What would a medical condition that makes people believe they are a machine be called? [closed]

Question

I have been thinking about a world where there have been incredible advancements in biotechnology. Genetic engineering, advanced bionics and, of course, the long-time human tradition of finding new and innovative ways to kill each other. One of these, is Mechs.

Mechs are useful for more than fighting, they're very useful in construction and farming, really anywhere where heavy lifting and long endurance tasks are required and the regular engineering of humans (be it genetic or machined) simply wont cut it. They have even found uses in space applications, like station maintenance or personal short distance transport. Think of them like Fallout power armor, Halo's spartan armor, or Javelins from Anthem, pictured below.

Of course, these kinds of tools are very useful with military applications. Mostly mercenaries who want to take on very risky and expensive contracts and missions and have the money to be fitted like a walking tank, but they have a lot of use cases in professional militaries too.

There is a massive problem with them, however. There is a strange medical condition that affects users of these mechs that seemingly has no root cause and is not at all understood. It tends to happen with more advanced mechs with more systems (such as more weapons and active defence systems)

Its a condition where people in the mechs start to believe they ARE the mech and are not humans driving them, believing themselves to be sentient AI or something. Users are nearly always incredibly paranoid about being disassembled or tampered with, and will usually fight anyone attempting to remove them from the mech or even get close due to the fear of being EMP'd or sneakily opened up. The condition is treatable simply by removing the person in the mech (simply might not be the best word for it, as they will be actively resisting this), and has no side effects after the fact other than being shaken up and potentially injured from the fight to remove them from the mech.

Currently IRL we have a lot of terms to describe all kinds of psychological issues. This would probably be called a "Persecutory delusional disorder" (people with this disorder IRL believe someone is attempting to harm them) but how would we specify that it is both acute and caused by using a mech?

What would the most medically accurate term be for describing this condition?

Answer 1

While I do support Monty Wild's clean and concise solution, I do want to suggest a catchy title:

Mechanophrenia, or to have the mind of a machine, could be the term used for those humans who believe themselves to be integrated parts of their tech. Note the Greek roots - mekhane from 'engine' and phrenia from phrḗn, 'mind'.

You won't miss the connection from another disorder popularized from media - schizophrenia. In fact it could well be that whoever named this new disorder explicitly wanted to quote on something already studied by the medical community.

This double link might also be used to explain how those affected seem to ignore some basic fact about their biology - e.g. the need for sleep, food, and other nasty biological imperatives.

Edit: Integrated AlexP's suggestion and switched to mechanophrenia from mechaphrenia.

Answer 2

Trivially, this is termed a Delusional Disorder. Medical terminology has no allowance for making catchy titles for these disorders, even if they become common.

However, disorders may also be named after the individual who first described them as something unique or becoming common. If this disorder can be shown to be something other than a common delusion, perhaps caused by use of a brain-machine interface, it may attract such a name.

For example, if I was to describe such a disorder and link it to the use of mecha, it may become known as Wild's Syndrome or Wild's Disorder or something of the sort. If I was being modest (which doctors describing such things rarely are), I might call it a Mechanical Identity Delusion. Obviously, your setting's history and personalities will differ, and you'd have to pick a name yourself.

Answer 3

This would seem to be allied to Prothesis Embodiment. This is the mental process whereby someone who has (say) lost a limb, coordinates themselves with a prosthetic limb. When they wake, they may feel sensations in the missing limb. The prosthesis feels like a foreign object. But with practice, the wearer can add the prosthesis to their self-image: they can move a think as though the prosthetic is part of them.

The same occurs to some extent if you drive a car. To begin with you handle the controls consciously. Later, many of the parts of driving are moved to the unconscious: the car is in effect acting as a large prosthetic. If they drove into another car, they might say "I hit them!" rather than "My car hit their car". The same embodiment happens when you become good at a musical instrument.

It is possible for someone to think they have left their own body. People with Cotard's syndrome believe they are 'dead' or 'empty'. They can even try to commit suicide, feeling that this would somehow 'put things right'. It would be reasonable to extend this to someone who drives a titanic mechanical body to think they have left their own body and become the machine. The person without the machine is 'dead'.

I think some of the Warhammer Titan short stories deal with this sort of thing.