Web of Delusion

PSYCHOLOGY

Do you ever get the feeling that the Internet is out to get you? You've got company.

Psychological delusions involving the Net are becoming increasingly common among paranoid schizophrenics, according to a recently published study in Southern Medical Journal.

"I've been seeing these cases ever since the movie The Net came out," says University of South Florida psychiatrist Glenn Catalano, the study's lead author. "That Sandra Bullock really started something." Catalano believes Net delusions constitute a new psychotic subtype, and he cites two compelling case histories:

Case 1: A 40-year-old man shot himself in the face in response to a delusion that friends had played an embarrassing prank on him. He says they placed on the Internet photographs of him masturbating and videos of him and his girlfriend having sex. He also believes his friends placed a link between his Web site and his body so that, when Web surfers browsed on his site and hit certain keys, they could cause his extremities to jump.

Case 2: A 41-year-old man claims he is a witch and that he runs an online advice service for new witches. He reports that he creates Web sites for others, and he believes his powers are so strong that he can surf the Internet using only his mind. He also says that he receives magnetism from the Internet each day at 2, 4, and 7 p.m.

"Both patients," write the authors, "had minimal, if any, personal experience with computers or the Internet." Think of what a few chat sessions would have led to.

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