In the movie, A Beautiful Mind, Nash was schizophrenic with symptoms such as hallucinations, fear of persecution, delusions and lacking a good interpersonal relationship. In the beginning, the movie portrayed the main character as introverted and ambitious young man who was determined to come up with an original idea in the math department. He is however different from other students because of lacking social cues that are an integral part of the interpersonal relationship. Nash was later engaged to Alicia who did not mind his weaknesses and social ineptness but later realized that her husband was withdrawing from the real world (Goldsman, 2002). Eventually, it evident that Nash required psychiatric care and Alicia learned that her husband was suffering from paranoid schizophrenia. He was further withdrawn from the society and lived within his home compound under his wife’s care.
From the movie, important lessons can be drawn that the psychiatric illness causes a huge burden to loved ones. Alicia had a difficult time raising the newborn son and at the same time, her husband who is in a critical situation. Nash later stopped taking his medication, a common behavior with schizophrenic victims, thus worsening the situation. Eventually, the two agreed to look for alternative solutions to the medical condition without relying on medication and finally, he was reintegrated into the academic community and begun teaching. The psychological and sociological theories can explain Nash condition.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
Psychological theorists consider schizophrenia as being caused by poor communication with close relatives and friends as well as other maladaptive behavior (Konstantareas & Hewitt, 2001). The lack of proper interpersonal skills in Nash early life made him have few friends and poor communication because of choosing to be alone most of the time. A psychological explanation also borrows from the works of Sigmund Freud who argued that schizophrenia is caused by sub-conscious conflict as a result of harsh environments affecting the development of the ego (Helgason & Sarris, 2013). The impact of the process is the formation of a faulty thought pattern making one to experience unrealistic stimulus. Mistaking real events and behaviors with the unrealistic ones result in paranoia.
Theorists also use a sociocultural explanation of schizophrenia using life events and family relationships (Konstantareas, 2001). Events in Nash’s life might have caused stress thus increasing the chances of developing the mental condition. Some of the life events discussed were divorce, loss or the change of job, bereavement, and marriage. Nash was lucky to be engaged to Alicia by his interpersonal skills were not effective to maintain the relationship and he might have felt inadequate resulting in stress. Besides, there are higher chances that Nash was receiving contradictory messages from his caregivers at an early age thus resulting in an incoherent construction of reality that eventually caused schizophrenia. A child requires uniform instructions, and whenever necessary, caregivers should discuss the best instructions to give to avoid confusion. The conflict is well explained in the double-blind theory and the labeling theory.
Choosing the right treatment option is critical for schizophrenic patients for proper recovery. Nash did not like medication, and therefore, psychosocial interventions were the best. Individual therapy is one of the intervention mechanisms aimed at normalizing the thought pattern for proper functioning. The victim also learns to cope with stress and easily identify the early sign of relapse in order to seek immediate care. Social skills training is also an important approach to help Nash in the recovery process. The technique entails boosting social interactions and communication in order to fully engage in the daily activities while interacting with other people. The special training is more appropriate to young people although Alicia used the approach help Nash in the recovery process. Lastly, Nash should enroll for a vocational rehabilitation program to help him in keeping his job and offering daily solutions to situations that might result in crisis and trigger more stress.
The success that Nash experienced is uncommon especially in the modern era where there is a heavy reliance on medicine for full recovery of diseases and disorders. Antipsychotic medications are more common because of their impact on dopamine, a brain transmitter (Lieberman et al., 2005). Psychiatrists use different types of medicine and doses until the desired outcome is achieved. Other medications include antidepressants that take long before a patient records positive changes in behavior. In most cases, the prescribed drugs cause serious side effects to result to an unwillingness to continue with the medication as proven in Nash’s case. To deal with the adverse negative effects of the drugs, researchers in the medical field have come up with second-generation antipsychotics like cariprazine and Asenapine. Patients using first-generation antipsychotics reported neurological effects such as tardive dyskinesia, which is a movement disorder.
Besides the psychosocial intervention that helped Nash recover, it is essential to embrace support and coping strategies such as learning more about schizophrenia. Learning more about the disorder ensures that the patient and caregivers are strict to the best treatment plan chosen. More so, friends and relatives learn about the how to be compassionate to the affected person because recovery is possible. It is further critical to come up with stress management plans which and whenever necessary, engage in meditation exercises such as Yoga. Assistance on how to carry out these activities can be received from support groups that also aim at reaching more affected members in the population.
References
Goldsman, A. (2002). A Beautiful Mind: the shooting script . Newmarket Press.
Helgason, C., & Sarris, J. (2013). Mind-body medicine for schizophrenia and psychotic disorders: a review of the evidence. Clinical schizophrenia & related psychoses , 7 (3), 138-148.
Konstantareas, M. M., & Hewitt, T. (2001). Autistic disorder and schizophrenia: Diagnostic overlaps. Journal of autism and developmental disorders , 31 (1), 19-28.
Lieberman, J. A., Stroup, T. S., McEvoy, J. P., Swartz, M. S., Rosenheck, R. A., Perkins, D. O., & Severe, J. (2005). Effectiveness of antipsychotic drugs in patients with chronic schizophrenia. New England Journal of Medicine , 353 (12), 1209-1223.
