Emily McBride
Lab #2
The movie, “A Beautiful Mind” which was directed and produced by Ron
Howard, as well as other producers, features a young, handsome Russell Crowe who plays a man, John Nash, who suffers from a condition called Schizophrenia.
Schizophrenia is a mental disability that is classified by specific inhibitors and characteristics. These characteristics are, but are not limited to, paranoia, hallucinations, and delusions. A person with Schizophrenia will experience hallucinations that they hear and/or see. The delusions are generally an extreme and false perception or belief. People with Schizophrenia often believe that people are out to get them or plotting against them.
Schizophrenia cannot be tested so a diagnosis has to go off of clinical observation and signs and symptoms of the disorder, such symptoms were previously stated.
Schizophrenia is a degenerative disease, which means it will get worse over time.
In the movie, John Nash shows each of these symptoms. John is brilliant, but he is awkward. He is bad with communicating appropriately with others. John does not realize that anything is wrong with him. He has a hallucination of a college roommate named
Charles, who he believes to be real. Charles stays and “visits him” even after they leave
Princeton. Schizophrenia usually becomes present between the ages of 16 and 30; this is shown in John’s case. John’s disability enables him to find mathematical explanations and solutions to problems. John makes a break through discovery which enables him to become a renowned mathematician. As time goes on, John meets Charles’ niece, Marcee, who becomes another hallucination of his.

John’s condition worsens and another hallucination, Parcher, comes into play. In his mind, Parcher, a sketchy government agent, has picked him out to be a code breaker to help stop the Soviets. John becomes insanely paranoid and thinks that Soviets are after him and trying to threaten him. John is placed in a mental facility after he has a breakdown during a lecture. John’s wife, Alicia, goes to investigate John’s condition after he is in the mental hospital. Alicia discovers the “codes” he had been taking to the dropoff spot picked by Parcher. The drop off spot is really a dilapidated mansion that has long since been abandoned. Alicia gets pregnant whilst this is all going on, and once John is home, has to remind him to take his medication to keep the delusions and hallucinations away.
Thus far in the story, John’s whole life has been affected by his disease. He had becomes so paranoid that he had to be hospitalized, his pregnant wife struggles because she never knew that Charles was fake, his work has been damaged because he couldn’t focus on what he was supposed to be doing, only the codes he is trying to break. His delusions controlled his life and overwhelmed his mind, his hallucinations antagonized him and he couldn’t focus on hardly anything but codes. His whole life is significantly impaired because of his disease.
John’s medication causes him to be unresponsive and he appears to have a lack of emotion. This is extremely hard on him and his wife and child suffer from his lack of interest. This inspires him to stop taking his medication, which leads to his hallucinations reoccurring. Parcher comes again and tells him that the Soviets are closing in. John becomes paranoid and starts his code breaking once again. His hallucinations are so strong that he leaves his infant child unattended in a bathtub because he thinks that

Charles is watching him. Alicia becomes scared and infuriated by this and goes to leave the house to stay with her mother. Parcher appears and points a gun at Alicia and the baby and John tries to knock her out of the way which scares her more. She becomes hysterical and tells John that the hallucinations are fake and that she cannot handle this anymore. John, clearly shaken, thinks about Charles, Marcee, and Parcher and realizes that Marcee never ages and proves to himself that those hallucinations really are just in his head. John stops Alicia from leaving and sits down with her and his doctor. John tells his doctor that he does not want to take his medicine anymore because of its negative side effects, but he also wants the hallucinations, delusions, and paranoia to go away.
John and Alicia work out a way for John to cope and deal with his ailment. John learns to ignore his hallucinations, like a bad habit, he just does not indulge in them. This solution proves to be successful for John, and over time, it gets easier for him. I do not think that this solution would work for every person with Schizophrenia. I think that because John was so logical, it was easier for him to recognize and accept the fact that his hallucinations were in his head because they didn’t age. I think that it also worked for
John, because he accepted the fact that he had those inhibitors. Near the end of the movie, it shows a man approaching John and John asks a student, if she saw the man too. I think the most important part, is that John tried to get better and be better, regardless of the fact that it was hard.
References: http://www.webmd.com/schizophrenia/ss/slideshow-schizophrenia-overview