A Beautiful Mind

I enjoyed many things from the film A Beautiful Mind including the cast, the interpretations of being schizophrenic, and also the small amount of romance between John and Alicia. Think that the cast was very well picked, Russell Crower did an outstanding job portraying a man with schizophrenia. I could tell that Crower was eve comfortable with this role, considering how well he portrayed John Nash. When I think about John Nash and his awkward, yet sophisticated, rationality Russell Crower really does justice to John Nash.Also, the cast for the other students, John's peers, were well picked out also. All of the other students were intelligent and also a little cocky which makes sense as to why they don't accept John. I also enjoyed the interpretations of being schizophrenic. It is very interesting going into the mind of John Nash and seeing the people that only he sees, and hearing the voices that only he hears. Lastly enjoyed how the film had a little spark of romance between John an d Alicia, but that the entire film wasn't about the romance, and love.The film was more about John and his brilliance than his love life. My only dislike for this film is that it was slowly moving. L, personally, enjoy movies that can invest myself in and really feel the characters. I could not relate to any of the characters considering they are all brilliant. Johns Anna's second grade teacher tells Nash that he had been given two helpings of brain but only one helping of heart, I think that she means that he would stop putting math and science before how he is really feeling and that he should try to make friends and be more in-touch with others.As said before I really enjoyed Russell Crow's portrayal of schizophrenia. I thought that it was very believable, from what I have seen, and was interesting whenever he would have schizophrenic fits around other students. The scariest part of schizophrenia for me is seeing things that others cannot. People with schizophrenia do not know if what they're seeing is real or fake, and that is scary. A Beautiful Mind The movie â€Å"A Beautiful Mind† is the memorable and touching story of John Forbes Nash Jr., an economist and mathematical genius who won the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics in 1994. Nash is said to have battled with an illness called paranoid schizophrenia.1) Said to be the most feared and disabling of mental illnesses, paranoid schizophrenia is said to be ‘characterized by illogical thinking and hearing unreal things’ (How to get rid). This is much like the way John Nash was portrayed by actor Russell Crowe in the movie.The initial part of the movie showed that John had such a great mind, and his mind worked in a very complicated way. He was so dedicated to his work and can get so caught up with what he was doing that he sometimes stayed at the library for 2 days in a row solving mathematical equations. For John, the numbers just seemed to come alive as if they were begging for his attention.The way he stretched the use of his brain to look at things from a mathematician’s point of view is just so astounding. John correlated everything to math – simple things like the movement of pigeons, picking up girls in a bar, and asking for approval from a girl.The later part of the movie however, shows John as slowly being transformed to the queer individual who speaks of conspiracies, Russians, classified information, and other spy terminologies. He surreptitiously spends most of his time cutting newspapers, magazines, scribbling, deciphering codes, and dealing with shady characters.As the story further unfolds, it is revealed that characters seen by John are only imaginary and that he has to be treated soon, or else he might put his own family in danger. As John’s psychiatrist, Dr. Rosen, says in the movie, â€Å"the nightmare of schizophrenia is in not knowing what’s true†. Indeed, John had a difficult time making the distinction between his hallucinations and realities.2) In the movie, John was given insuli n shock therapy 5 times a week for two weeks. Furthermore, he was released from the hospital on the condition that he would take his anti-psychotic drugs, so that the degree of his illness would not progress any further.Insulin shock therapy was discovered by Manfred Sakel in 1927, where an injection of insulin was administered to the patient, who went into a superficial coma, and eventually recovered from his/her psychotic state (The History of Shock Therapy). This therapy worked positively on John, who showed significant signs of improvement after undergoing this treatment.With regards to medications, at first, all went well when John did as he was told. Eventually, however, John stopped taking them and hid the medicines in a tin can which he – without his wife’s knowledge – hid in a drawer on his desk.This made John’s delusions all come back to life, and all the paranoia and hallucinations haunted him once again. This occurrence almost cost the life of John’s son, so John’s wife once again sought the help of Dr. Rosen so that John could be returned to the psychiatric hospital. When Dr. Rosen arrived, John was asked why he stopped taking his medications.His answer was because ‘I couldn’t work, I couldn’t help with the baby, and I couldn’t respond to my wife’. John was in such a pathetic state that his wife took pity on him and just let him stay, but she left her baby with her mom temporarily. Gradually, John recovered even without the aid of medications. As one website mentions: â€Å"The notion that schizophrenics must spend a lifetime on these (anti-psychotic) drugs is a ‘myth’† (John Nash: Recovery without Drugs), and John did pretty well on this. A Beautiful Mind Mental illness and mental disorders have plagued individuals for many years before the development of the psychiatric community embraced the challenges of treatment with understanding.   It can be assumed that everyone has had an encounter with someone who is mentally ill at some point in their life.Stereotypical images of those with mental disorders encompass the erroneous image of a filthy homeless individual viewed talking aloud to some imaginary person or thing.   Other images depict the mentally ill individual ranting and raving like some ravenous animal with wild eyes and an animal-like posture.These images are poor portrayals of the mentally disturbed often created by Hollywood as a means to keep viewers entertained.   Contrary to popular belief, a mentally ill person looks just like any other human being despite some peculiarities, however, in the society of today, anyone could be mentally ill.BackgroundThe Hollywood motion picture, A Beautiful Mind, was directed a docu mental-like story of an actual world renowned mathematician named John Nash (Grazer & Howard, 2001).   Nash was born in West Virginia and later went on to attend graduate school at Princeton University in Princeton, New Jersey.He was then twenty-one years old.   Throughout his secondary academic career, Nash remained somewhat unsociable and preoccupied with his research and coursework.   He did not appear to have much time for dating or socializing with members of the opposite sex either.Nash’s competitive nature served as a driving force for his academic research and achievements.   His economic theories and studies enabled him to win appointments and academic recognition through much of his time while studying at Princeton University.   While his mathematic theories would leave a reasonable person ultimately dumbfounded and confused,PSYCHOLOGYit became like a second language to Nash.   Simple tasks like games became too complicated for him to participate in (Gra zer & Howard, 2001).   If it did not equate into a mathematical equation, then in Nash’s thinking, it could not be logical or proven to be absolute.Nash later met a woman, Alicia, while teaching at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).   Over a period of time, the two began dating and later married.   Together they would have one child, a son, named John.   During the course of their marriage, Nash would become more and more distant.   He would blame the distance on his work and research.AnalysisPsychological SymptomsFriends began to notice that his personal hygiene was lacking in the area of care and presentation.   He would regularly forget to shave, his shirts would not be tucked in properly, and his hair would be stringy and unwashed.He began walking with a noticed shuffle while simultaneously clutching his briefcase tightly against his chest as though it bore protection.   He socially disconnected from his colleagues by informing them that his re search was classified (Grazer & Howard, 2001).   Worst of all, he started forgetting that he was required to teach a class at MIT, and he would often not show up.During Nash’s time studying at Princeton University, he became good friends with his roommate.   He would meet up with his old college chum several times over the course of the following years.   It would later be revealed that Nash had no roommate at Princeton University, but rather he was assigned to a dormitory and resided alone the entire time (Grazer & Howard, 2001).The imagined roommate was a hallucination (American Psychiatric Association, 1994).