A Beautiful Mind Analysis

In the 2001 biographical drama film A Beautiful Mind, John Nash is an American mathematician who suffers from a mental illness. At the beginning of the film, Nash arrives at Princeton University as a co-recipient of the prestigious Carnegie Scholarship for mathematics. Nash is an arrogant, socially awkward graduate student, who devotes most of his time trying to discover a revolutionary equation in mathematics. About halfway through the film, we discover that a certain number of people and events that occur are actually hallucinations and delusions created within Nash's mind. At this point, it becomes apparent to the audience that Nash is suffering from a severe mental disorder.

According to the National Institute of Mental Health, schizophrenia is a chronic, severe, and disabling brain disorder ("NIMH"). Signs and symptoms of this disorder fall into three general categories: positive symptoms, negative symptoms, and cognitive symptoms ("NIMH"). Hallucinations, delusions, thought disorders, and movement disorders are considered to be positive symptoms whereas negative symptoms are associated with disruptions to normal emotions and behaviors (“NIMH”). Negative symptoms include a lack of emotional expression, lack of interest or enthusiasm, and speech difficulties and abnormalities (“NIMH”). Cognitive symptoms include trouble focusing or paying attention, and impairments with memory and executive functioning (“NIMH”). At least one of two symptoms must include delusions, hallucinations, or disorganization, and the symptoms must cause functional impairment and persist for six months either in their “active phase” or in a more residual manner to be determined as schizophrenia (Elis, Caponigro & Kring, 2013).

One of the first imagin...

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...reason, and to do his work. Soon after, he slipped back into his hallucinations and delusions until one day Nash sees Marcie, Charles’s niece, for the first time in years after their initial meeting. It was then that Nash runs to Alicia telling her of his realization that Marcie is not real because she never gets old, from the time they first met until now she remained the same age. This realization helps Nash wake up from his hallucinations and begins to think critically about his illness.

Rather than be committed to the mental hospital again, he chose to reason his way through his affliction. He said goodbye to his delusional friends and after that, he simply refused to acknowledge their presence when they did appear. Despite the serious illness John Nash had, he worked hard and came up with the game theory and received a Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences.