Beautiful Mind Character analysis

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Goodwin College *

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Psychology

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Feb 20, 2024

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1 Movie Character Analysis II John Nash Analysis Department of Counseling, New England College October 19, 2023 The movie I chose for character analysis is Beautiful Mind which tells the story of a genius's struggle with the mental illness that devastates him - schizophrenia, and as such it is nothing unique in American cinematography. What makes it unique is the way the story is told - from the inside, so to speak. John Forbes Nash learned to live with schizophrenia throughout his life, applying the principle that "every problem has a solution." This is a principle that, although it may not apply to every mentally ill person, can be implemented in some way into the lives of each of us. To live with the knowledge that much of our pain is inevitable: this should be the premise we all follow. Without a doubt, John gave us the key to enjoying life: accept, flow and act. A Beautiful Mind tells the story of the hero's struggle with himself, but it also leaves no doubt that achieving success is impossible without the participation of a person who will support him with his love, even if the effort seems beyond his strength. John Nash was 30 years old when doctors diagnosed him with paranoid schizophrenia. It's a terrible disease that has had a serious impact on him. Schizophrenia is a chronic mental disorder that affects a person’s thoughts, feelings, and behaviors (Alyssa, 2023) . It is disease that makes it impossible for a person to distinguish reality from the fiction generated by his own brain, which inevitably leads to their merging. People see things and people that are not there and take part in situations that do not exist. It's hard to imagine how complicated it must be to

2 Movie Character Analysis II overcome this kind of weakness. John Nash's disease presented in the film was manifested by visual and auditory hallucinations, in addition, these were complex hallucinations depicting characters and sometimes entire scenes. In addition, these were realistic scenes. Moreover, these imaginary characters convinced the hero of the film that he was being persecuted and that he was working for American intelligence, breaking Soviet codes contained in the media. So, they were delusions. When he received his diagnosis, he was a brilliant, outstanding, promising young man. Nothing stopped him from chasing his dreams. After years of undergoing cruel treatments to overcome his mental illness, John Nash managed to keep his symptoms at bay. He learned to live with his hallucinations. John heard voices and saw things, but he was able to deal with them. Of course, he had to fight until the end of his days. Life without the ability to distinguish between what is real and what is not is very complicated. However, Nash's brilliant mind succeeded. The first theory I would associate with John is Sigmund Freud theory. Freud’s personality theory saw the psyche structured into three parts, the id, ego, and superego, all developing at different stages in our lives (By et al., 2023). According to Freud the id is the impulsive (and unconscious ) part of our psyche that responds directly and immediately to basic urges, needs, and desires (Mcleod, 2023). It is called a pleasure principle because because an individual seeks for an immediate attention. The ego is the only part of the conscious personality. It’s what the person is aware of when they think about themselves and what they usually try to project toward others and superego (Mcleod, 2023). The superego is a part of personality that strives for moral behavior, and it holds the internalized moral standards, beliefs and ideals that we acquire from our parents and society (Cherry, 2022). As John Nash’s personality exemplified, the ID is what drives his hidden forces “what is in it for me” and “what makes me happy.” The ID is part of our psyche that deals with self satisfaction

3 Movie Character Analysis II while our ego keeps it in checked by maintaining reality. The ID is part of our unconscious psyche that is very primitive as the super ego is more of the moral conscience, and the ego is the realistic part that mediate between the end in the super ego. The second theory would be Erikson stages of development. According to the theory, successful completion of each stage results in a healthy personality and the acquisition of basic virtues. Basic virtues are characteristic strengths that the ego can use to resolve subsequent crises (Mcleod, 2023). During his college years, John was able to relate closely with his Princeton dorm roommate, Charles. However, John struggled often attempting to become intimate and find love. As part of young adulthood, the developmental milestone of intimacy versus isolation was difficult for John. Having had attempted several times to talk with girls, he would get nervous and ultimately get rejected by these girls, leading him to feel socially isolated from everyone else. It was his gregarious roommate Charles, who eventually convinced John to join him and other students at a local bar to discuss economic theories, as well as strategy of picking up girls. Eventually John meets Alicia, who demonstrated her math solving abilities that impressed John and eventually the two got married. Addressing Ericksons theory of psychosocial development stages, John approached his 40s and enter the stage of generatively versus stagnation. It was here that he felt that he was a productive member of society working for the Parcher company breaking military codes, trying to determine where the next nuclear strike would occur. Unfortunately, Nash began to have schizophrenic hallucinations to a point where his wife Alicia had found their child in the bathtub with running water left alone by Nash who was supposed to be babysitting the child. Requiring admission to a psychiatric hospital, John realized because of his behavior and diagnosis that his work was actually nonexistent, causing him to feel helpless and a failure. This was an example of the social development stage of generatively vs. stagnation

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