The movie A Beautiful Mind shows the range of symptoms and complications of the mental disorder schizophrenia, and also the quest for recovery and return to normal life through proper treatment. The movie presents the typical symptoms of schizophrenia and presents a combination of treatment methods to help Dr. John Nash battle his demons. A Beautiful Mind adequately depicts the struggle of doctors in their quest to find a cure an adequate treatment.
In the movie, A Beautiful Mind, Russell Crowe plays Dr. John Nash; a brilliant mathematician who came up with the game theory of used in economics today and won the Nobel Prize, about 40 years later, in 1994. He is about 31-years-old when he develops schizophrenia and suffers a mental breakdown.
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Schizophrenia is not the same as having a split personality or a multiple personality. People with schizophrenia have trouble distinguishing between what is real and what is imaginary, and may be withdrawn or have trouble expressing normal emotions in social situations. Dr. Nash is very smart, but there are times he loses his mind. His mind swings between real and an imaginary world.
In the film, Nash relies on anti-psychotic drugs during the worst periods of his illness, and his illness flares up when he is not taking them, then seems to improve. But he stops the drugs because the medications make him lose his sex drive and he does not have energy to take care of his baby.
He ends up in the mental institution. While in a mental institution, Nash is treated with insulin coma therapy, in which patients are given insulin to induce a comatose state that lasts about 15 to 60 minutes, five times a week for 10 weeks. The scenes as shown in the movie, are horrific. Apparently this therapy is no longer in use
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There is no treatment for schizophrenia but there are medications and therapies to help manage the symptoms and live a full life. Antipsychotic medications such as Chlorpromazine (Thorazine) are being used. But one of the side effects is that the patients lose white blood cells. These medications are known to have negative reactions with other medications even herbs. It is also difficult to wean the patient off these medications.
Psychosocial therapy is good for people with schizophrenia who are already stabilized on antipsychotic medication. Psychosocial therapy help these patients deal with the everyday challenges of the illness, such as difficulty with communication, self-care, work, and forming and keeping relationships. The patients learn coping mechanisms that help them address these problems, socialize and live a regular life.
Cognitive behavioral therapy can help the patient with schizophrenia refocus his or her thoughts. It is a type of psychotherapy that focuses on thinking and behavior. Cognitive behavioral therapy can help patients with symptoms that do not go away even when they take medication. The therapist teaches people with schizophrenia how to evaluate the reality of their thoughts and perceptions, how not to listen to those extra voices and see those imaginary people, and how to manage their symptoms
According to the DSM-IV, schizophrenia is classified under the section of “Schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders”. Schizophrenia is one of the most serious major chronic brain disorders in the field of mental health; it is a neurological disorder that affects the cognitive functions of the human brain. People living with this incapacitating illness can experience multiple symptoms that will cause extreme strain in their own and their families and friends life. The individual can lose reality, unable to work, have delusions and hallucinations, may have disorganized speech and thought processes, will withdraw from people and activities, they may become suspicious and paranoid, may behave inappropriately in every day social situations. They may neglect personal hygiene and dress improperly, use excessive make-up; every day life is becoming chaotic for everyone involved.
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.
Valmaggia LR, van der Gaag M, Tarrier N, Pijnenborg M, Slooff CJ. (2005) Cognitive–behavioural therapy for refractory psychotic symptoms of schizophrenia resistant to atypical antipsychotic medication The British Journal of Psychiatry (2005) 186: 324-330
As an overview, schizophrenia is a disease to the brain. It is one of the most disabling and emotionally devastating illnesses known to man. It has been misunderstood for a long time. It has a biological basis, so it is like other diseases. It is a very common disease; one percent to one and a half percent of the U.S. has been diagnosed within some point in their life. There is no cure for this disease, although there is treatable medicine. Schizophrenia is not a multiple personality disorder. People who take medicine for it are able to lead normal fulfilling lives.
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
...ients that suffer severe symptoms. The most common treatment is a combination of medicine and therapy. Where the patient engages in individual psychotherapy with a therapist, rehabilitation, family education, or self help groups. These therapies usually help people cope with schizophrenia and its effects. At this time there is no cure for schizophrenia, there are very effective treatments and medications. Research is being conducted to help scientists understand the disorder better and is being used to try to treat schizophrenia permanently. The only way this is possible is with the use of new treatments, such as new experimental drugs and electrotherapy. No treatments today are preventative nor do they permanently “cure” schizophrenia, but we can look to the bright future for the development of a new treatment option that could potentially fully cure schizophrenia.
Schizophrenia requires a lifetime of treatment through either medications and therapy, in many cases both is needed. Psychiatrist’s help patients survive through the disease. Another form to treat schizophrenia is through antipsychotic medications which are most commonly prescribed drugs to treat schizophrenia.
While the movie does not explain how or why Nash is affected by paranoid schizophrenia, it does brilliantly portray the common symptoms and treatments of the disorder. Not only does it teach audiences the facts about this type of schizophrenia, the film allows audiences to truly understand the mental disorder from a medical, personal, and emotional perspective. John Nash is just one of many people who have been diagnosed with schizophrenia, and films such as A Beautiful Mind are an important way that their stories can be
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
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.
A Beautiful Mind tells the true story of Professor John Nash (Russell Crowe), but, while the gross facts may be accurate, one must expect embellishment of the details. It first shows Nash as a student at Princeton in 1947. He is brilliant but erratic - a mathematical genius who lacks social skills. He is aided in making it through those difficult years by his roommate, Charles. Years later, following an astounding breakthrough that revolutionizes economics, John is teaching at M.I.T. and doing code-breaking work for a shady government agent, William Parcher (Ed Harris). It's at this time that John meets, falls in love with, and marries Alicia (Jennifer Connelly). But his happy world soon starts to crumble.