Psychological Assessment

(By: Carmela Joyce S. Atto)

(BSN 3b)
Name: Johnny Nash Born: 13 June 1928 Address: Bluefield, West Virginia, USA
History John Nash as he was called, during his childhood, he is mostly solitary (comfortable of being alone) and was observed being tendency to focus one's attention towards the inner, mental world rather than external, physical "reality. Though John Nash was surrounded by love and affection, he likes to play alone byhimself with toy airplanes and matchbox cars rather than playing with her sister Martha (was born 2 years after John) who usually plays with their cousin s and played the usual childhood games. John Nash father on the other hand treats him like an adult, giving him science books. Johnnys teachers did not recognize his genius, they were more conscious of his lack of social skills. Most of the time he was bored at school and this lead him to do science experiments (early as 12 years old) which hes more interested. He studied college at Bluefield University in 1941, his favorite subject was chemistry. Because he would like be an electrical engineer like his dad. He continue to show interests in mathematics specially in problem solving and many of his classmates found him really amazing but he still hardly gained friends. Because of his eccentric manner, his classmates viewed him as peculiar. His aggression towards others pushed him to play pranks with others, especially the one with nasty edges. He draws weird cartoons of his classmates which he dislikes. He also enjoyed torturing animals. Once he tried to get his sister to sit in a chair he had wired up with batteries. Nash won scholarship in the George Westinghouse Competition and made him accepted in Carnegie Institute Technology in 1945 with the intention of taking a degree in chemical engineering. Then suddenly, his interest in numbers take him to join the William Lowell Putnam Mathematics Competition, although he did not make the top 5, he consider it as a failure and took it badly. His classmates observe him as an awkward immature person with childish tantrums. He behave oddly, playing a single cord on a piano over and over, leaving a melting ice cream cone melting on top of his cast-off clothing, walking on his roommates body to turn off the light. Also, according to his classmate, he was extremely lonely. His classmates sensed that Nash had a mental problem.

He also showed homosexual tendencies, which lead him to humiliation and others making fun of him. John also experienced pranks making him challenge into a math problem and ended up doing t homework for many students. Nash recievd a BA and MA in mathematics in 1948. He accepted Princeton University because of the generous prestigious fellowship offered by the said university rather than Harvard. He finished his doctorate in 1949 and got a Nobel prize for writing paper for economics. Nash continued to develop his work in the paper about his famous deep implicit function theorem. But this leads him to isolate himself with others. He met Eleanor Stier, and they had a son named John David Stier, who was born on 19 June 1953. Nash was looking for emotional partners who were more interested in giving than receiving and Eleanor, was very much that sort. He did not want to marry her but tried persuading him. But it happened that Nash was arrested in a police station to trap homosexuals. One of Nashs students at MIT, Alicia Larde. They were seeing each other regularly. But he also had special friendship with a male graduate student at this time: Jack Bricker. At the same time, he married Alicia but still continues his relationship with Eleanor and his son John David Stier, the shock may have been contributed to the death of his father. And Nash blamed himself. And his mental state became disturbed.

General Assessment John Nash, coming from a good family status, dressed well, appropriately and neatly. With clean face, short hair and finger nails, then, when his mental state changes, little by little, everything about him changed. Though he dressed the same, of how he behaves changes a lot. Nashs posture seems to be a little odd. Doesnt seem to walk with confidence, most of the times looking at the ground, doesnt maintain eye contact especially when nervous and when someone has read his mind. He tends to tends to speak sporadically if embarrassed, nervous, and feels extremely happy. On a later stage, he becomes untidy with himself. He also have this pill rolling like mannerisms with incoherent and erratic speech. Mood and Affect Nash was considered by others having odd behavior, having no friends, he often express himself in a serious or somber face (restricted affect). He was lacking of Social relationship. His mood during the later stage is always depressed- blaming himself for the loss of his father hopelessness- towards the relationship to his wife. And above all, he was so anxious because of the delusions he tends to see.

Thought process and content He works systematically and logically. When he make a move, he make sure that he has planned it and calculated it very well so he cannot make mistakes. Early stage of his mental problem, based on the history and movie, he hardly accepts defeat. he has over sensitivity to criticisms which he took badly. He has this delusion wherein he is a government spy, decoder or he believed to be involved a government conspiracy where he decodes numbers and patterns. He also has these Ideas of reference because he believes that the soviet was running after him because he was a great asset of US government. Because of his delusions he has suspicious mind set. Sensorium and Intellectual process Nash, when it comes to orientation, he is well oriented. He can recognize his wife, professors, students, the right place and exact time. Only that, because of his hallucinations, he tend to see people not really in reality. His memory has given identifiable answers to different questions. And his Ability to concentrate was really good because he really concentrates a lot and focus on the things, equations he wanted to solve. His focus was to solve codes, mathematical equations and the like. So I guess, with his intellectual process, thought process were nearly normal, it is excellent, only that the delusion hinder into his way of thinking. Abnormal sensory experiences or misinterpretations Hallucinating things, person which really doesnt exist were very vivid. His wife Alicia was believed that Charlse, his best friend/ roommate in college does exist. He perceives that his hallucinations were real experiences, but later in their illness, he recognize them as hallucinations. Judgment and Insight His delusion hinders his ability to perceive reality. He struggles in identifying delusions from not. With his wife emotional support, he was able to accept the fact that he has this mental problem that he had to face. He distinguished Marcy as delusion because she doesnt grow old. He learns to ignore delusions and go on with reality. Ignore his appetite for patters and use the hunger for numbers into discovering the theory of Riemannian manifolds. He then learns to socialize himself to others and never isolate himself inside the office. Instead make use of the library for him to formulate his own theory.

Self- concept John Nash, starting from the start, likes to do things on his own and in his own way. He always wanted to be different from the others. Having no friends pushed him to put his interest in numbers, science experiment and educational stuffs. He barely accepts defeat and takes it too seriously. This caused to him depression. He viewed himself to do things right, systematically planned and when things doesnt go the way he wanted to, he gets upset and was trapped into thinking what have he done wrong. But later on his recovering stage, acceptance was really the best attitude that helped him get better. To accept that you have a mental problem and to accept that delusions which he thought were real.

Roles and relationships Roles and relationship with his fellow Princeton professor and students, well, at first theres no hindrance between delusion and reality. But then as his condition progress, he became paranoid and suspicious with other people. He wasnt able to teach because of the fear that someone is looking at him and get him. His relationship with his wife suddenly changed because of the thought of saving his wife from the enemies. He wasnt able to fulfill his job being a husband and teacher because of fear. He cannot meet sexual needs and satisfactory because of the effect of the medications he is taking. With the support of his wife and college friends, they helped john Nash to identify delusions from reality. Nash also learned to talk with other students instead of his imaginary friend Charles and niece Marcy. Physiologic and Self-care concerns Due to his habits of solving mathematical equations and problems, solving algebraic varieties, he tends to forgot eating on the right time. His focus into resolving such things brought him to skip meals and forget about his health condition. He also lacks sleep because of the eagerness to accomplish his unresolved problems. Compliance with the prescribed medications never was a problem, he smoke though but then when he cant respond into his wifes sexual needs and cannot help with the baby and household stuffs, and then he suddenly stopped the medications. He experienced delusion again.