This paper applies a psychological perspective in the analysis of the Ron Howard’s 2001 film, A Beautiful Mind. Specifically, the paper follows the life of the main character in the film, John Nash through the life stressors. It adopts the psychological perspectives of emotion, motivation, personality, and psychological disorders in the analysis. As the paper demonstrates, the director of the film manages to show to the viewers the role that motivation plays in helping individuals manage their emotions, build strong personalities, and recover from psychological disorders such as paranoid schizophrenia that Nash contracted in the film.
A Beautiful Mind follows the life of John Nash through college and later in his profession as both a computer wizard and a lecturer at Harvard University (Nasar, 2001). During his years in college, at Princeton University, he was a distinguished scholar of mathematics and science. The viewers of the film can learn that Nash was a strong personality since he was always determined to accomplish great things using his educational prowess. For example, he comes under extreme pressure to publish novel theoretical perspectives in his field of study. He realizes that he could transform the way people understood the subjects that he was to publish. It is also easy to realize while viewing the movie that Nash wanted to transform the way people thought about others and the perspectives of communal life. For instance, while he and a group of his fellow students discuss how to approach a group of girls at a local pub, he manages to change their approach. Precisely, he tells Martin Hansen that it was inappropriate for them to approach the girls as individuals, and that they would achieve more if they approached them as a group. From this perspective, therefore, it is clear that Nash wanted to influence the lives of people around him, which is well in line with the concepts of sociocultural aspects of psychology.
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Things start changing when Nash is invited to the Pentagon to help in the cracking of encrypted telecommunication systems used by an enemy to the national security (Nasar, 2001). Though he manages to use his prowess in computer and math, he develops a serious psychological problem. He starts feeling that the type of work that the Pentagon had offered him was much below his talent, and that he needed a better one, at least on that could challenge his mind better. He gets another assignment, this time from his supervisor at the Department of Defense, William Parcher. The new assignment requires Nash to find patterns hidden in magazines that would help in thwarting a plot by the Soviet. The character develops great obsession for this later job, and develops more anxiety. As opposed to the time when he had friends around him to help him out of difficult situations, he does the work alone, and soon develops serious hallucinations. He starts to fear for his life, that the Soviet would soon come after him because he has jeopardized their plan. In fact, the hallucinations lead him into seeing an open fire between him and Parcher and the later character blackmailing him into continuing with the assignment. He does so, and for the fear of his life, delivers his results in a secrete mailbox. The importance of motivation and support from others can be seen clearly from this point in the film. Nash does not have anyone that could help him out of the situation even while he had once influenced others to think positively. It turns out that loneliness could be a source of serious psychological disorders such as depression and anxiety (Mustaq et al., 2014).
A lack of early intervention into the problem of Nash makes the psychological problem worsen. For instance, while lecturing at the Harvard University, he hallucinates again. This time he sees a group of Soviets coming after him from the crowd led by Doctor Rosen. The situation becomes overwhelming for Nash to handle, and he finds himself punching Rosen in the face while attempting to flee (Nasar, 2001). This happening forces the group inside the hall to sedate Nash forcefully and rush him to a psychiatric unit near the school, but Nash still feels insecure for the perception that the facility was being run by the same Soviets. Anxiety now happens to be a big issues because it deteriorates the wellbeing of the main character of the film. Nash, for example, cannot find his old, influential personality that he had identified with for a long time. The worst side of the psychological problem is that he feels too proud to even consider that he had been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. He cannot believe the doctors when they say that the people he had been seeing were only hallucinations and asks the doctors to discharge him after he had been given an insulin shock therapy (Nasar, 2001).
Nash becomes frustrated with his condition and the side effects of the medication he had been prescribed by the doctors that would cause him to be unresponsive and lethargic. Again, a lack of support and motivation from people around him lead him into stopping the medication. As a consequence, the hallucinations do not go away completely since they resurface once he meets with Parcher again and resumes the assignment. The situation worsens, and Nash develops anxiety towards others too. For example, he starts to feel that Parcher was not only after his life but also after that of his wife, Alicia and their daughter. For example, Alicia comes to the house one time and finds their child submerged in a bathtub as Nash was deeply hallucinating that another character named Charles was watching over her. He tells Alicia that Parcher was trying to kill her and advises her against calling Doctor Rosen but proceeds to do so. When Parcher comes in, Nash cannot hold the site of her, he rushes to push Parcher out of the house and accidentally knocks down Alicia and the baby. It becomes clear then, that Nash would not heal from his afflictions if he did not get an appropriate psychiatric therapy and support. In fact, he seems desperate when Alicia runs out of the house in fear of his life and that of the baby. A viewer of the film might start to see the reality that people suffering from psychological problems meet. For instance, they deteriorate on their social relationships with others, often desiring solitude. In addition, the people find it quite difficult to lead normal lives and maintain their work statuses and families, which might cause healthy people to want to avoid them (Cohen, 2004).
Nash pulls out one last move, a move that changes his life; he jumps through the window and stops in front of Alicia’s car to beg her to stay with him. He clearly wanted company and people that would advise him and restore his normal life. Alicia responds, which brings an emotional feeling to the viewers when she starts sobbing after remembering that running away form Nash would mean that he would be abandoning the father of her daughter do die out of misery and isolation. The move to stay works well on Nash’s emotions. Alicia plays a critical role as counsellor to her husband first advising him to resume his medication. The care that she offers Nash accelerates his recovery and rediscovery of his old self. For example, he thinks about his ambition before the attack by schizophrenia and goes back to Harvard where he is offered a job, first as a class organizer then a full-time lecturer. This part of the film should be most relevant to the psychological analysis the movie deserves since it depicts quite a number of issues related to psychology such as emotions, motivation, psychological disorders and social relationships. Specifically, the aspects are interconnected in this part of the film in a manner that depicts that social relationships are critical in the psychiatric therapies given to people with related problems. It is clear then that the social ties that people have play an important role in accelerating the medication therapies prescribed for patients (Cohen, 2004). First, the social relationships work positively on the emotions of the patients, which change their perspective of the medication. In this way, the social ties are a source of great motivation to the patients to want to recover from the psychological problems as Nash did.
In conclusion, A Beautiful Mind is full of psychological perspectives that might make psychology students to want to watch it. It follows the life of John Nash as he develops anxiety, which then translates to paranoid schizophrenia. At the thematic perspective, the film emphasizes the great role that social relationships play in helping individuals recover. The relationships have a big impact on transformation the perceptions of people towards their situation, creating an emotional healing, and motivating individuals to rediscover their old selves.
References
Cohen, S. (2004). Social relationships and health. American psychologist , 59 (8), 676.
Mushtaq, R., Shoib, S., Shah, T., & Mushtaq, S. (2014). Relationship between loneliness, psychiatric disorders and physical health? A review on the psychological aspects of loneliness. Journal of clinical and diagnostic research: JCDR , 8 (9), WE01.
Nasar, S. (2011). A beautiful mind . Simon and Schuster
