A Beautiful Mind-Schizophrenia.

                                           A Beautiful Mind-Schizophrenia.

                                                Carl Stuart.

                                                Stuart Medical Series

                                                             Abstract.

This paper focuses on schizophrenia as it is manifested in the movie A Beautiful Mind. There is a brief introduction to schizophrenia. A concise synopsis of the film is also provided in the paper. The aspects of schizophrenia discussed in relation to the film in this paper include the sign and symptoms, social effects and treatment of schizophrenia.

                                                         Introduction.

Schizophrenia refers to a psychiatric disorder which affects the coherence of one’s personality due to emotional instability and detachment from reality. It is mainly associated with anxiety disorders and depression. The symptoms of schizophrenia are outlined hereafter: auditory hallucinations, disorganized patterns of speech (characterized by preponderance of word salad) and thought processes, paranoid delusions, lethargy, social withdrawal (or isolation), impaired social cognition, impairment of executive functioning and catatonia. Usually, the onset of these symptoms manifests itself in young adulthood (20-30 years of age) (Rosenberg, 2011).

The prodromal phase of schizophrenia is characterized by dysphoria, petulance, transient psychotic symptoms, alogia, anhedonia, gaucheness and social withdrawal. Schizophrenia is caused by multi-factorial elements with the main ones being genetics, in-utero infections (and injury), substance abuse and environmental stressors (such as poverty) (Rosenberg, 2011).

 Schizophrenia is classified into seven categories: simple schizophrenia, residual type, paranoid type, undifferentiated type, disorganized (hebephrenic) type, catatonic type and post-schizophrenic depression. The main mechanism for schizophrenia is outlined by the dopamine hypothesis which states that schizophrenia occurs when there is an abnormal activity of dopaminergic neurons in the brain; and thus, the positive symptoms (of schizophrenia) appear when the dopaminergic activity within the mesolimbic system is increased, and the negative symptoms appear when the dopaminergic activity within the mesocortical system is decreased (Rosenberg, 2011).

Schizophrenia has adverse social effects on the sufferers; suicidal intentions, increased smoking, denial, hostility (that they normally direct towards their caregivers), disability and stigmatization by the society (due to the disability that schizophrenics have) (Rosenberg, 2011).

The biographical drama film A Beautiful Mind was released in 2001 by Universal Pictures and DreamWorks. The plot of the film revolves around the life of John Nash; an acknowledged mathematics 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 (currently termed as Nash equilibria); and this discovery earned him the John von Neumann Theory Prize in 1978. Later on; in 1994 he earned the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his contribution in Game Theory (Funaki, 2009).

A Beautiful Mind: A Case Study of Schizophrenia.

This case study analyses the experiences of Nash in relation to his schizophrenia (and the journey thereof), social effects and the support offered by his family and friends.

John Nash was born in 1928, and in his childhood he had the qualities of an avid reader; and by the age of 12 years, he did his scientific experiments alone in his room; and this was a signal that he was a recluse. He considered himself as intellectually superior as compared to his classmates; and he was thus not involved in sports and dances with his classmates, and this engendered him to suffer social rejection (Funaki, 2009). Thus, it can be seen that Nash’s behavior made his interaction with the society difficult, hence leading to subtle feelings of persecution, and this is a symptom of a prodromal phase of schizophrenia (Rosenberg, 2011).

Nash was considered odd compared to his age-mates due to his exceptional intellectual capabilities and asociality. His brilliance is exemplified by the fact that he was concurrently awarded two degrees: His Bachelor’s degree alongside his Master’s degree. He would later become famous for his works on Nash equilibrium, Algebraic geometry, Partial differential equations and Nash embedding theorem (Funaki, 2009).

He progressed well in his life until 1958 (at the age of 30) when he suffered from paranoia. This was the time when his career as a mathematician was at its threshold and his marriage to Alicia Lopez-Harrison de Larde was a year old. Nash had both real and delusional friends. His real friends were Mr.Neilson, Mr.Sol and Mr.Henson, while his delusional friends were Charles Herman, William Parcher and Margie. His wife realized that Nash had delusion and she had him admitted to a psychiatric hospital in 1959(the year when their son was born). There, a diagnosis of mild depression (with low-self esteem) and paranoid schizophrenia was made. Later in 1963, the couple divorced and they were reunited after seven years in a non-romantic relationship (Funaki, 2009). This shows that there was a poor prognosis of his schizophrenia as he still suffered from emotional disability which prevented him from forming a normal romantic relationship. It also lends credence to research that shows that schizophrenia impairs human sexuality (Rosenberg, 2011). Alicia would later on use cognitive coping strategies to enable Nash overcome his schizophrenia (Funaki, 2009).

During the period covering 1960-1970; Nash was repeatedly admitted (not in his own volition) to psychiatric hospitals where insulin-shock therapy was administered alongside antipsychotic medications. After 1970, out of his own volition, he stopped using the prescribed antipsychotic medications; and his symptoms gradually worsened as he smoked more cigarettes, dressed shabbily and ate very little thus causing a deterioration of his health as was manifested by his walking gait (Funaki, 2009). This fact shows institutionalization of mental patients in psychiatric hospitals does not necessarily improve their symptoms (Rosenberg, 2011).

Nash was a person who preferred that people do things his way despite their reservations. This symptom of detachment from other people’s emotions enabled him to transcend the partial agency of advanced game theory in 1965. However, this symptom had a detrimental effect on his health as it made him to refuse to use the prescribed antipsychotic medications (Funaki, 2009).

His wife encouraged him to work in various communitarian settings in which his eccentricities were likely to be accepted. His symptoms gradually improved (Funaki, 2009). This was an initial stage to recovery as care provided by the community alongside the active family support enables the sufferer to regain confidence in the community. Also, this fact shows that community-oriented treatment modalities for schizophrenia have a good prognosis (Killian, 2011).

There is a good prognosis for schizophrenia if the sufferers are provided with community (and family) support and the mental health workers encourage self-determination (in accordance to the moral principal of autonomy) in order to enable the sufferer overcome stigmatization(Killian, 2011).

Nash’s journey to recovery was made possible by the following factors: the unconditional support offered by Alicia, his self-determination to recover, his phobia for institutionalization, the passion he had for his career and his anticipation for regaining his pre-schizophrenic social norms (Funaki, 2009).

Nash experienced all the stages of coping with schizophrenia as outlined hereafter. These stages are comprehension, managing, belonging, normalizing and valuing. Nash comprehended his condition (his wife played a major role in this comprehension) and he managed his condition by figuring out the reality (and discarding the delusions). He later became involved in community activities, thus making him to belong to that community. He accepted his illness and this normalization enabled him to have the self-determination required for recovery. His valuing enabled him to realize the reality and the need for recovery (Funaki, 2009).

Conclusion.

A Beautiful Mind shows that passion, self-determination, hope, courage; and the assistance and love provided by the carers of sufferers enables the sufferers to cope and finally overcome schizophrenia. This is exemplified by the fact that the self-medication (through active support of Alicia) of Nash, his self-determination and self-discovery of reality enabled him to ultimately overcome schizophrenia.

                                                              References.

Funaki, T. (2009). Nash: Genius with Schizophrenia or Vice Versa? Pacific Health Research,

            15(2), 129-138.

Killian, S. (2011). Schizophrenia: Management and prognosis. Journal of Psychiatry, 47(6),

            695-703.

Rosenberg, Y. (2011). Schizophrenia. New York, NY: Carnegie Foundation.