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  • Essay / Depiction of John Nash's schizophrenia in the film A Beautiful Mind

    The film A Beautiful Mind focuses on a brilliant mathematician named John Nash, who presents himself as a person with an abnormal character, is very antisocial and is not not easily distracted, is very diligent, and dislikes people due to his poor social skills. John worked with tension and dedication to come up with a game theory concept while he was a student at Princeton University. After a lot of sacrifice and dedication that Nash puts in day after day, he performs his job adequately, but it affects his mental health as he constantly works under stress and gets agitated when things don't go the way he hoped. While working at a private research university and as a professor at Princeton, he was diagnosed with schizophrenia, although his psychotic disorder went unnoticed for years because "eccentricity" was common in his field. Nash suffers from constant hallucinations, as he actually had an imaginary roommate throughout his college years. His hallucinations while working at the Pentagon have become an obsession and he imagines working for a government agent, discovering hidden messages in magazines and newspapers. As a professor at the university, he began a relationship with one of his students, Alicia Larder, a physics student, with whom he married and had a son. As his mental state worsens, imagining that Russian spies are following him to capture him because of his work, he is sent to a psychiatric hospital for treatment, where he realizes that his imaginary friend and his work are... secret spy are not real. However, after being hospitalized and taking medication, he had marital problems and his inability to care for his child prevented him from taking his medication. Therefore, his hallucinations start to appear again and he thinks he is working for the government, but with the help of his wife he manages to seek help and try to improve himself, which pushes him to return to Princeton to find a job. As he now distinguishes between reality and his hallucinations, he has decided to live his days ignoring what he thinks he sees. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay At the beginning of the film, John's behaviors among his colleagues are noticeably different, as he isolates himself from them and does not hold conversations. Upon entering Princeton University, he felt as if he were in competition with other mathematicians and therefore struggled to complete his work for many hours in his room. Due to his economic situation, this caused him to be twice as motivated as the others as it is mentioned in the film that he was a poor student. I think the amount of stress he endured caused him to produce abnormalities in the brain that interfered with his thinking, perception processes and gave him confused thoughts. In other words, years of stress can lead to schizophrenia. As it states: “Study shows severe forms of abnormal behavior. Like schizophrenia and depression, they occur proportionally more often among poor and socially disadvantaged groups. " However, the film does not mention whether John's parents suffered from schizophrenia, so I believe this disorder was developed based on the reasons John was stressed and always put pressure on himself in his job. In fact, it is stated in an article titled "Variable Causes of Social Dysfunction in Schizophrenia: The Interaction of Factors.