Beautiful Mind Film - Free Paper Example

Introduction

The movie A Beautiful Mind, released in 2001, talks more on mental disorder, treatment of the paranoid schizophrenia as well as the history of John Nash. He was a mathematician and a founder of the great economic discovery such as the game theory, how to solve the fractional differential equations, and differential geometry. The movie begins by describing John's mental illness that began at his tender age, prevailing deterioration, and his decline in rational thinking. The film proceeds by stating the numerous treatment methods he underwent plus his final recovery. Schizophrenia is a serious brain disorder or even mental illness which makes individuals unusually interpret reality. Even though schizophrenia refers to a "divided mind," the illness alone refers to an imbalance between an individual's emotions and his thinking mind but not the split personalities. The sickness is mainly characterized by illogical or incoherent thoughts, strange behavior plus speech, and finally, delusion or even hallucination like hearing voices. In response to the meaning of the illness itself, it can be said that the genius mathematician was not only suffering from the mental disorder (schizophrenia) but also a trial as well as the error of a new controversial study of new things (Rahmatullah, 2016). Even though experiencing the disorder, he still had the urge to work out complex mathematics and equations.

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Character

John is presented on the screen as a student who had already graduated but still attending Princeton University graduate in 1947. The movie director brings out how an individual with schizophrenia behaves socially awkward, isolating themselves and the individuals lacking social skills. All these issues are seen on Nash, who is a brilliant mathematician at Princeton University (Robinson, 2018). The issue of isolation is seen when he moves out of a social gathering to formulate an algorithm that can elaborate more on everyday lifestyle and women seduction. Nash knew what he wanted even though he was mentally ill, so he abandoned the meeting to solve an algorithm. Though during this period (the 1940s), the behaviors were not recognized as characters of mentally ill people but as their normal tendencies of the genius individuals. The movie continues highlighting Nash's tendency of hallucination and delusion, where he thinks that there is a relationship between him and the other three individuals (his roommate, FBI agent, and the niece of his roommate). Later on, Nash deludes that he is in partnership with the government of his country, working on how to break codes as well as coming up with solutions on how to see the encrypted messages in magazines plus newspapers. At this point, the viewers also realize that doctors have a lot of difficulties in diagnosing the disorder and coming up with a way they can contain and treat it.

History

History has it that people have been suffering from mental illnesses over the years. The illness has always been recognized as schizophrenia though being a new word even to people today. The illness was named schizophrenia by a Paul Blueler in 1908 when he was a professor. Therefore, the term has been there for a century, not being changed by other psychologists or even scientists though scientists and psychologists have changed its definition. The experts say that the disorder can be diagnosed by the use of a Diagnostic as well as the Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. The two techniques state that two or even more systems comprising of delusion, disorganized speech, hallucination, catatonic behavior, which include diminished emotional communication, will always be present on these individuals for a given time. The patients will experience the symptoms for one month. It is evident from the film that Nash experienced delusions as well as hallucinations because of his mental disorder though being a genius. Negative symptoms were also seen in him since he had problems interacting with people in public and wanted to work at any time, even in odd periods. The desire to develop new mathematical equations and solutions was in him, so his thoughts were all driven towards mathematics and not any other thing. Therefore, with his behaviors, it was evident that he was experiencing schizophrenic as a genius.

Though the illness being present for decades, there is no cure for it, but few treatments have been invented by scientists to at least assist in controlling it. The treatments have been successful because of how the doctors have been admitting it to the schizophrenia illness and the methods they use to administer it. How the doctors handle the disorder is very crucial to the patients. The ICT, ECT, antipsychotic drugs, as well as the lobotomy are some of the successful treatments that the doctors have offered to their patients who are experiencing the disorder (Rahmatullah, 2016). The treatments helped when the disease was associated with prolonged asylum internment, persistent psychosis, suicide, aggressive outburst, and dementia. When the treatments were being offered, people viewed it as inhumane and morbid. When the antipsychotic drug was combined with ECT during treatment, the patient could start experiencing some difficulties later on. Using of therapy technique with insulin was adopted simultaneously, convulsive therapy was attaining notoriety back in the 1930s, a technique formulated by Manfred. He realized that his injection of the drug on the women made a lot of progress; hence the treatment has always been used on schizophrenia patients. Later on, insulin treatment was replaced by an antipsychotic drug, which was now being used since the antipsychotic was now effective compared to insulin usage.

Treatments Illustrated

With the treatments illustrated being some of the ones used to treat Nash, the film also presents the effects that Nash experienced when given the antipsychotic medication, which never helped him much. Nash was diagnosed with the treatment, but when he fell that the illness was seemingly getting over, he stopped using the drugs, but at this time, when he was taking the drugs, the hallucination never stopped (Nasar, 2016). He was given the treatment to assist his continued with his life and reduce the disorder symptoms even if the illness does not disappear. The film does not strongly show the progress of his recovery, but at least Nash was able to continue with his life as a genius and show the world what kind of mathematician he was.

His self-desire is also depicted with his illness when he decides to approach a young lady in a bar, but he ruins everything because of her incompetence in communication. He only wants them to discuss scientific terms and prods the lady to purchase him a drink. What Nash did seemed so bullying since he was forcing the lady on to what she never wanted, and this made her slap him. He only concentrated on his desires, not thinking of what others wanted (Rahmatullah, 2016). Though Alicia having a crush on Nash, gives up on her because of Nash's self-centered behavior. It was not Nash's fault to behave in such a manner, but because of the illness, he was experiencing.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the film illustrates properly how some geniuses undergo several challenges mentally though being blessed with a gift of doing what others cannot do, as evident in the film. The disorder made Nash collide with many since it made him focus on himself.

References

Nasar, S. (2016). A beautiful mind. WF Howes Limited.

Rahmatullah, S. (2016). A Comprehension Disturbance Analysis of John Nash as a Schizophrenic Character in “a Beautiful Mind” Movie (Doctoral dissertation, UIN Sunan Ampel Surabaya).

Robinson, C. (2018). Portrayals of the “Mad Genius” Trope in Shelley’s Frankenstein and A Beautiful Mind. Madness, 86.