A recent BBC clip featured grown men who genuinely believe they are four-year-old children. Not in a metaphorical or nostalgic sense, but in actual cognition and identity. This isn’t performance art or social commentary—it’s a complete renunciation of adulthood. The most unsettling part? They aren’t pretending. And that is the only reason I find it fascinating enough to write about, as the merit is something that defies any sense, but yet must be taken seriously as a precedent of this day and age.
Age regression, a defense mechanism identified by Freud, is common in trauma survivors. Under extreme stress, people may temporarily revert to childlike states. However, these episodes are usually brief. What we see here is an intentional, structured retreat from adulthood, one that rejects biological, cognitive, and social reality.
Clinical psychology defines delusions as fixed false beliefs resistant to contradictory evidence. If a man sincerely believes he is Napoleon, we call it mental illness. Yet, if he insists he is four, society hesitates. Why? The modern emphasis on subjective identity over objective reality blurs distinctions between psychological disorders and social trends.
Adulthood comes with stress, responsibility, and existential uncertainty. Studies show chronic stress can impair decision-making and trigger cognitive regression. However, what separates temporary retreat from pathology is permanence. These men abandon work, relationships, and financial responsibility, embracing a role that absolves them of adulthood’s burdens. Yet they aren't reverting to, say, a teenager and an interesting time of one's life, nor are they choosing to identify as someone who has a driver's licence, enjoys sex, and alcohol. No, the men are giving up all the attributes of age and subjecting themselves to the sheltered life of a toddler. It seems an undesirable choice yet there they are.
This movement reflects a larger cultural shift. As identity becomes increasingly self-defined, society faces an ethical and legal dilemma: Should a grown man who identifies as a child receive the legal protections of one? If perception overrides fact, where do we draw the line?
Whether these men suffer from dissociative disorders, schizophrenia, or a new cultural phenomenon, the implications are serious. If this is a psychiatric disorder, it requires treatment, not validation. If performative, it signals a troubling erosion of reality itself.
Society has long accommodated eccentricity, but when personal delusions demand legal, medical, and social legitimacy, we enter dangerous territory. The question isn’t whether these men believe they are children—it’s whether we are willing to pretend along with them.