Analysis Of Schizophrenia In A Beautiful Mind
A Beautiful Mind follows the life of John Nash, from starting graduate studies at Princeton University to winning the Nobel Peace Prize for economics for his groundbreaking work. In the plot of the film, John Nash suffers from schizophrenia. Schizophrenia is not mentioned in the film until halfway. Although, it is quite evident what is happening to John through the unrealistic scenarios in which he is involved in. after graduating from Princeton, John Nash had started to work at M. I. T. He was invited to the Pentagon to help decrypt codes from the Soviets. After this experience, he is met by William Parcher, a government official who wants help from John to help crack more codes to help find Soviet bombs.
After being forced to enter a psychiatric hospital, John is confronted with the fact he is suffering from schizophrenia. After getting therapy and medicine, John begins to understand his illness and starts to learn how to deal with it in his day to day life. (Nasar, 2001)
Signs and symptoms
Schizophrenia is a mental disorder that affects around 1 percent of the population. It is a mental disorder characterized by the deterioration of thought processes and emotional responsiveness (Djordjevic, et al. , 2018). Because the symptoms and signs of Schizophrenia are quite diverse and complex, there has been an effort to help simply talk about the illness by dividing it into categories; the most widely accepted approach is ‘positive’ and ‘negative’ symptoms. Positives symptoms are those that call attention to the illness and will typically be the first indicators for the individual to seek help. Negative symptoms are those that come in the later stages of schizophrenia. Negative symptoms tend to be much more severe and involve the impairment of social function in development. Although the symptoms of Schizophrenia are quite diverse, they can include hallucinations, delusions, avolition, and affective blunting. These are only a few of the symptoms a patient may have. Each of the symptoms is present in some patients, but none are present in all (Andreasen, 1995).
In the movie A Beautiful Mind, John Nash displays many of the symptoms that an individual with schizophrenia may have. From the beginning of the film, it is quite evident that there something abnormal about John’s life. He had criticized his published colleague’s work in a manner that is not professional in an academic setting and had a roommate that was studying English when John is in the mathematics department and there is only one bed in his room (Nasar, 2001). John seems to be having the symptoms of hallucinations and delusions. After graduating from Princeton and working at M. I. T. , John’s symptoms appear to worsen and become more severe. Rather than having a fake roommate to which he would speak to on multiple occasions, he was now imagining he was a U. S spy and his job was to decipher codes from newspapers and magazines for William Charter in order to find where the Soviets were hiding their bombs (Nasar, 2001).
Possible Etiology
Although the specific causes of schizophrenia still remain unknown, researchers suggest there may be a multitude of factors that may cause an individual to develop this condition; developmental, genetic, and environmental factors may play into effect for schizophrenia (Fatani, Aldawod, & Alhawaj, 2017). Involving genetics, research had mainly been done with parents and twins. If twins are monozygotic and one develops schizophrenia, the chance for the other to develop the condition rises to a highest around 48% and if the twins are dizygotic that risk lowers to around 14%-18%. If two parents are to suffer from schizophrenia, the chance their child will develop the condition is around 40% (Fatani, Aldawod, & Alhawaj, 2017).
For developmental and environmental factors, the leading example of schizophrenic etiology is the neurodevelopmental hypothesis. This focuses on the brain develop during the time of pregnancy. These are usually comprised of nutritional deficiencies, maternal stress, intrauterine growth retardation, maternal infections, and complications of pregnancy and birth (Fatani, Aldawod, & Alhawaj, 2017). Socio-economic factors also seem to have an effect. Childhood difficulty and 1st and 2nd generation immigrants have been linked to schizophrenia (Fatani, Aldawod, & Alhawaj, 2017).
In the film, it is quite unclear why John Nash has Schizophrenia. The film started with him at Princeton and from there, his hallucinations and delusions had already started. Very little insight is given from his childhood or anything before he started his studies at Princeton (Nasar, 2001). Because of the lack of evidence in film and the broad etiology of schizophrenia, it is very unlikely to pinpoint the reasoning behind John’s schizophrenia.
The course of the disorder
The progression of this disorder can vary greatly from individual to individual. In longitudinal studies, individuals may be tagged with ‘high risk’ or ‘ultra risk’ if not stable. Individuals who are tagged with risks are at a point in their illness where they are suffering from many of the symptoms from a mild to a severe status. These individuals typically have had Schizophrenia for a longer period and the status of the illness has had a large effect on their cognitive deterioration (Napal, 2012). During the earlier stages of Schizophrenia, positive symptoms are more prominent and are usually the first signs that individuals begin understanding they have a psychotic disorder and need to seek acute treatment. Positives symptoms include hallucinations and delusions.
After treatment of the positive symptoms, patients are very likely to experience negative symptoms after. Negative symptoms are likely to occur in the later sequences of schizophrenia-in some cases it is possible to have negative symptoms in the earlier stages along with positive symptoms-and tend to be much more severe in affecting the patients day to day life. Negative symptoms can include the inability to express emotions, difficulties talking, and apathy. As well, negative symptoms tend to make patients unable to return to work, school, or a normal social life (Andreasen, 1995)Through the course of the film, John Nash’s symptoms do seem to worsen. They had led to a much more intense experience for John when he had believed he was a spy and was risking his life every day by trying to decipher codes. As the film progresses, the hallucinations seem to consume his whole life. While at M. I. T. , John was supposed to be teaching class but would almost always forget to go because he was stuck in his office surrounded by his ‘classified work’.
As well, he would be very paranoid and imagine that the Soviets were coming for him. The negative symptoms can also be seen after John gets treatment from Dr. Rosen. There were many moments with a lack of insight in combination with the hallucinations, such as when he did not understand why his wife had been so mad about William and didn’t understand why she could not see William (Nasar, 2001).
Treatment
There is no cure for an individual diagnosed with Schizophrenia, but there are multiple treatment options to help lessen the severity. The main objective when treating schizophrenia is to help assimilate the individual back into society. This is done by managing symptoms, avoiding relapse, and growing adaptive function (Fatani, 2017). Treatments such as pharmacological therapy, long-acting injectable antipsychotic agents, and augmentation and combination therapy can help patients. Pharmacological therapy is very common during the early stages of Schizophrenia. If an individual were to experience a psychotic episode, the medication should be administered immediately. These drugs would help reduce any aggression and help them return to normal functioning (Fatani, 2017).
If the patient is not compliant with oral medicine, another form of administering drugs would begin to be used: long-acting injectable antipsychotic agents. Patients would have the drug injected into them rather than taking it orally (Fatani, 2017). There is another form of therapy only for patients who are proving to be unaffected by the previous therapies: augmentation and combination therapy. This therapy may only be administered if the patient does not meet a satisfactory response to clozapine. This uses augmentation therapy (mood stabilizer or ECT) with combination therapy (antipsychotics) (Fatani, 2017)Because of the time period, for his treatment in the film, John receives Insulin shock therapy. They injected large amounts of insulin so John would have several comas over a certain time period. This treatment is only seen once during the film, although Dr. Rosen says they do it multiple times.
After John goes home from the hospital, he is prescribed medication. The medication had taken away his hallucinations and delusions. Although, John had stopped taking his medication because he couldn’t work on his math properly and he couldn’t think like he used to. Because of this, his hallucinations startup again. After much denial and understanding that all of this was in his head, he continues his life normally (Nasar, 2001). John should have continued to use his medication because while he was on this medication, there were no symptoms of schizophrenia in his life; He would have been able to continue a meaningful life. Impact on others.
During the acute phases of the illness, there may some burdens on the family such as financial output or an emotional burden. Family therapy is also used for schizophrenia, this is another impact that it may have on the family. Studies indicate that when there is family therapy, the burden on the family decreases (Berglund, 2003). The main people in the film impacted by John’s schizophrenia were his friends and his wife. In the beginning stages, there was not too much of an impact because John was just seeing some simple hallucinations, but when they the hallucinations got stronger, he would begin to push away his friends and his wife away because he did not want them to get involved in his top-secret work. While experiencing his negative symptoms, John in a slight manner would neglect his wife while mainly focusing on his work. It was quite evident from the film that his wife was shocked and upset by John’s schizophrenia (Nasar, 2001).
