1. Introduction. The memoir A Beautiful Mind, tells the story of John Nash, a brilliant mathematician who begins to develop symptoms of schizophrenia during graduate school (Hallowell, Sherwood & Howard, 2001). The movie shows the highs of John’s life, and the lows that follow as a result of his worsening schizophrenia. By showing the progression of John’s illness throughout his life, the movie is able to detail the crippling effects that schizophrenia can have on one’s life. Additionally, the movie shows the signs and symptoms of schizophrenia, and the medicine that was used to treat it. Most importantly, however, the movie is able to reduce a stigma that is often associated with schizophrenia by depicting a highly intelligent and successful …show more content…
Treatment. John was hospitalized against his will in a mental institution with close watch by a psychiatrist. He is treated for schizophrenia with shock therapy using insulin treatments. He is also given medications in pill form that he must take throughout the day, although the pills are never named in the film. Also, toward the end of the film and during the end of John’s life, he starts taking the “newer medications.” Based on his behavior on the newer medications, they had less of a blunting effect on his personality. According to Kahn and Sommer, the best way to treat schizophrenia is to intervene in the process of the disease before deteriorations in the brain occur, which can be irreversible (2014). Additionally, it has been found that over long periods of time, antipsychotic medications do not reduce the frequency of psychosis schizophrenia (Harrow, Jobe, and Faull, 2014). Despite this fact, antipsychotics remain the first line of treatment for schizophrenia (Lehman, Steinwachs, 1998). This is consistent with the movie. John Nash continues to experience hallucinations despite the use of medications; however, his delusions decrease as the movie goes on. Although the medications helped, they did not completely eliminate his symptoms. According to Kring, in addition to antipsychotic medications, social skills training can also be affective (2013). This is also evidenced in the movie when John seeks a job at Princeton to gain more social interaction and develop better relations with his peers. Shean agrees with this and claims that antipsychotic drugs should be a supplement to psychosocial therapies (2013). Although John never had any formal therapy, or at least the movie did not show it, the movie still emphasized his need for social interaction in addition to his medicine to get
Through John's interference he turned what was considered a minor case of a chemical imbalance into to full blown schizophrenia. During the turn of the century, which is when this story took place, what scientists knew of the human mind wouldn't fill the inside of a matchbook. This was for certain the case when it was a woman who was the patient. If there was any deviation in the accepted behavior of a woman as deemed by society, the woman was considered hysterical. When dealing with these patients, instead of seriously considering the consequences of their actions, they went along with obscenely stupid notions on how to deal with problems of the mind.
In the movie A Beautiful Mind, the description of schizophrenia is shown in many accurate ways. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) states that the symptoms of this disease are delusions, hallucinations, disorganized speech, or unorganized or catatonic behavior. People with schizophrenia are also socially withdrawn and awkward when in contact with other people. These traits of the sickness are shown in detail throughout the movie by way of the character John Nash’s struggle with the disease. Nash is a very intelligent professor but believes he is working with the government to foil a Soviet attack plot. Nash eventually goes onto win a Nobel Prize for one of his theories. The movie shows the effects of schizophrenia on not only one man, but also on the friends and family of the ill individual. Treatment is discussed but not to any great length due to him ignoring the doctor’s orders on medication. Overall the movie shows some very prevalent traits of the disease in great detail during certain parts of the film.
Classical antipsychotic treatments are commonly used to treat schizophrenic patients with major positive symptoms of schizophrenia, such as Thorazine, Haldol, and Stelazine (Gleitman et al., 2011). Antipsychotic treatments are usually administered with a variety of psychosocial treatments including social skills training, vocational rehabilitation, supported employment, family therapy, or individual therapy (Barlow & Durand, 2014). This is to reduce relapse and help the patient improve their skills in deficits and comply in consuming the
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
... While there are individuals who have trouble communicating, there are individuals like John Nash who have power to communicate but are troubled with other symptoms of schizophrenia such as persecutory delusions. In short, I have learned that mental disorders are complex; therapists must approach every disorder with the same amount of seriousness so that they can be helpful to their patients. Also, the restrictions for each disorder must be specific and narrow so that it is possible to accurately diagnose a patient and avoid a misdiagnosis. By learning about the ridged qualifications for different illnesses I have gained a greater grasp on the biological aspect of mental disorders, and how different medications can interact internally within different chemical imbalances in the body.
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).
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.
“A Beautiful Mind” is a remarkable movie that sheds light on a complicated and debilitating disorder, in which the person seems to have no control over. It is enlightening and heart warming, I would highly recommend this movie. I must admit, the first time I watch the movie, I went into it not knowing anything about schizophrenia and when it was over, I still felt like I didn’t fully understand the disorder; however, the second time I watched with the knowledge of what schizophrenia is and all of the various symptoms and I find it astonishing that Nash was able to overcome the disorder by sheer willpower over his own mind, as he chose to ignore the voices in his head.
The movie, A Beautiful Mind, depicts the life of John Nash and his struggle with the disorder, showing the symptoms and treatment methods used during the time period. In the movie, the main character, John Nash, experiences positive symptoms in which bizarre additions are added to the person’s behavior like disorganized thinking or in Nash’s case, hallucinations. At one point in the movie, John could be considered to have tactile hallucinations (sensations of tingling, burning) mixed with his visual and auditory ones when Parcher implants a device into his arm, causing a stinging or painful sensation. His visual and auditory hallucinations, although auditory hallucinations are considered more common in schizophrenics, the audience is not aware of these symptoms until mid-way through the movie, however, the nonexistent “people” he sees start in grad school with the first one being Charles Herman, his “roommate.” During this time, the main character would be in the prodromal stage of the disorder where the function is decreasing and the symptoms come on gradually at a rate unnoticeable to others, because he is
New drugs are being made in order to address the issue of undesirable and intolerable side effects of conventional antipsychotic drugs. Works Cited Comer, R. J. & Co., Inc. (2011). Fundamentals of abnormal psychology. New York, NY. Worth Publishers 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.
The typical treatment for this diagnosis would be Anti-Psychotic medications. Unfortunately for John, he is a mathematician and a teacher. The side effects of the medications are highly detrimental to his profession due to the cognitive impairment that they can cause. This slowed mental process combined with the inability to emotionally and physically relate to his wife, Alicia, would absolutely cause noncompliance in taking his medications. Another avenue of treatment would be cognitive therapy, which becomes apparent when John has his own breakthrough later in the movie by realizing that Marcy (one of his hallucinations) never ages, therefore she cannot be ...
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.
In the film, John is diagnosed by a psychiatrist with schizophrenia. Given his symptoms, I would agree with the diagnosis. At the beginning of the film there does not seem to be anything wrong with John. In the beginning of the film, he is shown as a normal person attending Princeton University. However, he is obviously somewhat reserved and admits to his roommate early on that he doesn’t really care for people. This shows that he has some social withdrawal, which is a negative symptom of schizophrenia (p.474). Though it is not directly stated in the film, this may be due to a
John is afflicted with paranoid hallucinations; by the time he is taken to a mental hospital under the care of the mysterious Dr. Rosen, he is diagnosed as having an advanced case of schizophrenia.