as your-as your intro bio said you enjoy films. So let’s let’s talk about that. What do you love about movies? What what what draws you to films? And is there anything that you just have to say and roll your eyes about it?

MEHWISH: Well, first of all, who doesn’t love film?

ALEX: I know a few people.

MEHWISH: Wow.

ALEX: It’s real!

MEHWISH: Wow. But I love observing people and figuring out why they act the way they act and why they are the way they are. Its—film gives good examples with psychology and sociology.

ALEX: Yeah, that’s I mean, that’s one of the reasons why I started this podcast, right, because I just saw a lot of of it in movies. And so I just wanted to keep watching more and more and more. So, yeah, I share that. I share that perspective and love with you. OK, so how many of your professors do assign movies in their classes?

MEHWISH: Well, I don’t think any of them have.

ALEX: You’re going to put VCU on blast! Yeah…

MEHWISH: I don’t think any of them have.

ALEX: Oh, VCU professors. I mean, you’re missing an opportunity. You have at least one student. And I don’t know how big the major is, but you have at least one student, and that is one too many who are asking—nay, demanding that you get some films in your classes.

MEHWISH: I could start it.

ALEX: Do you agree, Mehwish? You want to start a petition. OK. They can hire me, it’s fine. I’m just kidding, just kidding. OK, so let’s move on to our current movie that we’re going to talk about. And it’s a fun one. It’s The Truman Show. Film came out in 1998, probably Jim Carrey’s first foray into drama. And so what made you decide this film in particular?

MEHWISH: Well, I was looking through which film could be used for this podcast that-that fits psychology. And when people first think of psychology and film, they think of the obvious ones, like Silence of the Lambs, A Clockwork Orange, stuff like that. And The Truman Show isn’t the first thing that comes to their mind. But—

ALEX: I didn’t think of it.

MEHWISH: But it makes so much sense. It’s all psychology. It’s manipulation.

ALEX: It’s basically—what-what film did you equate it to?

MEHWISH: It’s basically the PG version of 1984.

ALEX: That’s an interesting—And you’ve seen 1984?

MEHWISH: No I’ve read the book.

ALEX: You’ve read the book. OK, now I get it. So I see where you’re going with it. I like that. I like that. OK. Well, that’s good. I completely missed out on including this. And I think it’s probably because I hadn’t seen the movie in a while, probably going on 10 or more years maybe. And so it wasn’t on my radar at all as a psych film. But, you know, when I saw it on your list, I was like, oh, my God, I’m such a dummy. She’s she’s 100 percent right. And so I saw that and I said, OK, well, we got to do that one because A, I love the movie , B, I love Jim Carrey. And C, it’s got psych all over, all over in it. And it was awesome to actually rewatch the movie with that lens, because I want to say that the last time I had seen it was probably pre at least graduate school, so pre-2009. So I actually got to watch it with a new set of of lenses. So I want to thank you for that, because I always, I mean, that’s all what I tell my students. I say, you know, even so, we pick a popular movie like Inside Out or something like that, you know, they’ve probably seen the movie. And I’m like, OK, you’ve seen Inside Out. But stay with me because. you’re going to watch it with the new lens, you’re going to watch it with the psych ones, so perfect pick, perfect pick . So I want to give you the floor first. On the strongest one or the strongest concept that you pull from the film would be what would be your OK, your 30 second spot. Mehwish, you’re on the spot. Give me a psych concept from The Truman Show. Ready? Go.

MEHWISH: The conformity. It’s all—

ALEX: The conformity, OK.

MEHWISH: It’s like the whole entire movie is that because the way the actors have to act, they’re just conforming to a perfect society that doesn’t exist, I guess.

ALEX: You want to elaborate on that a little bit?

MEHWISH: The media and the government play a really big role in the show, The Truman Show. And I thought it was really interesting how throughout the show they were advertising products. And even in one of the interviews, Christof said that all of the products were everything in the show was on sale.

ALEX: Yeah, it was on sale. And he yeah, he said that that there are no there are no ads. And so they have to pay for the show through these direct product placements, which I thought was an odd omen, now, in hindsight. Cristoff was telling us something in 1998. He sure was. OK, so conformity, the biggest idea coming out of out of your mind. OK, now what-what I would say is the biggest thing in my mind is actually the ethics of. the entire plot of the movie, right? So Truman was born and essentially sold into the custody of somebody, and he was raised in this closed environment, and he was the only true man. That’s what the name Truman is, because he’s the only true person in there. And so basically a baby is born, sold and given-and given to the custody of a quite a quite a strange person, Christof, who wanted to play God in some manner of speaking.

CHRISTOF: I know you better than you know yourself.

TRUMAN: Never had a camera in my head.

CHRISTOF: You’re afraid. That’s why you can’t. leave. It’s OK, Truman. I understand. ha’ve been watching you your whole life. I was watching when you were born. I was watching when you took your first step. Watched you on your first day of school. OK. The episode when you lost your first tooth. You can’t leave, Truman. You belong here. With me. Talk to me. Say something. Well, say something, goddamn it, you’re on television. You’re live to the whole world.

TRUMAN: And in case I don’t see ya—

ALEX: You know, the this is a perfect movie to talk about ethics without actually having to reference anything that is that is real. You know, like have you have you discussed the past ethical issues of psychology?

MEHWISH: No, I haven’t got I haven’t gotten there yet.

ALEX: No. So humans have been really mean to each other over the course of of human history. Would you agree?

MEHWISH: Yes.

ALEX: Yeah. And and the study of psychology has honestly been not very different. And so one thing you could do with this is not actually have to. Of course, you’d want to present what the ethical issues are or were from real life. But this offers a window into a hypothetical situation that has tangible things that you can associate with it. And so, you know, ultimately, everyone, I think, would agree that this is an unethical thing that Christof is doing and somehow the world is OK with it.

MEHWISH: Yeah, no, that’s so true that—It’s so-it’s disturbing because they’re so into it and they like they know that if it was, then they would not like it. So why are they doing it if it’s somebody else?

ALEX: Right. Yeah, it’s very it’s it’s really voyeuristic. Right. You would have to to consider how just how voyeuristic society had become just by this show. And I know we watch a ton of reality TV. Reality TV has been a very dominant force in television over the last, you know, 23, 24 years since the movie came out. But those people are at least, they know what they’re doing then and they know what they’re getting into. So it’s not really a good analogy because Truman was never knew. And-and I was reading in an alternate draft of the script, it was going to be far darker is when he walks through the sky at the end of the dome and he gives his bow and he says, you know, his catchphrase, and then he walks out and then the movie ends. They were going to actually show a ton of people—cast and-and Christof and on the ledge of some sort. Out that door. And there were going to-it was going to be all heartwarming, except Truman was going to be all rage-y. And he was going to try to choke and suffocate Christof for what he had done. Yeah. So that’s how the movie would have ended had they gone the darker route.

MEHWISH: Well, I always wondered what would have happened on the other side of the door as we saw Meryl no, not Meryl, Sylvia running down the stairs. And I wanted to see what would happen.

ALEX: Yeah, I was it was a somewhat poignant. But of course, the voyeur and us are ultimately unsatisfying ending, but it was it’s perfect because we no longer get to watch Truman now that he’s not on the set anymore. Our our our voyeurism of Truman is done, he’s no longer-he’s no longer camera-ready. You know, he’s—we don’t get-we don’t get to see anymore. So what’s your next big, big psych concept that you spotted in this movie?

MEHWISH: Oh, I found that when they staged Truman’s father’s death—

ALEX: Mm hmm.

MEHWISH: That was a form of classical conditioning.

ALEX: Yeah. Yeah. So if it is classical conditioning, explain to the listeners here what what it acts as the conditioning apparatus.

MEHWISH: The death of his father is the unconditioned stimulus.

ALEX: Mm hmm.

MEHWISH: Truman’s response of fear was the unconditioned response.

ALEX: Mm hmm. Yeah.

MEHWISH: The association of water with the unconditioned stimulus. That water then becomes a conditioned stimulus that produces the conditioned response—

ALEX: That was very—

MEHWISH: fear in Truman.

ALEX: Very good. Yeah. That is that is absolutely right. And when that occurs, we get this specific form called fear conditioning, because this is obviously the fear and this is how many phobias are born. And yeah, I did spot that in the film, too. So well done on the the the the tracing there of all of the pieces. So any any other any other things you noticed

MEHWISH: When he overcomes his fear, that was extinction.

ALEX: Yeah.

MEHWISH: When he was trying to get to the wall at the end.

ALEX: Yeah, he was, I guess, trying to see what was going to be at the end. But yeah, he ultimately hits a wall, right? Yeah, that’s very good. I was reading more of the trivia because I just can’t get enough of it. I was reading that the return of Truman’s dead father basically caused the extinction in a sense, because the thing that was the thing that was causing the the phobia, the one time connection of the death of his father to the water was no longer there, that he no longer had to fear the water because his dad was alive. And because they wrote that back into the show. First, it was a break in. Then they had to you know, they had to write it back into the show because Truman already knew that it was his dad and he wasn’t going to let it go.

MARLON: Yeah, we found him for you, Truman. That’s why I came by tonight and I’m sure he’s got quite a story to tell. Go to him.

CHRISTOF: Easy on the fog. Stand by, Crane Cam. Crane cam. Button cam three.

TRUMAN: I never stopped believing.

CHRISTOF: Wide. Curb cam eight.

TRUMAN’s FATHER: Son!

CHRISTOF: Fade up music.

TRUMAN’S FATHER: Years wasted. I’ll make it up to you, son, I swear.

ALEX: So that was a that’s a good catch, that’s a good catch.

MEHWISH: And he wasn’t really scared of water. He was just scared of the sea because he could drink water.

ALEX: Yeah, right. It was it was more of it being a transportation medium. Right. To to go out on a boat. Right. It was specifically the choppy waters. Yeah. And yeah, right then it did not generalize to other forms of water. How rough would that be? You can’t drink this water. That would that would be that would be quite interesting. But but but you’re right. It’s extinction immediately because he ends up in there. I would be surprised if there were any spontaneous recovery of that, because, again, the only stimulus was his father’s death. Drowning.

MEHWISH: That’s true. Yeah.

ALEX: So that would be that that would be interesting. OK. And I spotted that one, too. The other thing that I noticed as well is he was—he had a fear of dogs. And that is because when he was a kid, they purposefully like sicced the neighborhood animals on him.

MEHWISH: Really?

ALEX: Yes. Yeah. Yeah, you see it very briefly that when he’s a kid, they they essentially allow the dogs, they train the dogs to jump on him. And they probably did that for a long time while he was a kid, did it with maybe slightly larger than him dogs when he was a toddler, an infant and toddler. And then as he got bigger and bigger and bigger, the dogs seemed to stay the same size. But at least I think the dog in the beginning of the movie is a Dalmatian.

MEHWISH: I think it was.

ALEX: So I mean, the dogs are getting bigger as he’s getting older. But yeah, that’s one thing that I that I spotted, which is kind of funny, because on the previous episode we did Awakenings and Dr. Sayer in that movie is afraid of dogs. So I thought that was interesting. The two back-to-back films on the show have a guy have a nervously awkward dude being afraid of dogs. Quite, quite the connection there. So the other thing that I thought was interesting in the movie was fame. That this film is—this film… this TV show has been going on for 30 years, almost. Somebody worked out the math using the the fact that the movie starts on day 10,909 or something like that. They worked out when Truman was born and everything and uh, with with other information. So I thought that was really cool. But, you know, this thing’s been going on for 30 years, the biggest, biggest phenomenon on the planet. You could see it from space. And-And the interesting thing is, one of the one of the slogans and I would imagine an unofficial slogan for the movie was, you know, do it for him or protect him or something like that. And Christof’s fame and just keeping the charade going, you know, leads him to ignore his, you know, his mantra or something like that. The execs obviously didn’t help—the TV execs. The network execs obviously didn’t didn’t help. They were like, what are we going to do with this? The fact that the father was written off the show but broke in to see him again and be a part of the show, you have to wonder, OK, was he doing it for Truman or was he doing it for himself? The fact that this that these people can keep up this lie to be a part of this show, “oh, maybe Truman will interact with me today! Oh, my God. I’m I have to be I have to interact with Truman today,” like the bus drivers or the the bus driver, or then the boat driver, couldn’t drive the boat or drive the bus because he doesn’t interact with Truman. So this behemoth became, you know, a 2008 moniker, you know, a slogan which was “too big to fail.” The show was “too big to fail.” And and fame just covered people’s eyes because they’re like, I’m going to be on The Truman Show and be famous.

MEHWISH: It’s just crazy that that’s just what Christof was after the whole time. And the limits that—the lines that he would cross just to stay famous, just stay relevant.

A:EX: Yeah. I mean, he he makes the comment as the storm is going on and they’re trying to have Truman row back to shore. He’s like, no, you’re going to see him die on TV then or something to that effect. How is—first time I saw it was very jarring, like, oh, he actually wants to see this, see this thing through so organically that he’s willing to to have—commit manslaughter, basically.

MEHWISH: Yeah, just to keep that money.

ALEX: Just keep something going, maybe just just the own bloated ego. So very narcissistic this Christof, because not only does he want to see his vision go through, he wants Truman to know what he did for him, how he did it, which is so Godlike. Delusions of Deus.

MEHWISH: Yeah, it is. It’s like what really got me was that the end, when I watched it carefully, is that all of that never mattered. I’m not sure this is not really the bystander effect, but I guess it’s similar to that, that the two guys at the—I don’t know if they were policemen or not, but when the show was over, there were just like, OK, what else is like? It was never relevant. It was they don’t understand how big of a deal this actually is, that this is someone’s life.

ALEX: Yeah.

MEHWISH: But it’s just a show to them.

ALEX: That’s a good point. It’s a good point. I didn’t actually think of of the viewers in that way or the the, you know, the off the cuff, “Is there anything else on?” that is very interesting.

MEHWISH: And Christof is like so you so into keeping the show running, but the viewers could really care less.

ALEX: And wonder if they would change the channel or if they if they do care. I mean, there were what appeared to be devotees is—the guy who was getting all pruny in the bathtub the entire time. He was in that bath for a long time. It’s-it’s as strange. It really is. But that’s a good point. I like it. What—

MEHWISH: Yeah, that really freaked me out…

ALEX: What else—what what what else did you did you spot in the movie?

MEHWISH: I found that the whole movie is an example of reciprocal determinism.

ALEX: Wow. OK. What is that? I actually don’t know what that is.

MEHWISH: I remember learning about it in Dr. Carpenter’s class. I hope she’s proud of me.

ALEX: I’m sure she will be.

MEHWISH: It’s when a person changes because of their behavior, and the environment and other certain factors. So like in the beginning of the movie, when everything was normal for Truman, he acted normal. The environment was normal. And there was no suspicious thought. But then when something abnormal occurred, like it started with the light falling down and then, yeah, people just acting weird. He started having suspicious thoughts. Then he started acting abnormally. It’s like-it’s like a triangle.

ALEX: OK. Yeah, I dig it. I dig it. Of course, the only thing that pulled him out of the normality was, you know, the light falling and then him seeing his seeing his dad, which I guess what what we don’t know in that reciprocal determinism triangle is what other suspicious things has he come across? What other abnormal things have occurred that came prior to us being inserted in that situation? Because it could be all a lot of little things or it could just have been the one light. But of course, we learn later that Sylvia was one of them. Yeah, I like that. It is a good example of reciprocal determinism, now I’m trying to think now of other movies that that would fit that bill, because that would be a nice-be nice… crop. I’ll have to-I’ll have to noodle on that one. That’s a good catch, good catch. I don’t think I would-I don’t think I would have would have caught that had I even thought about it. But, you know, it’s good to have a term now for something that I that I’ve noticed in things before. Yeah, OK. I like it.

MEHWISH: It makes me wonder about that end when he walks out of the door. I mean, obviously, the whole thing is traumatic for him. So would it all be—if it’s since it’s all over, would he still act normally or will you have trust issues? I don’t know. Something will be happening. If he doesn’t act normal, then, obviously this reciprocal determinism is imbalanced.

ALEX: OK, OK, I get what you’re saying. Yeah, that’s—I love that point, Mehwish, that was that was excellent point, because I like I definitely do appreciate the speculation about what happens at the end, what becomes of Truman. So that is that is a wonderful point. And we’ll get back into a little bit more on this. We’re going to take a quick break. So stay with us.

ALEX: Hey listener, thanks for sticking around this episode. I hope you’re enjoying it. Anyway, I need your help in growing this podcast audience. In past episodes I’ve asked you to share this podcast with five of your friends. Let’s keep doing that. Share this podcast on social media, especially if you really liked an episode. Share that episode. Tell five of your friends or family if they have an interest in film or psychology, or even better both. Growing the audience is our goal for the second year of programming. And so we need your help to get that done. Other ways to contribute to the podcast include tips to our PayPal found on our website, becoming a patron at patreon.com/cinemapsychpod. Rocking some sweet merch from our Spreadshirt shop. And/or leaving us a rating or review on your favorite podcast service. Now back to the show.

ALEX: And we are back with Mehwish Safdar, a junior undergraduate psychology and sociology major at Virginia Commonwealth University. We are talking about The Truman Show and we have a couple more thoughts on it. So we’re going to jump right in. So Mehwish, you you had one more big concept before we get into the last one that we were talking about. You had another concept. Share with listeners what that last concept that you found was.

MEHWISH: So one of the things I found was the frustration-aggression principle that Truman shows when—well, that’s when you’re so frustrated that you start projecting your frustration and aggression onto anything else. And Truman shows that when he was picking up Meryl from the hospital and he was kind of going crazy with the driving and stuff.

ALEX: Yeah.

MEHWISH: And that freaks her out so much, as he was so frustrated.

ALEX: And so what does that lead to in his mind there? What common theme do you get from him holding in his frustration and then bursting?

MEHWISH: The common theme throughout the whole thing is fear.

ALEX: OK, fear. Yeah. I mean, we talked about it just a little bit ago, that, you know, he’s got this fear conditioned response toward water, but I think they use in a in a in quite a bit of a dastardly way, right, so they’re manipulating him at every every turn. And so no wonder he would get frustrated and lash out at the person next to him, which is either Meryl or or his friend Marlon. It’s because they’re manipulating him, they want the—basi—he’s he’s essentially in one of those—I have this image in my mind of something in a box, but as soon as it gets close to the box, it like turns in like a 90 degree right or left or something like that. It was a video game. I’m having weird mental images of something like that, you know, that he’s essentially, you know, Pac-Man and they’re like the walls of the maze are guiding his directions and where the walls are, the manipulations that they make him travel. And it’s like, oh, no, we don’t want them going too far out of town. So we’ll say that the, you know, the bridge has repairs or whatever or, you know, when they get even farther out of town after he is trying to flee with Meryl or kidnap her in the case of what was actually happening. They have the and that fire line that was a weak, weak, weak fireline. I tell you what. But then the nuclear disaster that he runs out of the car run straight through, not caring that these guys are in hazmat suits and whatnot. He does—he gets-he gets all of these roadblocks because they want him to go in a certain direction, finally they get him back into town. But even just even while you were talking about earlier, with the light falling and that being out of the ordinary. Which which draws him out of his normalcy, even that light falling is explained away with crazy weather balloons or weather data satellite or something or other fallen out of the sky. But it wouldn’t have smashed like that if it was fallen out of the sky. It would have disintegrated and made a much larger, much, much larger hole in the ground.

MEHWISH: Yeah, and that made me like, they really could have done so much better at explaining things. Like they thought of such good ways to prevent him from leaving with Meryl, right, but that scene with the elevator. They didn’t do anything. They couldn’t think of anything.

ALEX: Right.

MEHWISH: Good.

ALEX: “Uh, we’re doing some work.”

MEHWISH: And if they really wanted to control him and wanted to prevent him from leaving, why did they educate him on such things?

ALEX: Yeah, that’s a really good point. Why go to the trouble of making him just a super smart dude in all forms and then he’s not going to end up questioning his—

MEHWISH: Exactly.

ALEX: Yeah, you—and that’s even a bigger, broader point that you bring up, which is, the idea that the reason why, you know, ruthless dictators break the education system is because they don’t want people to rise up, because educated people fight the power of some—Yeah, education is the evil of of the dictator, the despot. And we all we know that Christof does not, as Truman’s creator, want to give that up, right?

MEHWISH: Yeah.

ALEX: So that is that is a good grab there. I really like that. So. So we we we have this manipulation of his reality. And so the last thing that I wanted to add before we’re our our our biggun, the big psych one that we’re that is really fun. I wanted to mention the idea of reality, which is going to lead into the last concept we’ll talk about that Christof says during the interview, which is where we get some background about him, as well as the creation of the Truman-The Truman Show. He says during the interview that reality is what we make of it…

CHRISTOF: Bored with watching actors give us phony emotions, and they’re tired of pyrotechnics and special effects. While the world he inhabits is in some respects counterfeit, there’s nothing fake about Truman himself. No scripts, no cue cards. It isn’t always Shakespeare, but it’s genuine. It’s a life.

MERYL: Well, for me, there is no there is no difference between the private life and a public life. My life is my life is The Truman Show. The Truman Show is a lifestyle. It’s a noble life. It is. A truly blessed life.

MARLON: It’s all true. It’s all real. Nothing here is fake. Nothing you see on this show is fake. It’s merely controlled.

ALEX: So that was really important because it goes along with our conditioning that we were we were talking about. Essentially Cristoff and the producers of the show have conditioned. A human being, much in the same way that John Watson talked about how he could condition people. I have I will spare you reading the quote on the episode here. But suffice it to say, he said that he could and I’ll paraphrase that he could get give him 10, 10 babies. And I can condition them to be whatever I want them to be. And he names a really bad profession versus a really good profession. And he he always to the day he died, will believe would believe that he could shape anybody with conditioning techniques, classical conditioning techniques, not even operant conditioning techniques at the moment. You know, at the time, because Watson preceded operant conditioning in its in its current form. So, yeah, he was classical conditioning that he thought he could do this. And so the idea is Truman excuse me, Christof could shape Truman’s reality. But then there’s another kind of reality thing is like, wait, what is what is real and we were we were talking about this with respect to, you know, Truman out of the dome. Who can you trust? Yeah, but Mehwish there is even a bigger psychiatric/psychological issue. So what was your what was your big find-find here?

MEHWISH: So I found that there is a thing called The Truman Show delusion.

ALEX: Yeah. Wow.

MEHWISH: Yeah, the Truman Show delusion. And that’s when people believe that they are being watched.

ALEX: Mm hmm. And specifically a like a TV show or reality show fashion ,yeah?

MEHWISH: Yeah, they think that everything is scripted, that there’s no privacy in their life. It’s the exact opposite of this movie, but it’s cool that this is a thing.

ALEX: I mean, not cool for the people who have it, of course. Let’s—but it is a rather interesting. It is rather interesting disorder and-and you-you found an article on this. So what was that article about?

MEHWISH: The article was explaining more about this and how I think the person who found this delusion, they named it because of the show.

ALEX: Mm hmm. Yeah.

MEHWISH: It’s not really an official thing. Like we can’t say it’s a disorder.

ALEX: Right.

MEHWISH: It’s not official yet.

ALEX: Not in the DSM.

MEHWISH: Yeah, but it leads to them being diagnosed with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder.

ALEX: Yeah, really, it makes a lot of sense, right, because one of the one of the main positive symptoms to schizophrenia, which is one of the more common psychotic disorders, you know, is a break from reality. And that overlay-overlays is all psychotic disorders. But one of the more common positive symptoms are delusions. And these are false beliefs. Those aren’t, you know, not to be confused with hallucinations, you know, not not seeing or hearing or seeing things that are not there. These delusions represent a belief about something. And so as as Mehwish pointed out, you know, they think they’re being-they think they’re being filmed constantly and all of their interactions aren’t real. And so it makes a lot of sense that this is associated with schizophrenia. I was I was surprised that it’s associated with also bipolar-bipolar disorder diagnoses. But I guess now that I think about it, mania could lead to thinking those those delusions are real.

MEHWISH: It makes me think if movies make people feel like they have some type of disorder.

ALEX: Yeah. I wonder if it is, um, relegated to a certain kind of plausible movie. Right. It’s plausible that this could happen. I mean, say for the ethical issues that I mentioned in the first segment, it’s plausible that a true thing like The Truman Show could could occur. I mean, already out were reality shows like The Truman Show-Truman Show. Reality shows like Road Rules and the Real World. I blanked on the second part of the name. So we got the Real World and Road Rules which were two popular—I would imagine popular—reality shows even before The Truman Show came out. So it’s plausible that this thing could happen. So the delusion does strike me as as plausible itself, because the show looked like it worked.

MEHWISH: Yeah.

ALEX: Like, imagine imagine walking around and thinking like every dark, oval shaped. The object in your vicinity is a, you know, a camera or for real, the cameras that are pretty much at every intersection now.

MEHWISH: Yeah. There’s one like in his radio. There’s one in his bathroom mirror. Hmm. I’m just glad this movie was PG.

ALEX: Yeah. That would have been would have been a lot different movie had they increased it and they increased the level of intensity there. Imagine Meryl dead. Just like stabbed in the neck with a product that she—Stanley-Stanley Scissors. “Get them out of your local store!” And you just see her stabbed in the neck in the kitchen with Stanley Scissors in her neck. “You do that one more time, I’m going to stab you in the neck with those scissors!” And she did it one more time, she did it one more time. So regardless of that lighthearted bit there, I did want to end the discussion on Truman Show with a little bit of famous scene-age. So Mehwish. What is your favorite scene from the movie and why?

MEHWISH: The ending! I love the ending so much.

ALEX: So in your in your mind, when does the ending begin?

MEHWISH: When he’s climbing the stairs, that iconic scene, and then he’s at the top and then he hears a voice from the sky. And this made me think of that part through a religious perspective because that’s when the camera showed the sky with the clouds and the sun through the clouds and then it’s Christof. Boys, it’s like God. And Truman doesn’t have any idea of who the director of the show is, he’s in how he looks like at all. So I know he thinks that that’s got. And to me, that seemed like—have you seen The Prince of Egypt?

ALEX: The animated DreamWorks animated? Yeah.

MEHWISH: It seemed like that scene when Moses went to the cave and talked to God. That’s what it looked like to me. Because Christof is like “I am director of the show. I mean, I’m the creator of the show and everything around you.” And I really love the part at the end when he when Truman was like listening to everything that Christof said. And Christof also gets really emotional saying this world is so good and so perfect, and I made it just for you. You don’t want to go outside of this world because it’s cruel or something like that. And then Truman was like, and if “I don’t see you, good afternoon, good evening and good night,” and it’s like he’s rejecting religion.

ALEX: Wow, I-I totally see it now. This is wonderful. That-that is so brilliant, because Christof is God. Truman his man, true man. And Sea Haven represents Eden. Yeah, and it does-and it’s after, you know, he gives the whole spiel like, hey, don’t touch my stuff, my stuff is just on that tree. You can touch everything else. Just don’t touch my stuff. That is the rejection there, I mean, it was obviously the the the analogy breaks down a little bit right there, but you see where I’m going with that, right? But it’s the rejection of that, yeah, and they add basically the end of that story, which is they they had to leave. Right. That’s beautiful. I love that.

MEHWISH: Thank you.

ALEX: So I have to follow that up. Oh, my God. My favorite scene. We have a lot we have a think about this because I’ve just been lost in in in yours now. My favorite scene actually is and I can differentiate. I do love the ending, just like just like you. But I think what I’ll say is my favorite scene is the Trumania.

CONTROL ROOM OPERATOR #1: Wow.

CONTROL ROOM OPERATOR #2: Is he looking at us?

CONTROL ROOM OPERATOR #1: Jesus, do you think he knows?

TRUMAN: Hello.

CONTROL ROOM OPERATOR #2: Better call Christof.

TRUMAN: Hello. Come in, Major Burbank.

CONTROL ROOM OPERATOR #1: He’s back to his old self.

CONTROL ROOM OPERATOR #2: My God.

CONTROL ROOM OPERATOR #1: That’s an unusual cat, my man.

TRUMAN: I hereby proclaim this planet, Trumania of the Burbank Galaxy.

CONTROL ROOM OPERATOR #2: OK, here we go…

ALEX: What it turned out to be was an extended just riff from Jim Carrey completely. I don’t know if it’s completely ad libbed, but it was ad libbed enough. It was it was all improvised by him. Just staring at that mirror with the camera behind it and then him drawing the TV.

MEHWISH: That was fun.

ALEX: Yeah. And him talking about Trumania, and what it is and it was, a poignant scene because it was essentially Truman going, “I, I get it now, I understand everything.” And just right and right after that is the whole “he’s gone and we need to find him” and all of that stuff. So that was his—and because he ends it with that one was that one was free. So the rest of the movie is his escape, so he understands it now, he he completely he gets it. Um, so that’s my favorite scene, Trumania.

MEHWISH: Oh, yeah. Yeah, that’s scene freak the people out, too. They were like, wait.

ALEX: Yeah. Yeah, I’m I’m going to watch it again. But I’m pretty sure that’s what I grab from it. Him him just saying deuces and I was it it was it’s it’s it’s a great little speech to so. That’s it, but then but I honestly the end is up there, too, so for me, there they are on the level there.

ALEX: I want to thank Mehwish Safdar for joining me to discuss The Truman Show. Before we say goodbye, Mehwish, is there anything that you would like to plug? Like your future goals, aspirations? Also if you have a site, if you have your your your socials on there, you can you can add those and… Yeah, let us know what you’re you’re planning to do.

MEHWISH: So I am planning on going to grad school and become a clinical child psychologist.

ALEX: Excellent.

MEHWISH: Yeah. And I heard of this thing called cinema therapy that I might use in my practice.

ALEX: I’m going to have to look that up.

MEHWISH: Yeah. Yeah. I like the—it’s kind of like bibliotherapy. Where they make the patient relate to the book and with kids, they could easily relate to a character in a movie.

ALEX: Yeah. Yeah.

MEHIWSH: Better if it’s a visual.

ALEX: Right. Always better with pictures and your socials?

MEHWISH: Yes. So if you are, you can follow me on Instagram @M X H W I S H H H. You can follow me on Twitter, MehwishSafdar2 and Letterbox, Mehwish Safdar.

ALEX: Nice. I don’t even know what that is. But no, I mean that there are too many things. Too many things. I can’t. I can’t. Oh, maybe I’ll look it up later. But I want to thank you again, Mehwish.

MEHWISH: Thank you.

ALEX: That’s going to do it for this episode! Until the next time, thanks for listening.