Greg Snioch

Abnormal Psychology
05/03/2016
Professor McKinsey
Second Movie Paper Reflection

A Beautiful Mind Reflection

In the movie A Beautiful Mind, the story of mathematician and Nobel Prize winner
John Nash is told, expressing his nearly lifelong struggle with schizophrenia. The movie begins
at a point where John is not even aware he has schizophrenia, he attempts with his wife to tame
his condition. The first movie I watched for this class was Wolf Of Wall Street which was a
movie you could see narcissitic qualities in but I believe this movie was much more
informational in describing schizophrenic symptoms as well as how an individual with the
disease may act. I liked this movie a lot because it showed someones struggle with
schizophrenia from where the disease stemmed to the end of his life. Aside from this you are able
to see insights to treatments and cures of the disease as well as how this may affect the lives of
Johns family.
John Nashs character portrayed many main symptoms of being a schizophrenic. One of
the main symptoms is an inability to communicate, which creates a larger problem as well. Not
being able to communicate negatively impacts interpersonal relationships and intimacy as well.
You could tell the struggle being experienced by Johns family. His wife Alicia tries to help her
husband seek medical attention and receive treatment in an attempt to return to their normal

lifestyles. She soon found out it would not be so simple. As the movie went on and Nash began
receiving treatment it seemed like his disease was starting to get under control but from time to

time his hallucinations became overpowering and he could not rid them from his mind. One
instance of this was when he believed he was still working for Preacher and the government
when decoding secret messages in newspapers. He tried to keep this secret by hiding the
newspapers from his wife in an abandoned shed but this story soon unfolded.
One day when Nash was giving his baby a bath, he wandered off. Alicia was hanging
laundry outside when she noticed that there was an open door to the shed and discovers John has
turned it into a lab for his work for Parcher, (who is not real.) She ran to the house to confront
John and made it barely in time to save their son from drowning. At this time in the movie, Nash
claimed that his friend Charles had been watching their son. Alicia promptly went to call the
psychiatric hospital to report an emergency with her husband. John sees Parcher; the made-up
government agent once again, who urges Nash to kill his wife. He does not oblige but accidently
knocks her to the ground. Alicia fled the home in fear of life for herself and their son. It was
around this time that John was able to accept the fact that he may be schizophrenic, or at the very
least suffering from visual and auditory hallucinations. He comes to accept the fact that Parcher,
Marcee, and Charles are all figments of his imagination and that none of them had been aging
through the years he has been seeing them.
Some other symptoms of schizophrenia which are presented in this movie are the intense
delusions John suffers from, like believing he is working for the government, or that he was
living with a roommate in his single dorm room, and several other occasions as well. In the case
of interpersonal relationships, his marriage with Alicia becomes very strained. You can tell she

cares for him dearly because she continues to try and help him seek treatment and recover. When
Johns disease was getting worse, his encounters with strangers became more strained and
awkward. His social skills became poor at best, incorporating unnatural hand gestures and
awkward facial expressions.
Eventually, Nashs life slowly returns to normal and he is allowed to return back to the
university, eventually re-earning his colleagues respect and reobtaining a teaching position.
Even when he is back, we see the delusions he is experiencing while working on his
mathematical work and game theory. While this may seem like an abnormal way of life for
some, it was the best option John had. Even at the end of the movie, Nash was still experiencing
symptoms of schizophrenia as we continued to see hallucinations, but now he was able to choose
whether he interacted with them or not. What this led me to believe is that schizophrenics can
live normal lifestyles while managing schizophrenia.
Nashs behavior throughout the movie endangered both himself and others like in the
case where he almost killed his son; whether intentional or not. Though his genius was evident in
the film, his communication skills and interpersonal skills were very lacking. Mumbling of
speech and involuntary awkward body movements are among the other symptoms present in A
Beautiful Mind. Overall I think this movie greatly impacted how I view schizophrenics and
those suffering from abnormal psychological disorders in general. It was interesting to see how
someone who was undoubtedly considered genius was impacted by these problems leading to an
abnormal lifestyle. Times have changed since when Nash was in his 30s with schizophrenia and
the treatments in the movie which included vast amounts of medication and shock therapy,
would not be employed today. Overall, I believe that this movie helps bring to light the

symptoms of schizophrenia and shows a changing in time from where people with such disorders
may be considered crazy.