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A Beautiful Mind Stereotypes

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The entertainment sector of the media uses the stereotypes of mental disorders held by the general public (Tausig, Michello, & Subedi, 2004). These stereotypes often emphasize bizarre symptoms of mental illness like unpredictability or dangerousness (Tausig et al., 2004). Media attempts to portray accurate information concerning mental illness can be successful (Tausig et al., 2004). Ozog (2016) explains that multi-dimensional characters in television and movies are normalizing conversations concerning mental illness. A great example of the progress of the film industry in positive portrayals of mental health is A Beautiful Mind. The movie A Beautiful Mind was released in 2001. The film is based on a true story and tells the tale of a mathematical …show more content…

Despite being diagnosed with schizophrenia, Nash maintained healthy relationships with his friends, his family, and his students. He continued to function at a high intellectual level and used reason to cope with hallucinations. For these, reasons, Nash’s story is unusual. Nash as depicted in, A Beautiful Mind, is an atypical case of someone diagnosed with schizophrenia. While the film fails to completely avoid stereotypical portrayals of schizophrenia, the atypical nature of Nash’s diagnosis associates mental illness with triumph and success contradicting the stereotypical view of schizophrenia as dangerous and debilitating. Schizophrenia is a psychotic disorder more commonly diagnosed in men (Holder & Wayhs, 2014). Schizophrenia affects less than 1% of the world’s population but is found across all ethnicities (Holder & Wayhs, 2014). In men, schizophrenia symptoms are typically expressed between 18 and 25 …show more content…

Emotional processing is crucial for developing and maintaining relationships, it is a specific aspect of social cognition that involves perceiving, understanding, and managing emotion in oneself and others (Kee et al., 2009). Individuals diagnosed with schizophrenia often demonstrate a deficit in this area. Specifically, there is often impairment in the understanding of blended emotions, like tears of joy, changes between emotions, and regulation of personal emotions in everyday life (Kee et al., 2009). Kee et al. (2009) demonstrated in their study that individuals with schizophrenia who exhibited greater bizarre behaviours performed worse in some aspects of emotional intelligence. A Beautiful Mind highlighted Nash’s socially awkward behaviours like shifty eye contact, obsession and protectiveness over his academic work, and his inability to communicate appropriately with females (Grazer, 2001). These examples suggest that to a certain extent, Nash exhibited signs of impaired social cognition and emotional control. In addition, Kee et al. (2009) suggest that negative symptoms, specifically flattened affect, are associated with deficits in identifying happy and sad emotions. Nash is depicted has maintaining a very flat affect, varying very little in his own emotional

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