John Nash (Russell Crowe) is the main protagonist in the movie A Beautiful Mind . Nash suffers from schizophrenia, according to Dr. Rosen’s assessment. He experiences positive and negative symptoms of schizophrenia. The positive symptoms include hallucinations and thought disorders (Comer, 2016). In his hallucination episodes, he thinks Charles, Marcee, and Parcher are watching him, yet they only exist in his mind. He experiences delusions of persecution. He thinks that some Russian agents are after him and want to kill him. His life is also disorganized and affects the way he relates with Alicia Larde and son. At one time he left the baby unsupervised and, in his mind, (hallucinations) thought someone else (Charles) was watching him (the baby). Other behaviors included blunted affect, where Nash was unresponsive/expressionless, and anhedonia, where he lacked the capacity to enjoy life.
The negative symptoms include the social withdrawal, unhappy life, and unable to lead a normal life (Comer, 2016). Having lost touch with the reality, Nash cannot work on his school project or give lectures. He has unproductive relationship with his wife and his friends because of his paranoia. As a result, he tends to have a lonely and unhappy life. Dr. Rosen prescribes insulin shock therapy for the management of the schizophrenia. However, the treatment method had adverse negative effects that included prolonged com and extreme restlessness, prompting Nash to discontinue the treatment process.
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Symptoms/DSM
According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM-5), the main symptoms of schizophrenia include delusions, hallucinations, disorganized speech, catatonic behavior, and negative behavior such as diminished emotional expression (American Psychiatric Association, 2015). For one to be diagnosed with schizophrenia, he/she only needs to manifest two or more of the mentioned symptoms (American Psychiatric Association, 2015). Therefore, while Nash does not display the catatonic behavior, he still considered to have schizophrenia because of his hallucinations, delusions, and negative symptoms, that have occurred for more than a month. Other symptoms include signs of disturbance including the flat effect/emotionless and odd beliefs that are not attributable to the physiological effects of a substance (American Psychiatric Association, 2015). Nash has experienced the negative symptom disturbances in the form of anhedonia (loss of ability to enjoy life) and persecution delusion for a period exceeding six months.
Background Information
According to a WHO report (2018), close to 23 million individuals globally are schizophrenic. Sadly, only 50% of the patient receive medical and psychological care. People living with schizophrenia suffer from social stigma, a situation that affects the recovery process, especially due to isolation by family and friends (WHO, 2018). Until now, the real cause of schizophrenia is unknown. However, the main risk factors include the environment (high incidences in winter and early spring) and genetic factors, especially involving some birth complications (American Psychiatric Association, 2015). According to American Psychiatric Association (2015), the rates of comorbidity with substance-related disorders is high in schizophrenia. Comorbidity with anxiety disorders is also high. Very few theories discuss the psychological and sociocultural factors as the potential causes of schizophrenia (Torgersen, 2012). Nevertheless, the two factors can cause the psychological disorder. Some of the sociocultural factors are physical abuse and extreme poverty (Torgersen, 2012). The two factors lead to psychological effects such as depression and major anxiety, which can lead to schizophrenia. The psychological factors might the posttraumatic stress disorders because of certain traumatic experiences. The loss of loved one, intense life pressures, physical and emotional abuse are some factors that have a psychological effect on victims.
Nash disorder can be attributed to the stress and major anxiety to accomplish his tasks. After winning the scholarship for mathematics, Nash is under intense pressure. He has to publish and wants to be original. Stress and anxiety take toll on him as he tries to get ideas of what to publish. Slowly, he gets withdrawn from friends and begins to experience positive symptoms, similar to those of schizophrenia. Therefore, the psychological factors, were the major causes of Nash’s psychological disorder.
The patient requires social support from family and friends. The family and social workers should show unconditional love for the patient. This leads to improvement in social skills and having a sense of wellbeing. While medical treatment is good, it can also have some adverse side effects. These include diarrhea, anxiety, tremors, sexual dysfunctions, weight gain among others (Goikolea, J. & Colom, 2012). Despite the side effects, the patient should be encouraged to continue to take the drugs. Nash’s experience in managing his disorder is uncommon. After discontinuing the treatment, he struggled, but eventually regained his normal functionalities. It is not normal, as schizophrenia is difficult to treat. That might explain why towards the end of the movie, he hallucinates again, meaning that he might be having another episode of schizophrenia. Therefore, it is vital that the patients remain under medication and psychosocial support at all times.
References
American Psychiatric Association (2013). Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (5 th ed). D.C: Author
Comer, R. J. (2016). Fundamentals of abnormal psychology (8th ed.). New York, NY: Worth
Goikolea, J. & Colom, F. (2013). "Lower rate of depressive switch following antimanic treatment with second-generation antipsychotics versus haloperidol". Journal of Affective Disorders . 144 (3): 191–8.
Kane, J. (2013). Tools to assess negative symptoms in schizophrenia. Journal of Clinical Psychiatry , 74(6): e12. doi: 10.4088/JCP.12045tx2c.
Torgersen, S. (2012). "Paranoid schizophrenia, paranoid psychoses, and personality disorders". Journal for the Norwegian Medicine Association . New York, NY. 132 (7), 851-852.
WHO. (2018). Schizophrenia . Retrieved from http://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/schizophrenia on May 31, 2018.
