Sounds as if he is an "Adult-Child". In which case,he
is not fully here,he would be in a 'trance state' which is induced by severe abuse of some sort as a
child. Ask him how his childhood was,but he is
liable to not know/realize he was abused,so maybe
you will have to tease it out of him and read between lines. The technical name for this is,dissociation.