John Nash, the main character of the movie A beautiful mind (2001), exhibits peculiar behavior that can be at first considered an inherent part of his talented, creative, yet odd personality. Such behavior includes clumsiness, social awkwardness, pride in oneself that borders with vanity and uncontrolled, erratic movements. However, later the viewer gets to understand that John sees hallucinations, believes in working for, and then being persecuted by, a secret agency, as well as believes in his own superiority over other people (A beautiful mind, 2001). John’s erratic movements can be considered as disorganized behavior (Huffman, 2012, p. 513). And finally, John’s emotional response very often lacks expressiveness (Huffman, 2012, p. 513). Thus, according to Huffman (2012, p. 511; 2012, p. 513), the aforesaid manifestations of John’s character can be considered as symptoms of schizophrenia.
The first scene that supports this diagnosis is where John says goodbye to his illusionary roommate’s niece Marcee at Princeton. This scene depicts how unrealistic Nash’s perception is. In this scene, Nash strokes Marcee’s hair and apparently believes in her physical realness, because he never questions the absence of any feelings in his hand that should occur from touching her hair (A beautiful mind, 2001). A professor, who looks at Nash, sees him oddly waiving his hand in the air. This difference in perception is caused by “false, imaginary sensory perceptions”, and such perceptual disruptions are called hallucinations, which are symptomatic of schizophrenia (Huffman, 2012, p. 511). Since these hallucinations are repetitive, they can be a sign of this disorder. The second scene happens when John gives an open lecture, during which he is persuaded that the secret governmental agency is after him (A beautiful mind, 2001). In this scene, Nash receives threats from his imaginary supervisor and later runs away from persecution through the back door in the middle of a lecture (A beautiful mind, 2001). When confronted by Dr. Rosen, he is persuaded that the latter is a Russian spy. According to Huffman (2012, p. 511), this is a very common type of delusion, which is a delusion of persecution, combined with a delusion of grandeur. Since at least the first delusion is absolutely detached from reality and persists over time, it can be considered as another symptom of schizophrenia. Finally, John shows signs of negative symptoms, such as lack of emotional expression, in a scene at the end of the movie where he receives pens from people, who recognize his talent and contributions (A beautiful mind, 2001). Although this scene is very moving, John’s speech and behavior remain largely emotionless. According to Huffman (2015, p. 513), toneless speech and flat affect are negative symptoms of schizophrenia. Although Nash feels very happy, he cannot demonstrate this happiness to others. These three scenes are evident of the three persistent symptoms that are exhibited in people with schizophrenia.
John’s disorder does not prevent him from leading a relatively normal life. After all his struggles, at the end of the movie John makes several decisions to cope with the disorder. First of all, he decides to stay outside of the hospital, with his family, and to make conscious attempts to get back to reality and ignore his hallucinations (A beautiful mind, 2001). Most importantly, to make it easier, John devises a strategy to recognize hallucinations by asking people he trusts if they can see what he sees (A beautiful mind, 2001). Finally, despite being against medications, at the end of the movie he tells that he has been taking new drugs to cope with the symptoms (A beautiful mind, 2001). Undeniably, staying with his family played a crucial role in his improving health. Nonetheless, the disorder has majorly impacted his family, although not always in a bad way. At first, his wife suffers and struggles with desire to leave John, but she makes a conscious choice to look after him and help him (A beautiful mind, 2001). This, however, does not prevent John from becoming a threat to the family, which is vividly demonstrated in a scene, where John almost drowns his own son, believing that his imaginary roommate looks after the baby (A beautiful mind, 2001). Nevertheless, his wife makes a choice to keep John outside of the hospital, to support him and to provide him a nurturing environment, which is, probably, one of the keys of his improved well-being and their happiness. This support is very often needed for people with schizophrenia, as, according to the diathesis-stress model, stress plays a great role in triggering episodes of schizophrenia (Huffman, 2015, p. 515). For this reason, the movie is a perfect reminder of why exactly people with this and other mental disorders needs to feel care and be nurtured, as this can substantially alleviate their sufferings and hardships of staying in touch with reality.
References
Huffman, K. (2012). Psychology in action (10th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.
