A Beautiful Mind

Itzia Maciel

Psychology

17J

                                                       “A Beautiful Mind”

John Nash, an acknowledge mathematician genius who had paranoid schizophrenia, his self-determination assisted him in overcoming the stigmatization associated with schizophrenia. He discovered the concept of non-cooperative equilibria and this discovery earned The Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his contribution in Game Theory. Schizophrenia impacted Nash at the age of 30, when he suffered paranoia. This was the time when his career as a mathematician was at his threshold. Nash has delusions and admitted to a psychiatric hospital.

Nash delusional friends were Charles Herman, William Parcher, and Margie. Nash begins to fear for his life after witnessing a shout out between Parcher and Soviet agents, but Parcher blackmails him into staying on his assignment while delivering a guest lecture at Harvard University, Nash tries to flee from people he thinks are foreign agents led by Dr. Rosen. After punching Rosen in an attempt to flee, Nash is sent to a psychiatric facility he believes is run by soviets. Dr. Rosen tells Alicia Nash has paranoid schizophrenia and the Charles, Marcee, and Parcher only exist in his imagination. Schizophrenia is a psychiatric disorder which affects the coherence of one’s personality due to emotional instability and detachment from reality. Symptoms of schizophrenia are outlet after auditory hallucinations disorganized patterns of speech and thought processes, paranoid delusions, lethargy, social withdrawal, impaired social cognition, and catatonia.

Biological therapy is any form of treatment using natural abilities that constitute the immune system to fight disease or protect the body from side effects. Nash is given a course of insulin shock therapy and eventually released. Frustrated with side-effects of the antipsychotic medication he is talking, which make him lethargic and unresponsive, he secretly stops taking it. This causes a relapse and he meets Parcher again.

Cognitive Therapy focuses on changing the way people think. In the film, "A Beautiful Mind" Nash's effectiveness of the strategies used in cognitive therapy calls "a diet of the mind" disciplines him to ignore hallucinations and not to "indulge" certain habitats, enthusiasms, nightmares, or dreams. It was not really effective because he was still hallucinating after stopping his medication.