Psychological Disorders in a Beautiful Mind

Psychological Disorders in a Beautiful Mind

Abstract

Schizophrenia is characterized by delusions and hallucinations, lack of motivation, social withdrawal, impaired memory, and dysregulated emotions (van Os & Kapur, 2009). What causes schizophrenia? Is there a cure? Can someone with schizophrenia manage do dominate it and have a normal life? The life of John Nash helps us to better understand what it means to have a psychological disorder. One is able to put oneself in his shoes and see life through his eyes.

The Movie “A Beautiful Mind” is based on the life of John Nash. John Nash was a brilliant and genius mathematician in the 20th century who was also struck with paranoid schizophrenia. Throughout the movie one cannot help but to feel his pain and frustration on how this psychological disorder affects his personal and social life. The movie shows us the fascinating yet unclear relationship between genius and madness.

 Nash was born in the United States, but what if he were born in another culture? There are many symptoms that people who have schizophrenia suffer from that are experienced in most cultures, but there are some important cross cultural differences that emerge as well. These differences can sometimes be what helps a person suffering from schizophrenia to improve and be able to lead a healthy life.

Keywords:  Schizophrenia

Psychological Disorders in a Beautiful Mind

There is a common misperception that schizophrenia refers to having multiple or split personalities, due partly to the literal translation of the term that means schizophrenia which means “split mind” (Matsumato &Juang, 2013). Many would prefer to have this term changed to integration dysregulation syndrome (Sato, 2006). Changing this would help people look at the disease in a different manner. The most accurate definition for it is that: Schizophrenia is a mental disorder characterized by a breakdown of thought processes and by poor emotional responsiveness (Concise Medical Dictionary, 2010).

A Beautiful Mind

John Nash was born in 1928 in Virginia and died of a car accident along with his wife on August 13 2016.  Unfortunately, the movie was not able to portray all of John’s accomplishments, but it gives the audience a look inside his beautiful mind.

John Nash begins to suffer from schizophrenia while getting his masters at Princeton University, this psychological disorder appears usually in young adulthood.  John Nash presents many of the symptoms of this psychological disorder such as delusions and hallucinations which led him to see and hear Charles, Marcee, and Parcher. He also was socially withdrawn where in many scenes it shows he was unable to interact with others in a healthy way. Despite his difficulties, John is able to propose and marry one of his students who he admired named Alicia. During this time, he teaches at Princeton but in class he is paranoid that there are men watching him. Alicia tries to show John that what he is seeing is not real but his brain actually sees these hallucinations which made him think that everyone is against him. He also believes he is helping decode secret information for Parcher and that if he does not help the Russian would come after him. Eventually Nash is taken to a psychiatrically hospital and is treated by Dr. Rosen against his will. Alicia suffers as she watches her husband go through this illness. After he leaves the hospital he stops taking his medication and starts having his hallucinations once again. After a fight with his wife in which Parcher tell him to “finish her”, Marcee appears and this is when he realizes he is having the hallucinations because Marcee doesn’t get old. John began understanding that what he was seeing did not exist and was able to intellectually separate what was real vs. what was not. It is mentioned that he never stopped seeing Charles, Marcee and Parcher but he was able to ignore them and lead a healthier life.