Movie Analysis Writing Assignment A Beautiful Mind is an award-winning movie that is based on the life of John Nash. John Nash is an American mathematician who is known for his research and mathematical contributions at Princeton University. A Beautiful Mind not only highlights on Nash’s intellectual ability to create mathematical algorithms, but also the mental illness that he suffered from. Nash is a mathematical genius who suffers from schizophrenia. “Schizophrenia is a severe form of abnormal behavior that encompasses what most of us have come to know as ‘madness’” (Oltmanns & Emery, 2015). Typical symptoms of a schizophrenic patient would be auditory hallucinations that are accompanied by delusions or perceptual disturbances (Stein, …show more content…
His intellectual ability and brilliance placed him on a platform that, in a very literal sense, had everyone looking at him. He was admired for his brilliance, but his symptoms of schizophrenia were extremely invasive. The symptoms of his mental illness were especially provoked by social-environmental stressors. For example, Nash was challenged by social pressures that were motivated by his image of wisdom and virtuosity. Nash represented brilliance, but the symptoms of his mental illness were not parallel with the image he withheld. This appeared to be extremely frustrating and exhausting to Nash considering the fact that all eyes were constantly on him. His inability to act normally in social settings was a symptom of schizophrenia that was particularly invasive in his relationships, which would trigger the onset of even more stress. In one instance, during a schizophrenic episode, Nash left his child unattended, which almost resulted in the death of his son. Naturally angered by this and the possibility of a fatal outcome, Alicia, John’s wife, took their baby and stormed out of the house. The stress and anger that was exhibited by his wife triggered even more intense hallucinations and delusions, which made it nearly impossible for John to determine what was real and what was not. It is clear that Nash’s mental illness was debilitating and affected the relationships he had with friends and family. His illness also affected his job performance. During an American Mathematical Society lecture at Columbia University, Nash experienced intense delusions that resulted in him leaving the lesson. After this occurrence, Nash was unable to lecture and was forced to go to a psychiatric hospital for testing and treatment. For a period of time, Nash did not return back to lecturing and focused much of his time on his thoughts and delusions. The symptoms of his mental illness were intrusive in so many ways and, as a
The Soloist (Foster, Krasnoff & Wright, 2008), is based on a true story of Nathaniel Anthony Ayers Jr. who develops psychosis and becomes homeless. In the film, Nathaniel is considered a cello genius who is discovered on the streets by Steve Lopez, a journalist from the Los Angeles Times. Steve was searching for a story and he decided to write a newspaper article about Nathaniel. Nathaniel always had a passion for music. He was a child prodigy and attended Juilliard School of Music. However, he faced many complications at Juilliard, particularly hearing voices speaking to him. Unable to handle the voices, Nathaniel dropped out and ended up living on the streets of Los Angeles. Steve and Nathaniel develops an unexpected
John Nash’s needs largely influenced his hallucinations. John Nash struggled to connect with other people his entire life. He was an outcast and spent most of his time studying mathematics. His need to connect with another person was fulfilled when he hallucinated he had a roommate. This fictional roommate, Charles, was his closest companion. John confided in Charles whenever he faced a problem. Charles helped him through the struggles he faced while attending Princeton. Charles would also praise John whenever he made accomplishments in his work. John wanted to be appreciated for his hard work at Princeton and Charles made him feel important. John hallucinated that Charles had a young niece, Marcee. The hallucination of Marcee met his need to be a parental figure. He loved Marcee like she was his own daughter and wanted to care for her. Marcee was also comforting presence for John. She was an innocent child who would never harm anyone. John also hallucinated he was working with a secret government official, Parcher. John thought Parcher sought him out for his excellent skills in math. This met John’s need to be praised for his work in mathematics. John wanted to feel important and wanted to use his skills to help the world. When he imagined he was
Once people was alerted to his disorder, they treat John Nash like they did not know how to act around him. His wife assumed he was hallucinating when he was talking to someone she did not see, but it was not the case all the time. For example, she thought he was hallucinating a garbage man collecting garbage late at night, but the garbage man was outside their house. His wife was also getting frustrated with him, while also trying to take care of him. She was frustrated that his senses, emotions, and sex drive was dull. She was truly upset and worried about his hallucinations and delusions. She wanted him to get better. Martin Hansen tried to help him by providing him with opportunities to work with
The film shows many positive symptoms of schizophrenia such as delusions of grandeur, delusions of influence, and persecutory delusions. Positive symptoms of schizophrenia are symptoms that are present in an individual due to the illness. In the movie Nash hallucinates an individual named William Parcher, played by Ed Harris. Parcher works for the United States Department of Defense. He enlists Nash’s help in breaking a Russian code in order to find a portable atomic bomb. The entire situation of the portable atomic bomb is a figment of Nash’s mind. This specific figment falls into the category of delusions of grandeur. The delusion of grandeur entails that an individual begins to think more highly of themselves, and believes that they are more important than other individuals in society. Nash believes that he is the most gifted mathematician, and he is the only individual who can break the Russian codes which are hidden in common day written media. During a mult...
The film, A Beautiful Mind (2001) is the fictional account of the life of a mathematician and the Nobel Prize-winning economist, John Forbes Nash, Jr. in his struggles with schizophrenia. The film was inspired from the unauthorized biography of the same name written by Sylvia Nasar (Wikipedia). Schizophrenia is a chronic brain disorder through which a person has difficulty in interpreting reality which may result to the combinations of hallucinations, delusions, and disordered thinking and behavior though this disease is not associated and cannot be referred to with split-personality but it is solely pertinent to disruption of natural balance of thinking and emotions (Mayo Clinic). This case study will feature the titular character of the film (stated above), John Forbes Nash, Jr. The observations and assessments as well as other useful information covered in this study were all based upon the film, A Beautiful Mind (2001).
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
John Nash is a brilliant mathematician who struggled with paranoid schizophrenia for several decades of his life. Nash displayed erratic behavior and suffered from auditory hallucinations. He believed he was receiving messages from outerspace and was convinced that there was conspiracy to undermine the American government. On one occasion, Nash burst into the office of the New York Times and accused them of preventing him from receiving important encrypted messages only he could decipher. Nash’s wife admitted him to a psychiatric hospital only two years after their marriage (Nasar, 2001).
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 thought he was working for the government to break codes sent from Russia in the newspapers across the county. In this instance he was being delusional because he created an alternate reality for himself. He showed signs of hallucinations by “hearing” people he regularly talked to and gave them names, although in the movie, they were visual as well.
Nash showed much change in the way he was functioning through the movie. After treatment, it seemed like he had his disease under control, but he still had problems disbelieving in his hallucinations by still acting on them. For example, he still thought he was working for the government by helping them decode secrete codes in the newspapers. He tried to hide this from his wife by keeping all his work hidden in a shed. Eventually, Nash's life is seen as he returns to the college to teach and continues completing his mathematics work, while still seeing the delusions. This life is clearly far from normal. But for Nash, it also seems the best option.
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 is a film about John Nash, who is a student in graduate school for mathematics at Princeton University. During his time at Princeton he developed the idea of the Nash Equilibrium, a large. Which is not brought back up until later in the film when it wins him the Nobel Prize for economics in 1994. The body of the film consists of John being contacted by a man named William Parcher, who asks for his help in finding the location of a Russian bomb in the United States. However an unexpected conflict arises from working with Mr. Parcher.
This movie provides information about the symptoms, treatment and the difficulties the person and their family have to go through. Nash exhibits many key symptoms of schizophrenia. An inability to communicate is one of the main symptoms of schizophrenia, and this affects interpersonal relationships and intimacy. Nash does not have many friends and he does not talk to many people. Even though he gets marries to Alicia, one of his students while he was teaching at MIT, later when his symptoms are severe he is unable to respond to her. He suffers from both visual and auditory hallucinations as well as delusions. He believed that he was working for a top secret project for the government and that the Russians were following him because they had found out about his work. He is not able to think properly. His speech is jumbled and his facial expressions and gestures are awkward. His social skills are poor.
Some of Nash’s recent work includes topics such as advanced game theory, mental illness, and psychology. Nash has been a guest speaker at a number of world-class events also he has received many honorary degrees from a number of institutions. In 2012 he became a member of the American Mathematical Society. He now is accepted as one of the greatest American mathematicians as well as one of the greatest mathematicians of the 20th and 21st centuries.