A Beautiful Mind The movie “A Beautiful Mind” directed by Ron Howard is based on the real story of mathematician John F. Nash Jr., played by Russell Crow. John Nash was a gifted young man from West Virginia that, while studying in Princeton, created his “game theory” also knows as “Nash equilibrium”, which was the break through in modern economics, and for which he got the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics later on in his life. Also except his extraordinary mind John Nash had a psychological disorder – Schizophrenia. “Schizophrenia is a group of disorders characterized by severely impaired cognitive processes, personality disintegration, affective disturbances, and social withdrawal.”# Schizophrenia is the disease of the brain itself …show more content…
The twin studies confirm this theory; studies show that identical twins are both more likely to develop Schizophrenia, that non-identical. Even though we see correlation between heredity and Schizophrenia, still most of people that had parent with Schizophrenia will not develop it themselves. Another theory that explains Schizophrenia is called Dopamine hypothesis. It says that Schizophrenia develops from excess dopamine activity in the brain. The theory has been somewhat proven by the experiment in which there were used three kinds of drugs (Phenothiazines, L-dopa, Amphetamines) that have affect on dopamine. The results were positive, but still a quarter of the people that are treated by antipsychotic drugs have no response to them. Also there are theories about effect of environmental factors on development of the disorder. Such theory might say that Schizophrenia may develop from physical damage to the brain or disruption of normal brain development early in fetal or prenatal periods. (Understanding Abnormal Behavior, p. 435-449)
John Nash showed mostly just positive symptoms of Schizophrenia. And since he had Paranoid Schizophrenia it was easy to distinguish these symptoms. John Nash was suffering from visual hallucinations, delusions and paranoia. By having hallucinations John Nash saw objects, had interpersonal relationships, and worked
Throughout the duration of the film, John Nash appears to have a series of positive symptoms. According to King, positive symptoms “reflect something added above and beyond normal behavior”. This generalization is clearly evident in A Beautiful Mind. The most visible symptom that can be seen in John Nash’s behavior is his psychomotor movements. King states that “a person with schizophrenia may show unusual mannerisms, body movements, and facial expressions”. In the film, John Nash demonstrates these movements through
The evidence of the cognitive symptoms, as with any disease, is more difficult to see externally in a person suffering from Schizophrenia. John Nash was not a very social person and I believe that this is attributed to the inability of expressing thoughts and feelings caused by the disease. His office in the movie looks somewhat like what I imagined the inside of his mind to look like; cluttered. Pictures on top of articles, on top of more pictures. There were papers hanging from the ceiling and string connecting pictures while forming patterns. One pattern I saw repeated a few times throughout the film was a spider- web image. This to me just shows how everything in his mind seemed as though it was connected in some way.
1. The psychological disorder portrayed in character of John Nash in the film A Beautiful Mind is schizophrenia. The most prominent symptoms were hallucinations, grandiose delusions, paranoia, a persecutory complex. Beginning with DSM-V, two or more symptoms from the list of schizophrenic criteria must be present for at least six months and active for at least one month. John Nash certainly qualifies for another DSM-V criterion of diagnosis, social/occupational dysfunction, due to his apparent abandonment of relevant mathematical work in favor of conspiracy analysis/obsession. Nash is given the official diagnosis of schizophrenia during his admission to the mental hospital.
Seeing as Nash's experiences in the film follow the Type II diagnosis (DSM-IV-TR) one could reasonably expect that his symptoms would follow in the same diagnostic pattern. But, instead of coming on slowly and consistently, these auditory and visual hallucinations come on acutely (actually almost immediately). This extremely acute onset of serious symptoms is out of line with what should be occurring. What should be shown is slowly deteriorating symptoms that are in line with increasingly complex delusions. The onset of delusions after the hallucinations is also outside the norm of the differential of Schizophrenia, although not impossible.
Schizophrenia is a chronic mental disease of a sort which includes a disintegration in the relation between feeling, conduct, and thought. This leads to collapse discernment, wrong activities and emotions, withdrawal from reality and individual connections into dream and fancy, and a feeling of mental discontinuity.
Due to his schizophrenia, Nash displays abnormal behaviors. There are four main criteria that is used to establish abnormal behavior. These four criteria are statistical infrequencies, violation of social norms, personal distress, and level of impairment (). I believe that John fits each of these criteria. The fist criteria that shown is statistical infrequencies. One of the main statistical infrequencies that John portrays is his excellence in math. While this may not be a big sign of schizophrenia, it is due to this mathematical excellence that his condition went unseen for such an extended period of time. Even in the film, his two colleagues knew that the chances of John being a code breaker for the government was unlikely they ignored it
For example, John Nash was clearly having strong hallucinations that were out of his control. The thought that he was being watched by Soviet agents and the fact that he is hearing and seeing people is a strong indicator that he is having perceptions without any stimuli at all. The movie shows auditory and visual hallucinations, however, after doing research I found that John Nash only had auditory hallucinations, yet for the sake of the movie both were used. Nash also had extremely disorganized thoughts and irrational behavior. He stops taking the medicine that helps with his schizophrenia and goes back to his “mission” again Soviet agents.
John Nash is well above average in terms of intellectual functioning. He is diagnosed with schizophrenia. He first started exhibiting symptoms of schizophrenia when he attended Princeton University. The symptoms that were observed were hallucinations and delusions. In Nash’s mind, he had a college roommate name Charles Herman. In addition, he stated that he met Herman’s niece named Marcee and a secret agent named William Parcher, whom he worked for at a secret location by breaking Russian codes. He developed persecutory delusions while working for William Parcher because he believe that Russians are trying to kill him for
Firstly, we see the presence of positive symptoms in Nash in the form of hallucinations and delusions.
In the movie A Beautiful Mind, schizophrenia is portrayed as a very severe and debilitating mental condition that makes it difficult for the affected individual to think logically or behave normally. The
In the movie it seemed like he did not have a lack of social involvement with the outside world but once the viewer realized that the roommate and Parcher were not real then it all came together. All of Nash’s symptoms started when he began looking for his original idea to be published. The DSM5 says the reaction to stress causes individuals with schizophrenia to have increases in negative mood and behaviors. I believe the stress of trying to find something new pushed him over the edge and forced him to create a world that helped him cope with the pressure but in reality it created more work for him to do. Nash’s over all functions in everyday life were impaired due to his disorder. After going to the psychiatric hospital and beginning his medication he began to suffer from intellectual paralysis cause by the medication. His delusion might have gone away but his work and overall well-being suffered which caused him to stop taking the medication and have another psychic
The movie, "A Beautiful Mind", John Nash, who is played by Russell Crowe, is a true story about a mathematician whose life is horrific because of his disease, schizophrenia. He was an egocentric man who studied Mathematics in Princeton University. During the whole time that he studied in Princeton, he was trying to come up with his own original idea. He felt that by only
According to the DMV-IV John Nash was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia because of certain criteria he showed, hallucinations and delusions. It is listed in the DMV-IV as 295.30 Paranoid Type-Schizophrenia (DSM-IV, 1994). Dr. Nash had a break from reality when he
There are five types of Schizophrenia. These types are: Paranoid, disorganized, catatonic, undifferentiated, and residual Schizophrenia. Paranoid schizophrenia is where people see hallucinations and have delusions about a problem or conspiracy. John Nash, the Nobel peace prize winner, is a good example of someone that has paranoid schizophrenia. “He believed that all men wearing red ties were part of a communist plot against
John Nash suffers from Paranoid Schizophrenia. He is a gifted mathematician who began graduate school at Princeton University in 1947. We will begin Mr. Nash’s history from this point in time, for it is here that his symptoms first began to emerge. During this time in his life he is in what is known as the prodromal phase of schizophrenia, which is a period before active