Beautiful Mind

A Beautiful Mind

“A Beautiful Mind” is based on the life of mathematician, Dr. John Nash, who battled schizophrenia for many years. Schizophrenia is a severe mental illness. Like diabetes or heart disease, mental illness is a medical illness. Schizophrenia appears to be caused by an imbalance of chemicals in the brain--dopamine and serotonin. Dopamine is responsible for emotions, motivation, and movement. Serotonin is involved in regulation of mood, sleep, and appetite. The brains of people with schizophrenia have abnormalities in dopamine and serotonin activity. Stress, heredity, drugs, other medical illness, and physical injury to the brain can also contribute to schizophrenia.

Schizophrenia is characterized by a dysfunction of the thinking process, such as hallucinations and delusions, and withdrawal from the outside world. A hallucination is when a person hears or sees things that do not exist. Delusions are when a person believes in ideas that are obviously false. Other symptoms include disorganized thinking, agitation, lack of drive or initiative, and the inability to relate to others. Nash suffered from hallucinations and delusions. He spent most of his time during his graduate studies alone. Nash portrayed agitation on his first date with Alicia in which he became very agitated with the boys who were looking at her as she admired artwork. Nash’s peers realized that he was unable to relate to others and that he was better with integers than he was with people.

Nash suffered from the paranoid type of schizophrenia. Paranoid schizophrenics tend to be alert, intelligent, and responsive. Nash was with out a doubt a very intelligent man, which was evidenced by his ability to solve equations and develop economic models. Paranoid schizophrenics can also suffer from irrational jealousy. During his graduate studies, Nash felt an extreme competition among his peers. Nash was determined to prove himself as far more intelligent than his classmates.

Schizophrenia is difficult to diagnose because of the complex symptoms of the disease. Some symptoms have to prevalent for months before schizophrenia can be the diagnosis. There is no one single symptom that identifies schizophrenia and in order to correctly diagnose this disease healthcare professionals must rule out many other biological illnesses. People suffering from the paranoid schizophrenia try to hide their hallucinations. For Nash, the hallucinations began to impair his ability to deal with his real life including his family and work life. Nash’s behavior became