Preview

"What About Bob" Vs. "A Beautiful Mind"

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1036 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
"What About Bob" Vs. "A Beautiful Mind"
Comparison Paper Watching these two movies, “What about Bob?” And “A Beautiful Mind” really opens your eyes to problems that many people in our world face throughout their daily lives. These movies provide us with an opportunity to become better acquainted with the reality of disorders and help us realize that real people do struggle with these issues and that these issues can affect the person themselves or their family or even their psychiatrist. But what we also can learn from these movies is that everyone, even people with disorders, can contribute good things to the world around them. In “A Beautiful Mind,” John Nash is a smart man who soon develops schizophrenia. His schizophrenia consists of seeing people and believing people are out to get him. His schizophrenia becomes so bad that it burdens his wife and friends. It becomes difficult for his wife to love him and she is uncomfortable around him. At one point in the movie, his delusions cause him to almost drown his baby and cause him to knock his wife on the ground. John Nash, after going to a mental hospital, and seeing a therapist, still had bad delusions, but, he was so smart that he himself figured out how to ignore his delusions and continue on with life semi-normally. Although Nash still has schizophrenia he is still super intelligent and uses his intelligence too help the world around him. Nash goes on to win the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics for his work on game theory, which helps with economics, political science, and psychology, as well as logic and biology. The Nobel Prize is an award for outstanding contributions to the field of economics, generally regarded as the most prestigious award for that field. Receiving this award proves that even though Nash has a terrible disorder he is still able to contribute a lot to the world around him. John Nash also contributes his knowledge to young college students. Nash, after figuring out how to control his delusions began again working at

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Better Essays

    In the movie, "A Beautiful Mind", John Nash displays classic positive symptoms of a schizophrenic. This movie does a fair job in portraying the personality and daily suffering of someone who is affected by the disease, although the film does not give a completely historically accurate account. In the film, John Nash would fall into the category of a paranoid schizophrenic, portraying all the symptoms that are typical for this illness. Nash suffers delusions of persecution, believing that there is a government conspiracy against him. He believes that because he is supposedly a secret agent working for the government breaking Soviet codes, and that the KGB was out to get him. In addition to these delusions, Nash experiences hallucinations which are shown from the moment that he starts college at Princeton University. He hallucinates that he has a roommate, when in reality it is uncovered later in the film that he was in a single occupancy room his entire stay at Princeton. Additionally, he frequently has conversations and takes advice from this imaginary roommate. He also imagines a little girl that is introduced to him by his alleged roommate. While going about his daily life, he is constantly surrounded by these inventions. These are classic positive symptoms of the paranoid schizophrenic, which are heavily supported by DSM-IV. Psychological predictions also agree with the behavior John Nash exhibited in the movie. This movie accurately teaches the public the positive affects of a schizophrenic. The movie does not portray schizophrenia as a split of Nash's personalities, rather a split from reality. He imagines other people and hallucinates vividly throughout the movie. Even at the conclusion of the movie, John Nash learns to accept and cope with his psychological disorder. He learns to ignore his hallucinations and is very careful about whom he interacts with. At…

    • 1312 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    • Nash thinks that he is superior to the other students, and too smart for classes. He also thinks all his theories to be correct. He is only partially right, as he is in fact a genius, but not quite on the caliber of his ego.…

    • 2483 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    John Forbes Nash Jr. is an American mathematician whose theories and ideals in game theory, differential geometry (a mathematical discipline), and partial differential equations which has provided an insight inside the factors that govern chance and events. Over the course of his life he has managed to obtain both the Nobel Memorial Prize in 1994, and just recently the Abel Prize for his work on nonlinear partials. He is also famous for having the mental disease of Schizophrenia. It’s a mental disorder that is often characterized by abnormal social behavior and failure to recognize what is real. After being officially diagnosed he found it hard to cope with the world around him knowing half of his life has been a lie. Just like everyone else he soon found ways to control the people that only exist within him.…

    • 352 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    By adulthood, each of us has stood in judgment of a film at some point in our lives. We sometimes judge the quality of the acting, the cinematography, or the writing, taking note of the entertainment value of each. Within some movies, however, is what some would argue is a far more important aspect that deserves attention, that of the film’s content. When that content involves a psychological disorder, this attention often turns to scrutiny, leading to arguments about whether the portrayal of the disorder is accurate, and whether the public mind will be altered by its exposure to that portrayal.…

    • 1317 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    In the movie, What about Bob, examples of both abnormal psychology and humanism were displayed through different characters. Abnormal psychology can be defined as an area of psychology that studies atypical thoughts, emotions, and behaviors that may be directed to many distinctive kinds of mental disorders. Behaviors of abnormal psychology can be either maladaptive or adaptive depending on the person’s whole-self concept (Buffalo.edu). Humanism is the outlook of thought, connecting human concerns and values through the importance of human matters rather then godlike matters (Americanhumanist.org). Human problems are solved through rational ways and stress upon the goodness of human beings. Bob shows obsession compulsion disorder and unconditional positive regard during many scenes of the movie while Dr. Marvin displays a lack of accurate empathetic understanding.…

    • 819 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    This paper is written as a requirement for PSYC 410. The assignment is to view a film on the subject and write summary on how it portrays mental disorders and human abnormality.…

    • 906 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The name of the John Nash’s physiatrist is Dr. Rosenberg. He is the one who diagnosing John’s condition as schizophrenia. This conclusion was based of exceedingly clear evidence. Perhaps the most notably and severe of his conditions were the hallucinations. He had imagined a roommate and his roommate’s niece. He had also imagined an entire reality for himself in which there were Russian coeds hidden in magazines and newspapers (seeing these codes and patterns was what hinted…

    • 498 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Carnegie Art Award

    • 6975 Words
    • 19 Pages

    How does Nash relate to the other students? What does he think of them? What do they think of him? What does he do that is inappropriate? John Nash doesn’t like to talk to other students, he thinks that he is the smartest out of everybody at Princeton and talks rudely to a woman at the bar.…

    • 6975 Words
    • 19 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    John Nash Schizophrenia

    • 773 Words
    • 4 Pages

    John Nash, a brilliant man, wise beyond most men. I was very intrigued by the film’s portrayal of Mr. Nash. Despite having knowledge based on our textbook and power point slides concerning Schizophrenia, I lack knowledge and experience with someone who suffers from this complicated condition. This film depicted an in-depth, personal account of schizophrenia and the reality of their delusions (Howard, 2002). I can only imagine the pain and anguish one must feel when realizing that their delusions are not real. This film helped me to see Mr. Nash as a person dealing with this disease instead of a list of signs and symptoms from a textbook.…

    • 773 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    …as a consequence I resigned my position as a faculty member at M.I.T. and, ultimately, after spending 50 days under "observation" at the McLean Hospital, traveled to Europe and attempted to gain status there as a refugee (John Nash, 1994). For some time after that he would be in and out of hospitals. At times his involuntary admission to hospitals would last up to eight months. Eventually he began reject his delusions and return to mathematical research. This period of time, John Nash himself refers to as enforced rationality. He may have been thought to be the entering the Residual stage however this would turn out to be incorrect. In truth it can be said he had not completed the Stabilization period. In the late Sixties, he returned to what he described as a dream-like delusional hypothesis, however managed to avoid being admitted to hospital by behaving as normally as he could. This can be said to be his transition into the Residual stage. Although he had a slight relapse, he himself began to understand on an intellectual level that his delusions were exactly that, delusions. He is now thinking rationally and continuing to further his studies in mathematics with the hope that he can provide something useful to the…

    • 1589 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    A Beautiful Mind Analysis

    • 1124 Words
    • 5 Pages

    In A Beautiful Mind, director Ron Howard uses symbolism to show the danger of using isolation as a method of coping with problems. This film sheds some light on the horrors of a mental illness and advocates the importance of accepting others’ help. When John Nash is suffering from schizophrenia, the contrast between darkness and bright lighting is a metaphor for the darkness he surrounds himself with despite his wife’s attempts to help. The venetian blinds obscuring his face when he stands at his window symbolize the confinement of isolation.…

    • 1124 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Beautiful Mind Vs Proof

    • 742 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Throughout the movie “A Beautiful Mind” we saw the signs of schizophrenia in John Nash from having hallucinations that included his roommate Charles, Charles's niece Marcy, and government of defense supervisor William Parcher. His delusions led him to believe he was more than a professor, he believed he was a spy and could break codes by review of specific magazines and newspapers. Compared to “A Beautiful Mind”, “Proof” also shows signs of schizophrenia such as Catherine’s conversation with her dad as if he was physically present. But some scenes in the movie where Catherine woke up from the conversation with her dad making it seem like a dream and the idea of schizophrenia was destroyed at many points. Besides that, only a few types of schizophrenic diseases were expressed. In contrast, the plot of “A Beautiful Mind” shows the symptoms of schizophrenia better than…

    • 742 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    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…

    • 1323 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    John Nash a famous Nobel Prize winner in 1994 like many others was suffering from paranoid schizophrenia unnoticed.…

    • 204 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Higher Learning

    • 1732 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Have you ever imagined what it would be like to counsel a character from your favorite movie? Have you ever wondered what approach you would use to try and solve their problems instead of watching it on television? As a mental health counselor, clients depend on us as their last hope for answers to the issues they may be dealing with. However, we don’t possess the answers but only solutions that can help a client themselves cope and deal with their issue. In this essay I will discuss what it is like to counsel the character Remy from the movie “Higher Learning” (Singleton, 1995). I will give an overview of the movie and character, the presenting issues of the character, my approach and role to counseling the character, and the characters cultural framework influence on why I chose to intervene to counsel him.…

    • 1732 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays

Related Topics