Film Review: A Beautiful Mind

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We chose to watch the movie “A Beautiful Mind”. My preconceptions of schizophrenia are that people with this illness have a hard time coping to normal daily living as well as having trouble maintaining a job. The movie shows how a person with schizophrenia can overcome the illness and accomplish great things. This movie will give me a general idea of how the illness affects the person and the people around him.
This is a story about John Nash, an extraordinary man well known for his academics, on a journey to leave his mark in the world. Along the way he faces challenges from his peers and also from himself. Unbeknown to himself and others at the time, Nash has a psychiatric disorder known as schizophrenia. The audience had no idea of Nash’s
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It wasn’t until his paranoia grew to a point where his wife noticed behavioral changes in him that professional help was needed. According to the movie, Nash’s hallucinations started his first year at Princeton where he met Charles. This is accurate in that it is believed that schizophrenia follows a neurodevelopmental model. Both genetic and environmental factors contributed to his illness before the onset of the disease. The disease almost costs the Nash’s their child. While Alicia was hanging clothes in their backyard she notices the back gate is open. It leads to a shed where she sees magazine clippings covering the walls. Realizing he has relapsed she quickly returns to the house to find their child unattended in the bath tub with the water running. Nash claims that everything is alright and that Charles was there watching the baby. Nash finally comes to admit that he has an illness and both he and his wife agree to live with his condition. He deals with his hallucinations simply by ignoring them. Even while his condition impaired his intelligence he was able to teach again and won a Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics. Nash was able to overcome his disease from the support of his wife and later with proper medication. This experience opened my mind about the intellectual abilities a person with schizophrenia. I had no idea a person with schizophrenia would be able to accomplish this much at

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