A Beautiful Mind Schizophrenia Analysis

A Closer Look into Schizophrenia and John Nash

A. Symptoms and Diagnoses

In the beginning of the movie, A Beautiful Mind, it is not clear that John Nash is suffering from schizophrenia; however, as the movie progresses it becomes clear that John has some sort of psychotic disorder. Although all of the symptoms John had from the beginning of the film were within the diagnoses of schizophrenia, the university setting and him being a candidate for Ph.D. in mathematics made it seem that his social awkwardness was attributed to his intelligence. Once it was revealed that John’s life was filled with hallucinations and he was living life in a delusion after graduate school, it was apparent John was actually developing schizophrenia from the time

Since John did not use substances and there does not seem to be a traumatic experience, one can eliminate other disorders such as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and drug induced psychotic episodes. Because of the strong presence of both positive and negative symptoms for over six months, John does not have a milder form of schizophrenia. According to the DSM- V and the six diagnostic criteria for schizophrenia, John meets all six criteria . All of the symptoms listed above lasted more than six months, affected his level of functioning in all areas, and were created from his own mind’s alternative

There have been many correlational studies suggesting that it is genetic; however, other correlational studies suggest that schizophrenia is environmentally induced (Abramowitz, 2018). The current consensus is that schizophrenia is caused by both biological and psychological/social factors. Even so, within the biological and psychological/social factors there is not enough evidence to support the different components. In the movie, we do not know much about John’s pre-graduate life, direct family relations, or if anyone else in his family had schizophrenia. John mentions a number of times that he was always a lone-wolf and socially awkward, “My first-grade teacher always told me I was born with two helpings of brain, but only one helping of heart.” John also tells his “friend” Charles, “I don’t like people much, and they don’t much like me.” These two statements imply that since he can remember he has had little emotion and does not like to interact with people (Grazer & Howard, 2001). With the statement his first-grade teacher made, it is fair to make the assumption John has always lacked emotion when compared to other people. This hints at the idea that since he lacked emotion, this led to him being socially awkward which may have led to him developing schizophrenia over time. However, it should be important to note that these are only hints and it is difficult to