Analysis of Movie " a Beautiful Mind"
A Beautiful Mind The movie “A Beautiful Mind” directed by Ron Howard is based on the real story of mathematician John F. Nash Jr., played by Russell Crow. John Nash was a gifted young man from West Virginia that, while studying in Princeton, created his “game theory” also knows as “Nash equilibrium”, which was the break through in modern economics, and for which he got the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics later on in his life. Also except his extraordinary mind John Nash had a psychological disorder – Schizophrenia. “Schizophrenia is a group of disorders characterized by severely impaired cognitive processes, personality disintegration, affective disturbances, and social withdrawal.”# Schizophrenia is the disease of the brain itself which interferes with function of the brain, which can trigger symptoms like hallucinations, delusions, thought, movement and speech disorganization, inappropriate affect, which are called positive symptoms. There are also negative symptoms that include flat affect, alogia, and avolition. (Understanding Abnormal Behavior, p. 419-427)
There are different types of Schizophrenia: paranoid, disorganized, catatonic, residual, and undifferentiated. Paranoid Schizophrenia is the one that John Nash was diagnosed with. This type of Schizophrenia includes hallucinations and delusions that generally have the same theme, but this Schizophrenia has no symptoms like: speech or movement disorganization. (Understanding Abnormal Behavior, p. 429-431)
Schizophrenia also has three phases, which we can see in the movie. First phase is Prodromal phase, which is the onset of the symptoms, but symptoms aren’t prominent. Second phase is Active phase, which shows development of full schizophrenic symptoms that start appearing after some stressor or demand. For example, in the movie when John Nash had met a demand of finding a thesis, while he was in Princeton, for his paper he started seeing his first hallucination, in form of his imaginary roommate and
There are different types of Schizophrenia: paranoid, disorganized, catatonic, residual, and undifferentiated. Paranoid Schizophrenia is the one that John Nash was diagnosed with. This type of Schizophrenia includes hallucinations and delusions that generally have the same theme, but this Schizophrenia has no symptoms like: speech or movement disorganization. (Understanding Abnormal Behavior, p. 429-431)
Schizophrenia also has three phases, which we can see in the movie. First phase is Prodromal phase, which is the onset of the symptoms, but symptoms aren’t prominent. Second phase is Active phase, which shows development of full schizophrenic symptoms that start appearing after some stressor or demand. For example, in the movie when John Nash had met a demand of finding a thesis, while he was in Princeton, for his paper he started seeing his first hallucination, in form of his imaginary roommate and
Cited: Sue, D. Sue, D. Sue, S. (2006). Understanding Abnormal Behavior. Houghton Mifflin Company: New York, Boston. American Psychiatric Association. (1994). DSM – IV. Washington, DC. Sabbatini, R. The History of Shock Therapy in Psychiatry. Brain and Mind 01/30/08. http://www.cerebromente.org.br/n04/historia/shock_i.htm A Beautiful Mind. Directed by Ron Howard. Universal Pictures. 2001 John F. Nash Jr. “Autobiography”. Nobel Prize. 1995. The Nobel Foundation. < http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/economics/laureates/1994/nash-autobio.html>