>>7Terry is schizophrenic. Being schizophrenic doesn't mean you're stupid or that you prefer being solitary, it does mean that your grasp of time and timing is distorted. From his point of view, he experiences that his life is under the control of other people. It makes it difficult to trust other people because they're able to "read your mind" when in reality, you've said something but your brain failed to process that event properly.
Terry was already a skilled programmer long before his illness grew. His human need for social contact wasn't changed after his illness grew. What did change is his ability to trust any person and especially the government authority who are "able to read his mind and plant thoughts into his head".