A Beautiful Mind Analysis

The film “A Beautiful Mind”, based on a true story, effectively displays abnormal

psychology, partially the life of John Forbes Nash with classic positive symptoms of a

schizophrenic. Schizophrenia is a psychotic disorder marked by delusions, hallucinations,

disorganized and incoherent speech, inappropriate behavior, and cognitive (C. Wade, C. Tavris,

2008, p.394). John Nash is a genius, highly intelligent, a brilliant mathematician and Nobel

Prize winner in economics for his contributions to the mathematical concept called game

theory suffers from severe mental illness, as he experiences most, if not all, of the symptoms of

paranoid schizophrenia. The John’s early warning signs as a socially withdrawn, suspicious and

paranoid of peers, anxious and fidgety around others have been noticed from the moment that he

starts college at Princeton University.

During his University he has the stress of a new, unfamiliar and competitive

environment. John retreats to his room from that situation only to experience further social

isolation as he looks from his window at students on the outside interacting with one another. At

this moment of high stress, a positive symptom of schizophrenia emerges, an auditory and visual

hallucination, paranoid ideations, delusional thinking, and a distorted perception of reality.

John experiences the friendship of Charles, imaginary roommate, via auditory and visual

hallucinations, when in reality he was in single occupancy room. The hallucination of Charles

allows John to take himself from the library to a social environment to eat, drink beer, play

pool and be with his peers. John uses this opportunity to state to himself, through the image

of Charles, that, “…I don’t lik...

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...evere mental illness including schizophrenia are at a

significantly greater risk of being victims of both violent and non-violent crime. Schizophrenia

has been associated with a higher rate of violent acts, although this is primarily due to higher

rates of drug use (Wikipedia). The real life story of John Nash is the very rare exception.

In conclusion, I believe that combining biological treatment of schizophrenia with the

cognitive and behavioral therapies, family therapy, and assertive community therapy is might be

very effective choice for recovery and reduce relapses and hospitalization. The importance of

interpersonal relationships has a very powerful role in our lives. They are able to motivate the

person with mental illness into wanting to change, and they replace a pessimistic or unrealistic

story with one that is more hopeful or attainable.