There's an interesting NYTimes article today about "Truman Syndrome:"
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/28/fashion/28truman.html That is, the delusional belief that your whole life is a conspiratorial reality show a la Jim Carrey in "The Truman Show."
The article talks about how the delusions experienced in a culture can highlight some of the general fears and worries affecting that culture at large. It stops short at theorizing on what this particular syndrome says about reality TV, and about our culture. Maybe everyone's scared of reality TV?