A) What disease/psychosis might they be diagnosed with?
And B) What medications might be they on, and what form do those take? (Pills/IV/Injected?)
The reason I ask is related to this story that has been in my head for a while that I might actually set down onto paper (well…onto a file on my computer.)
For the purposes of ‘thinks he is a superhero,’ the protagonist in question thinks that he exists in a comic-book type world with heroes and villians with gnarly powers, and most of the people in his real life all have corresponding “doubles” in the comic-book world, ranging from a sidekick to his arch-nemesis. Well, it might actually be best to say he thought that he existed there, because he does realize now that he is locked up in a mental hospital and that the people he is talking to don’t believe him, and he might think it’s just a parallel universe. But at any rate, he is 100% convinced that he was in this world at some point fighting crime and villians, and that he somehow has to get back there.
Is he aggresive? Like insisting on fighting with crime? Or even actually attacking villains? Does he believe that he is just unspecified superhero (or self-themed one), or he believes that he is specified, known one (like “I am Batman!”)? How about his superpowers? Does he believes he still have them? Does he use/try to use them? Does he believe that they work? Does examination excluded neurological damage (old injuries, brain tumor etc.)? How are his survival skills in normal environment (can he buy groceries, or instead run around the shop screaming “I am superhero!”)? What is his family background?
Really hard to say without more specified scenario. Can be anything from multiple personality disorder, through schizophrenia to true paranoia.
He thinks he is a self-created superhero, ie, not one that would exist anywhere else or one that someone else would have heard of. He thinks he has superpowers, but realizes that for some reason, they are temporarily not working. He blames this on either this ‘new world’ that he is in preventing him from using them, or maybe the one element/material he is vunerable to is near him (remember, he is locked up against his will in a mental hospital, so it’s easy for him to just say the walls contain osmium, which could be his weakness.)
He wouldn’t run around screaming ‘I’m a superhero, villians fear me!’ or even try to fight crime (remember, he acknowledges that for some reason he has ‘lost his powers,’) but at the same time, he would still say his is a hero to anyone who asked, and would spend a lot of time trying to ‘find a way back,’ as it were.
Another question: Let’s say he’s married (his wife being the one keeping him in there and making medical decisions for him,) to what extent does she have medical authority over him? Let’s say this whole thing started when he tried to dish out some vigilante justice and got arrested, and then at the trial he was deemed unfit to stand trial and his wife agreed to put him in the mental health facility. If she gives the doctors approval, can he be given medication and treatments that he doesn’t want? Even if he is screaming not to get them, if his wife says do it, will they do it?
It’s possible the setting might have to be the 1940’s-1960’s, when less was known about mental health and diseases and things like electroshock were more common.
FWIW, there was an episode of the Practice about a guy in a mental hospital because he thought he was Superman. I don’t remember all the details, but IIRC part of the legal trouble was that he jumped out the window thinking he could fly, landed on someone and killed them.
I don’t think that’s quite right, but there was a flying attempt at the end of the episode. One of the opposing lawyers had a heart attack, so the client stripped down to his Superman costume (naturally under his clothing–how no one had noticed him sweating like a pig I’ll never know), proclaimed that he was going for help, and leapt out the window. The fall seriously injured or killed the delusional client.
You’re probably right. I haven’t seen it in a while.
Oh, and there was the short lived DC comic called 'Mazing Man about a guy who thought he was a super hero (note that this wasn’t part of the DC universe, he just lived in a normal, non-super hero world). He was kind of a Don Quixote sorta character. He’d help a little old lady across the street or something and look at it as if he’d once again saved the day. I haven’t read them in many years, but as I recall they sort of touched on the question of how sane he actually was. It was a really wonderfully sweet little series with great characters. I really should pull them out and re-read them.