John Nash’s illness is presented in the film with visual hallucinations (Parcher, Charles, and Marcee), delusions (top secret code breaking in newspapers and magazines to uncover a Soviet operation), and paranoia (government officials following Nash). According to Halter, 2014, symptoms associated with Schizophrenia include Positive symptoms such as hallucinations, delusion, disorganized speech and bizarre behavior. Symptoms also include Negative symptoms which are blunted affect, poverty of thought, loss of motivation, and inability to experience pleasure. Nash exhibited several of both Negative and Positive symptoms of Schizophrenia, all which led to a decrease in his interpersonal relationships, ability to work, self- care abilities, social functioning, and quality of life (Halter, 2014). Nash experiences significant delusions in the film. He experiences the delusion of Control. Nash experiences the delusion of control because he believes that the government agent Parcher is trying to control him and make him participate in top secret missions. Nash also experiences Ideas of Reference in the film. Nashe experiences Ideas of Reference by creating correlations between magazine articles and newspaper articles and relating them to Soviets creating a bomb. Nash experiences the delusion of Persecution as well. Nash experiences the delusion of Persecution by believing that government officials …show more content…
Russell Crowe did a very good job portraying John Nash and the associated symptoms. It is pretty typical that Hollywood portrays mental illness as a somebody who is either a psychotic killer of some sort or a drooling nut case in a straitjacket. The film did a good job in the development of Nash’s illness. The film also did a great job of how it portrays Nash’s hallucinations, delusions, and paranoia. It’s my opinion that our society views Schizophrenia in a very incorrect way. It is very easy for our society to place the label of “crazy” onto people with Schizophrenia. The film does a very good job of trying to correct this stigma that our society places on mental illness. The film does a very good job of showing that John Nash is not just a “crazy person,” but a human