Running head: CASE STUDY

Case Study Psy/410 8/27/2012

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Case Study The case that is being studied is the one of John Forbes Nash, Jr. Nash was considered to be a genius, and he won the Nobel Prize in 1994 in Economic Sciences. Even though he was considered to be such a great man, he struggled through his life with schizophrenia. There are many accounts on how he spent most of his time dealing with delusions and abnormal behaviors. Through time, he was able to control his delusions and put them behind him and maintain a life in remission for more than 20 years. History with Schizophrenia Nashs struggle with schizophrenia started at a very young age, as well as his brilliance. Nash was considered to be a little boy who was introverted and enjoyed his solitude, (Nasar, 2007). He was a kid that did not have many friends, but he did well in academics. Even though he did well in his academics, he did not try to achieve much at this time. His parents would try and push him into social situations, but it was something that he did not try to participate much. Over time, Nash developed odd habits and behaviors such as, animal torture, grass eating, and his teachers would often complain that he would not follow directions and of day dreaming. It was a time in his life that was difficult for him. In his adulthood, Nash spent a few years dealing with delusions. These delusions had him having relationships with people that were not there and causing him to act in behaviors that were not considered to be normal. There is one reported case that Nash had contacted the New York Times and said that they were intercepted encoded messages that were meant for him, (Meyer, Chapman & Weaver, 2009). Nashs wife even corroborated some of these stories about him acting odd. Some of these events were Nash calling himself a different name and writing post cards that made no sense to anyone, (Nasar, 2001). During this time in his life, Nash was

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committed several times to different mental institutions and received different shock therapies to try to alleviate his symptoms (Meyer, Chapman & Weaver, 2009). Components of Nashs Schizophrenia There have been studies that have been completed recently that say that schizophrenia can be caused by abnormalities in the transmission of neurotransmitters and structural abnormalities, (Feist & Feist, 2008). In response to Nashs case of schizophrenia, this is likely to be genetic. The reason for this is that his son also was diagnosed with schizophrenia. Nash was rarely around his son, but his son identified with him, and this is considered to be a part of the disease. There has been much evidence that Nashs schizophrenia is genetic, environmental influences can also come into play with the development of the disease. The environmental factors around an individual can affect the predispositions that the person has, In this case, Nash. There is no known cause, genetically, to what causes schizophrenia, but it can be said that the contribution may be a common factor in many different disorders, (Hansell & Damour, 2008). In the case of Nash, his stress would be a factor that increased the symptoms of his sickness, (Meyer, Chapman & Weaver, 2009). There has been much discussion on Nash and an underlying conflict within himself dealing with homosexuality. Sigmund Freud claimed that homosexual habits would cause a repression, and this could cause the person to generate a predisposition to schizophrenia, (Hansell & Damour, 2008). None of this was actually discussed by Nash, so the implications of this research can only be used as a generalization to the public that is afflicted with schizophrenia. This cannot be used on Nash for this reason. Nash was one person that was able to overcome the difficulty of schizophrenia on his own. He used his own brilliance to sort of override the different hallucinations and delusions

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that he had. This was a rare case of success since usually there are more complications that happen when a person tries to explain what their delusions are to themselves or other people, (Capps, 2003). The way that Nash successfully did this was that he tried to understand where it came from. He made sure that he was able to ignore the different delusions and made sure that he was able to think in a rational nature. He also used mathematics as a focus to help circumvent the illness. With schizophrenia, one needs to learn and focus on what is to be considered socially normal. Schizophrenia can be considered to be caused by conditioning, and different biological factors can cause predispositions with abnormal responses, (Hansell & Damour, 2008). In case with Nash, he received much attention for the way he spoke and the abnormal actions that he did. This became a major focal point for him, and allowed him to see what he could do to try and overcome this on his own. He figured out that the delusions of other people were not actually there, so he was able to ignore them and put them out of his mind. He did not try to get rid of them; he just did not engage with them and allowed the fictional identities to co-exist without any notice. With this, Nash was able to go into remission and he was able to understand more of what he was going through. This ultimately helped him with living a better life and overcoming what many people still suffer with today. Conclusion It is now known that Nash caused his own illness to go into remission, even though it was never cured. The delusions and hallucinations that he had suffered throughout his entire life still existed, just out of the plane of existence that Nash acknowledged. With each of the components that take place when a person is afflicted with schizophrenia, it is thought that Nash took parts of each component to try and regain a more rational life and personality. There still are questions

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that wonder if the brilliance that Nash had after his illness went into remission came from the sickness, or from the way that he had dealt with it. There are still many questions to why schizophrenia happens and how we are to cure it. Nash made a good example of how to overcome it, if the person has the willpower to do so.

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References Capps, D. (2003). John Nash's delusional decade: a case of paranoid schizophrenia. Pastoral Psychology, 52(3), 193-218. doi: 10.1023/B:PASP.0000010023.58529.95 Feist, J., & Feist, G. J. (2009). Theories of personality (7th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw Hill. Hansell, J., & Damour, L. (2008). Abnormal psychology (2nd ed.) [PDF]. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. Nasar, S. (2001). A beautiful mind: the life of mathematical genius and Nobel laureate John Nash. New York: Simon & Schuster.