Movie Review: A Beautiful Mind
Mental Health
Collins Career Center
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Marc Sexton
Schizophrenia is a complex disorder of the brain. In general, schizophrenia affects a person’s thinking, mood, and behavior. Psychosis is a major feature of schizophrenia. The major characteristics of psychosis are:
Abnormal interpretation of reality.
Decreased ability to relate to self and others.
Decreased ability to function.
Milieu therapy is helpful. However, during acute episodes, people usually require hospitalization. Anti-psychotic medications are the main source of treatment. The goal is to relieve symptoms, provide safety, and improve the patients function. Medication compliance is a big problem.
Nash is invited to a secret United States Department of Defense facility in the Pentagon to crack a complex encryption of an enemy telecommunication. Nash is able to decipher the code mentally to the astonishment of other code-breakers.
A Department of Defense agent, William Parcher observes Nash’s performance and gives Nash a new assignment to look for patterns in magazines and newspapers to thwart a Soviet plot. He must write a report of his findings and place them in a specified mailbox. After being chased by the Russians and an exchange of gunfire, Nash becomes increasingly paranoid and begins to behave erratically.
After observing this erratic behavior, Alicia informs a psychiatric hospital. Nash is forcibly sedated with Thorazine and sent to a psychiatric facility. Nash's internment confirms his belief that the Soviets were trying to extract information from him. He views the officials of the psychiatric facility as Soviet kidnappers.
Nash eventually earns the privilege of teaching again. He is honored by his fellow professors for his achievement in mathematics, and goes on to win the Nobel Prize in Economics for his revolutionary work on game theory. Nash and Alicia are about to leave the...