I. Background information
John Nash is a scientist, whose discoveries changed this world: he managed to develop fields of mathematic, partial differential equations and game theory. The man was renowned for his achievements – he got a lot of awards, including the Nobel Prize in Economic Science in 1994. His childhood was not carefree - John Nash had to strictly adhere to rules that were provided by his parents. They listened to his desires and tried to support their child in anything he wanted, but they did it without any true understanding of the matter. “A Beautiful Mind” is a biography of John Nash: it tells about the early life of the scientist and about his adulthood. The film stars Russell Crowe, who represented the Nash`s scientific work in the best way. The actor also managed to pass his state of health: John Nash suffered from a mental illness – paranoid schizophrenia.
II. Social History
In the film one can analyze the stages of his life – becoming famous and struggling with the disease, recovering from it and working again. The viewer can follow his life from the college years all the way to when he was already a senior citizen teaching at the university. Scenes of uncertainty and desire to be the best from his first year of postgraduate study complement the final scenes when he finally receives recognition for the research and finding he made.
The most touching moment from the film is the scene, where John Nash receives the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics and meets his colleagues and relatives, and notices people, who are the figments of his imagination. Paranoid schizophrenia is the illness, during which the patient has some false beliefs that complicate his life. The delusions strongly affect the nervous system of the patient, his thoughts and behavior.
One of the symptoms is the delusion accompanied by hallucinations (Nordqvist, 2015). Other symptoms can be dangerous to the surroundings of the patient. They are: aggression, anger, violence, anxiety, suicidal thoughts, detachment and condescension. These types of suffering influence the lives of the patient, his family and friends, as being under patronage of his mind and feelings can lead to serious problems. John Nash suffered this illness and while at first it helped him push through as the characters helped him overcome his doubts, later on, this illness started to directly interfere with allowing him to live a normal life.
III. Conceptualization and Treatment
Russell Crowe as John Nash suffered from the schizophrenia that appeared in the form of characters, which helped the scientist to make difficult decisions in his life. They were Charles, Parcher and Marcee. These characters existed only in Nash` mind and helped him, but, in fact, they were figments of his imagination. Charles, his first “imaginary friend” was a college roommate, who was very different from John. He was lazy and a typical party animal. He complemented John and supported him when his research ever came into a dead end. The next characters he saw, were not as helpful.
The man used to think that he was working for the Pentagon to investigate encrypted messages. Looking with the eyes of John Nash, he really worked there and passed the secret information through his supervisor, William Parcher, who was the second character of his imagination.
As the final stage of the development of his problems, the line between real world and the invented one were erased, and John Nash was sent to a psychiatric facility. The man believed it had been done by his enemies and waited for help from the Pentagon, but nothing helped and his imaginary world seemed to be ruined.
According to the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders some changes to the category of schizophrenia have been made: for a diagnosis, the symptoms described above, have to be observed for half a year (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). In movie it was not followed, but the problems were seen in reality, and people had to act quickly to improve the state of the scientist.
John Nash could walk and reacted to all the happening clearly, which contradicted the position of catatonia as a determinant for the disorder (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). The American Psychiatric Association clarifies schizophrenia as the manifestation of depression, but in the movie it was difficult to define the reason for the mental disorder, which John Nash had.
It could be stress received during his early life, drugs or childhood trauma or abuse. The most possible cause of schizophrenia is the combination of environment influence and genetics, as this combination is the key to changes brought to one`s mind.
Schizophrenia as the kind of mental disorders would be conceptualized by cognitive therapy (without a theory). Implementing this to a patient could activate the alternate side of brain in order to break the wall of schizophrenia.
With support and provided techniques to help patients one could learn new, improved ways of thinking and acting (qtd. in Beck et al., 2009). According to the psychoanalytic theory, John Nash could have schizophrenia because of an oppression of his ego. He was a genius, and people around him could hardly understand his innovative ideas, so he had to struggle with his scientific undertakings in order to live a life of a normal person.
Lack of proper attention to his desires could lead to the manipulations of his mind. Following the social learning theory, schizophrenic patients create their own social role to be protected from social demands and expectations (qtd. in Cameron and Margaret, 1951).
The hallucinations and the voices John Nash heard depended on his cultural context: they were harsh and persistent. For example, the voice of Charles encouraged Nash to propose to his loved one, and the Parcher image appeared to be the a traitor to him.
After having received the proper medical treatment, John Nash got on well with his mind, but when his hallucinations returned, he got encouraged to deal with them on his own: he learnt how to ignore the voices. With the support from his wife, he managed to rearrange his way of life – he was allowed to teach and conduct researches in economics and mathematics.
IV. Discussion and Implications
The treatment the schizophrenic patients get is the long process of improvement using different methods and techniques to bring back the pure minds. John Nash got to the psychiatric facility, where he was given a course of insulin shock therapy. It helped to get rid of the voices in his head, but it slowed his mind a lot, so the scientist decided to stop taking the medicine prescribed.
The doctors wanted to mute the manifestation of sound mind for the proper cure – the medication made the scientist unresponsive and lethargic, when he had to stay conscious in order not to be lost in his further life. The man wanted to return to his research activities, so he had to change the way he was treated.
Schizophrenia can be treated better is all the aspects of the patient`s life are examined. The Biopsychosocial model and its factors have contributed to the etiology of schizophrenia a lot, as emotional, social, cultural, biological and cognitive influences affected the results of mind changes. A person`s background is one of the main factors while considering the reasons of mental disorder (qtd. in Comer, 2010).
The main character of the movie – John Nash – stood at the crossroad – to join his figments of imagination and break any connections with the real world or to improve his health by going to treatment, and he decided to take the second side. It was unsafe for his wife to be with him, as he accidently pushed her to the ground (Nash thought that Parcher tried to kill the doctor and wanted to stop him).
He relied his baby life to the hands of Charles and almost let it drown. After having realized his doings and the danger he carried to his family, he decided it was up to himself to ignore the hallucinations. Nevertheless, he rejected all the proposals to go to psychiatric facilities and get medical treatment – he considered himself to have a high level of self-control to get on well with the figures of hallucinations.
Nash`s wife Alicia decided to support him and this step was justified – John Nash continued his research activities and won the Nobel Prize in Economics for his achievements. If the man did not go for the treatment, he would hurt his wife with his doings and words, which were thoughtless and created under sore perception of the world. The voices in his head coerced him to act, when it was unnecessary. He could hurt himself and his surroundings, and this damage would never be compensated. The scientist did great efforts to get rid of his mental disorder, and seemed to be successful in it, but at the peak of his fame, he met Parcher, Marcee and Charles, who accompanied the ceremony. They were the spectators, who watched Nash and admired him for his revolutionary study on game work.
References
American Psychiatric Association. “Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders”. (May 18, 2013). 5th ed. United States of America.
Beck, A.T., Rector, N.A., Stolar. N., Grant, P. “Schizophrenia: Cognitive Theory, Research, and Therapy”. (2009). New York: The Guilford Press.
Cameron, N., Margaret, A. “Behavior Pathology”. (1951). Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
Comer, R. J. (2010). Abnormal psychology (8th ed.). New York, NY: Worth Publishers.
Nordqvist, C. (May 27, 2015). “Paranoid Schizophrenia: Causes, Symptoms and Treatments”. Medical News Today. Retrieved from http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/192621.php
