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Society often views Schizophrenia either with indifference or fear due to the lack of proper education and understanding of the psychotic disorder. In the movie the Soloist, Nathaniel Ayers played by Jamie Foxx is portrayed as an extremely talented musician diagnosed with schizophrenia after experiencing a manic episode while attending Julliard School of Music. As a clinical psychologist I have had numerous patients and interactions with people with schizophrenia and can say that there is a great deal of variation from person to person. In this paper, we will discuss the character of Nathaniel Ayers in great detail, as I believe he exhibits not only the symptoms of schizophrenia, but also shows symptoms of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) behaviors. The goal of this paper is to demonstrate an understanding of both disorders and gain insight on the different sub-causes, forms, symptoms, diagnoses and treatments of Nathaniel Ayers.
Before going into further detail about Nathaniel’s psychological assessment, I will discuss background information and an overview of both disorders. To begin with, schizophrenia has been documented and diagnosed as early as 1809 described by John Haslam as a “form of insanity”. Eugene Bleuler proposed the term Schizophrenia and viewed this disorder as an “associative splitting,” a fragmented connection of functions of personality (Barlow & Durand, 2012). Contrary to popular belief, schizophrenia is not having a split mind or personality, but in actuality; it is a type of psychotic disorder that consist of a complex set of symptoms that may cause loss of contact with reality. Schizophrenia is over activity of the brain and is companied by positive and negative symptoms. To be diagnosed with schizoph...

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...laying the violin on street corners, which at times caused him to completely disengage with his surroundings. While observing him, I noticed a lack of interest in interaction and emotional expression during his first interaction with Mr. Lopez, a journalist for the LA times. He also stepped back and didn’t behave appropriately for a first encounter. Nathaniel’s behaviors were consistent with those of a schizophrenic person. Other symptoms that prove him to be a schizophrenic include incoherent thought and speech, impaired cognition and disorganized behavior. His sometimes showed low speech fluency as he jumped from point to point about his beliefs, love for Beethoven and other unrelated topics in one sentence. He lacked proper executive functions to manage holding a job, a home, and a normal acceptable appearance and often dressed in over embellished clothing.

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