Psychology Movie

In the movie The Soloist, directed by Joe Wright, a Los Angeles Times writer, Robert Lopez, meets Nathaniel Anthony Ayers, a homeless schizophrenic. Later, he finds out that Nathaniel once attended Juilliard but dropped out during his second year. Being curious as to how someone like Nathaniel ended up on the streets, Robert does his research and writes a column about Nathaniel for the L.A. Times. In the beginning it is evident that the main character, Nathaniel Ayers, is suffering from a mental illness by the way he hears voices and talks with such disorganized speech.

Compared to most films depicting a mental illness, The Soloist was quite accurate. Some of the symptoms of schizophrenia include but are not limited to; social withdrawal, loss of appetite, loss of hygiene, delusions, hallucinations, disorganized speech, hearing voices, suspiciousness, and difficulty remembering simple tasks or processing information. When first meeting Nathaniel, the newspaper writer is a little intrigued. Nathaniel talks quietly to himself in a very disorganized manner and jumps from subject to subject with no transition what-so-ever. Later on in the film the audience can hear clips of the voices he hears inside his head. Most of which come from his childhood memories and younger years when he lived with his sister.

After watching the movie I diagnosed Nathaniel with schizophrenia. Nathaniel exhibits many of the symptoms including delusions, hallucinations, disorganized speech, social withdrawal, and due to being homeless, a lack of hygiene. One major difficulty in diagnosing people with schizophrenia is that most individuals don’t believe they have it. The first signs of developing schizophrenia can be as small and simple as a chan...

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...here he likes to play his music.

This movie also changed my attitude towards people with schizophrenia, or mental illness in general. I too am guilty of believing some of the myths and stereotypes of people with schizophrenia. Such as that people with schizophrenia are dangerous and out of control. Or that they are unable to function normally and live a normal life. From watching this movie I have realized that is totally untrue. Nathaniel is a perfect depiction of someone with schizophrenia who can live a productive life and do great things. Aside from the adversity of being homeless, the only thing standing in Nathaniel’s way is his his mental illness, and even with that he is an amazing cellist and studied at the prestigious Juilliard School.

Throughout the course of the film we see how a person’s mental illness can be greatly improved just by having a friend.