John Nash Schizophrenia Essay

“If to be mad is to be in error, there’s a kind of contradiction there, between what it is to be mad in the eyes of the world, and what it is to have these experiences in which you are having a sense of revelation, and you are noticing other features in the world that other people seem to be too stupid or too blind to recognize” (A Brilliant Madness). “Taking into consideration both the validations and the flaws of the DSM-IV’s diagnosis methods, an individual diagnosed with schizophrenia needs a strong social work approach that supports beyond the medical aspects. In the case of John Nash, the DSM-IV brings across several points that appear to validate the surrounding symptoms of schizophrenia. Starting at a younger age, Nash had began to show signs
Following this rather unusual behaviour, Nash continued to show greater symptoms of a disorganized psyche through incidents such as; painting black spots all over the wall of his home and coming to a strange conclusion that all the men at his school who wore red ties had to be a part of some “secret communist organization”. These types of behaviours were seen as bizarre and erratic to those around him. “Delusions and hallucinations are probably best-known symptoms of schizophrenia,” (The Inner World of Madness; Page 53) and it is clearly displayed that Nash is having frequent delusional conduct. Furthermore, Nash then claimed powers from outer space were sending him coated messages in the New York Times. Subsequent to this incident, Nash interrupted a lecture to announce he was on the cover of Life Magazine disguised as Pope John Paul the XXIII, he declared he knew this because 23 was his favourite number.