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Introduction
The film, A Beautiful Mind (2001) is the fictional account of the life of a mathematician and the Nobel Prize-winning economist, John Forbes Nash, Jr. in his struggles with schizophrenia. The film was inspired from the unauthorized biography of the same name written by Sylvia Nasar (Wikipedia). Schizophrenia is a chronic brain disorder through which a person has difficulty in interpreting reality which may result to the combinations of hallucinations, delusions, and disordered thinking and behavior though this disease is not associated and cannot be referred to with split-personality but it is solely pertinent to disruption of natural balance of thinking and emotions (Mayo Clinic). This case study will feature the titular character of the film (stated above), John Forbes Nash, Jr. The observations and assessments as well as other useful information covered in this study were all based upon the film, A Beautiful Mind (2001).
I. Preliminary Assessment
The subject John Forbes Nash, Jr. is portrayed as a typical student while attending Princeton University back in 1947. During his stay at Princeton, he would often be seen seated at the far end of the class isolating himself from the rest of his classmates and ultimately doesn’t appear to attend classes at all. He has difficulty associating with people around him though it is implied that he has made a few acquaintances and got to hang out with them at times nevertheless he was referred to as a genius and was extremely intelligent. He appears to have good family upbringing. Aside from difficulty in associating people, he has difficulty in accepting defeat and disappointment (A Beautiful Life (film), 2001).
II. Analysis of the Patient
Mr. Nash claims to have a roommate...
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...nations. We have to note here that the film doesn’t actually portrayed what the real Mr. Nash experiences while struggling from the disease (the real Mr. Nash only had auditory delusions and hallucinations whereas the film depicted both visual and auditory). Nevertheless, the movie has relatively portrayed the disorder accurately and stand firmly within the criteria of hypnosis (addictiontreatment, 2012).
Works Cited
A Beautiful Mind (book) (n.d.) In Wikipedia retrieved in January 13, 2014 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Beautiful_Mind_(book)#cite_note-1
Howard, R. (Director) (2001) A Beautiful Mind [FILM]. Hollywood: Universal Studios Entertainment
Mayo Clinic (n.d.) Schizophrenia Definition. Retrieved from Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research Website: http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/schizophrenia/basics/definition/con-20021077
His schizophrenia is specifically paranoid schizophrenia. This abnormal condition includes delusions or hallucinations that normally have to do with persecutions or grandiosity (Myers 591). Nash’s delusions include Parcher, a government official, Sherman, his “roommate”, and Marcee, Sherman’s niece. Parcher made Nash believe that he is working for the United States government to figure out what the Russians are planning. Parcher and Nash get shot at, which intertwines with paranoid schizophrenia because Nash began to think that the Russians were going to kill him. As a result, he didn't want the lights in the house on and he wanted his wife to go live with her sister. So the main disorder is paranoid schizophrenia which also comes with social and behavior
Impeachment is the ultiomate punishment for a president. It is a long and complicated rout to removing a public official from office. The Constitutional process Article II, section 4 specifies the procedures to be used to remove a public official from office(CNN/All Politics). The constitution states that and president found guilty for bribery, treason, or other high crimes and misdemeanors. There has been a long debate on what should be considered a high crime. Different people in the House share different views. Ultimately it is up to the Hose to decide to drop the charges or further the investigation. If the public official is found guilty a two thirds majority vote from the Senate is necessary. The most recent president to face an impeachment hearing was Bill Clinton. A previous case involving Richard Nixon, Watergate, was held in 1974. Rather than facing an embarrassment with impeachment Nixon chose to resign in disgrace.
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The President of the United States is commonly referred to as the most powerful man in the world. The President is the head of the country which boasts the world’s largest economy, commander and chief of the most powerful military in the world, and has command authority over the largest active nuclear arsenal in the world. However, his power is not unlimited. Throughout the history of the United States, some presidents have attempted to go beyond the powers granted to them. Most of these attempts have ended in scandal. Regardless of whether these actions were for the good of the nation or for personal gain, laws must be obeyed. Otherwise the United States would become the same tyrannical government our forefathers fought to escape from.
Duckworth M.D., Ken. “Schizophrenia.” NAMI.org. National Alliance on Mental Illness, Feb. 2007. Web. 28 March 2010.
Schizophrenia is a serious, chronic mental disorder characterized by loss of contact with reality and disturbances of thought, mood, and perception. Schizophrenia is the most common and the most potentially sever and disabling of the psychosis, a term encompassing several severe mental disorders that result in the loss of contact with reality along with major personality derangements. Schizophrenia patients experience delusions, hallucinations and often lose thought process. Schizophrenia affects an estimated one percent of the population in every country of the world. Victims share a range of symptoms that can be devastating to themselves as well as to families and friends. They may have trouble dealing with the most minor everyday stresses and insignificant changes in their surroundings. They may avoid social contact, ignore personal hygiene and behave oddly (Kass, 194). Many people outside the mental health profession believe that schizophrenia refers to a “split personality”. The word “schizophrenia” comes from the Greek schizo, meaning split and phrenia refers to the diaphragm once thought to be the location of a person’s mind and soul. When the word “schizophrenia” was established by European psychiatrists, they meant to describe a shattering, or breakdown, of basic psychological functions. Eugene Bleuler is one of the most influential psychiatrists of his time. He is best known today for his introduction of the term “schizophrenia” to describe the disorder previously known as dementia praecox and for his studies of schizophrenics. The illness can best be described as a collection of particular symptoms that usually fall into four basic categories: formal thought disorder, perception disorder, feeling/emotional disturbance, and behavior disorders (Young, 23). People with schizophrenia describe strange of unrealistic thoughts. Their speech is sometimes hard to follow because of disordered thinking. Phrases seem disconnected, and ideas move from topic to topic with no logical pattern in what is being said. In some cases, individuals with schizophrenia say that they have no idea at all or that their heads seem “empty”. Many schizophrenic patients think they possess extraordinary powers such as x-ray vision or super strength. They may believe that their thoughts are being controlled by others or that everyone knows what they are thinking. These beliefs ar...
In the film A Beautiful Mind, the protagonist gets diagnosed with the mental illness of Schizophrenia. From the beginning of the film, the protagonist John Nash appears to be a person who isolates himself from those around him. Since a child he was able to achieve incredible things. Throughout the film, we are introduced to several components of the disorder. Through John Nash’s experiences, we come to learn of his illness and how he is able to cope with it.
Once people was alerted to his disorder, they treat John Nash like they did not know how to act around him. His wife assumed he was hallucinating when he was talking to someone she did not see, but it was not the case all the time. For example, she thought he was hallucinating a garbage man collecting garbage late at night, but the garbage man was outside their house. His wife was also getting frustrated with him, while also trying to take care of him. She was frustrated that his senses, emotions, and sex drive was dull. She was truly upset and worried about his hallucinations and delusions. She wanted him to get better. Martin Hansen tried to help him by providing him with opportunities to work with
At this time, his wife was pregnant with their first child. John became paranoid, aggressive and anxious to the point that Alicia was forced admitted him to McLean Hospital for treatment. After being assesses by physiatrists, Nash was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. Despite what was depicted in the movie “A Beautiful Mind”, Nash never believed he worked for the pentagon or saw imaginary people, his delusions his delusions were far more disorganized. At the height of his madness, Nash believed that aliens were speaking to him through hidden messages in the newspaper.
The movie A Beautiful Mind, directed by Ron Howard, tells the story of Nobel Prize winner, and mathematician, John Nash’s struggle with schizophrenia. The audience is taken through Nash’s life from the moment his hallucinations started to the moment they became out of control. He was forced to learn to live with his illness and learn to control it with the help of Alicia. Throughout the movie the audience learns Nash’s roommate Charles is just a hallucination, and then we learn that most of what the audience has seen from Nash’s perspective is just a hallucination. Nash had a way of working with numbers and he never let his disease get in the way of him doing math. Throughout the movie the audience is shown how impactful and inspirational John Nash was on many people even though he had a huge obstacle to overcome.
Nasar, S. (2001).A beautiful mind: the life of mathematical genius and nobel laureate john nash.
The movie "A Beautiful Mind" tells the story of Nobel Prize winner John Nash's struggle with schizophrenia. It follows his journey from the point where he is not even aware he has schizophrenia, to the point where Nash and his wife find a way to manage his condition. The movie provides a lot of information and insight into the psychological condition of schizophrenia, including information on the symptoms, the treatment and cures, the life for the individual and for the individual's family. The movie is effective at demonstrating various concepts related to schizophrenia, and provides an insight into the disease of schizophrenia.
As portrayed in A Beautiful Mind, John Nash is clearly suffering from Paranoid Schizophrenia, although a case could possibly be made for a secondary diagnosis of OCD. His condition is clearly displayed through a pattern of behavior and symptoms including: distorted perceptions of reality, social withdrawal, paranoia, hallucinations, self-inflicted harm and general irrational behavior. He imagines 3 specific individuals throughout the movie, who accompany him throughout the remainder of his life. He avoids social situations, and when faced with them, has a difficult time relating to others, such as approaching a woman in a bar and forwardly asking to skip the usual pleasantries and go straight to sex. Unsurprisingly, this approach fails to achieve his goal. Paranoia is also on display on several occasions, seeing people watching him, believing himself to be spied upon, seeing shadowy figures outside his home. He also believed that an object had been implanted into his arm, prompting him to tear his skin apart in order to remove the object, which was never there to begin with.
In the film “ A Beautiful Mind” John Nash experiences a few different positive symptoms. The first of these positive symptoms are seen through the hallucinations John has of having a room -mate while at Princeton. This room- mate continues to stay “in contact” with John through out his adult life and later this room- mate’s niece enters Johns mind as another coinciding hallucination. Nash’s other hallucination is Ed Harris, who plays a government agent that seeks out Nash’s intelligence in the field of code- breaking.
A Beautiful Mind tells the life story of John Nash, a Nobel Prize winner who struggled through most of his adult life with schizophrenia. Directed by Ron Howard, this becomes a tale not only of one man's battle to overcome his own disability, but of the overreaching power of love - a theme that has been shown by many films that I enjoy.