In the film, “A Beautiful Mind,” the main character is John Nash is a new graduate student
from Princeton. He is in the running for the prestigious Carnegie Prize of mathematics. “A
Beautiful Mind,” begins when John Nash begins as a new graduate student, he becomes
friendly with his roommate, Charlie; in the film they become best friends. In graduate
school he is under pressure in producing a new thesis, to begin his work. He comes up with
a formula of a theory in mathematical economics. After his success with the formula, he
accepts a job in MIT. A couple years later he becomes romantically involved with one of
his students (Alice), that later becomes his wife. John Nash returns to Princeton and runs
into Charlie and his niece, Marcee. During this trip he comes in contact with a person with
the Department of Defense, William Parcher; Parcher gives Nash the task of looking for
patterns in magazines as well as newspapers, against the soviet plot. After the findings he
had to place the hints in a mailbox. Alice his wife is desperate to help her husband through
his “weird” behaviors; it is later figured out that Nash has schizophrenia and that Charlie,
Marcee and Parcher were all a figment of his imagination. Nash is diagnosed with
schizophrenia and is put into a psychiatric facility and is given treatment to help him, and
is given medication as well. The symptoms of schizophrenia include: disorder of thought,
disorder of attention, disorder of perception, motor disorders and, emotional (affective)
disorders. Further more in order to be diagnosed with schizophrenia you have to have at
least two of the five disorders for at least six months. The treatment as well as medicine
helps Nash realize reality, but leaves him physically as well as emotionally numb. Nash
stops taking medication and relapses; he has an episode and almost kills his son. Nash
once again continues medication and treatment, and tries to fight off his demons he had
always lived with. Towards the end of the movie Nash becomes the head of the Princeton
mathematics department and he is granted permission to work in the library and have
classes. Nash then wins the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics, and there is a final scene
where Nash fights off his demons once again.
The movie did a great job in understanding schizophrenia and helped me further
understand what goes through the mind of a schizophrenic. The movie helps people
