Mental Health & Media Portrayals: A Beautiful Mind

Introduction

Mathematicians are often portrayed as geniuses but what if one of the most remarkable mathematicians of the 20th century, made history, while dealing with something as debilitating as Schizophrenia?

This has been brilliantly depicted in the film A Beautiful Mind. It is based on the life of the American Mathematician John Nash and creates a timeline of Nash’s life that begins during his graduation at Princeton. It is here when the early symptoms of Schizophrenia begin to appear and continue into the later parts of his life; such as when he won the Nobel Prize while still dealing with his disability. The film takes us through Nash’s life journey as he grapples to cope up with the realisation that even his closest friend Charles and his spy identity are nothing but a figment of his imagination. As the film progresses, one witness’ Nash’s symptoms becoming more severe. However, the moot question here is, how accurate is this media portrayal of Schizophrenia?

Analysis

In the movie, A Beautiful Mind, Nash has Paranoid Schizophrenia, characterised by the constant belief that others only have harmful intents towards the individual. While the movie does take a few dramatic liberties with its depiction of Schizophrenia, it fairly depicts a precise portrayal of the disease. The movie adeptly tries to depict Schizophrenia through Nash; where the symptoms typically begin in early adulthood for males and are often triggered by a significant stressor, such as beginning graduate courses at the Princeton University. Although his symptoms start late, they are still within the acceptable range of when the onset of Schizophrenia can begin, which helps portray the veracity of the disability.

The movie begins by establishing John as a mysterious genius who seems to be socially awkward but progresses to show how his Schizophrenia impacts him. Initially, Nash is seen introducing himself to other graduate students by trying to make jokes with good intentions; however, he ends up offending them. Moreover, he affronts the other students by calling their work ‘unoriginal’ and bragging about how his work is an “original”. From the very beginning of the movie we see that the Schizophrenic sypmtoms are put into effect by showcasing Nash’s poor social skills, his lack of emotions and delusions of grandeur. The film also incorporates other associated symptoms such as delusions, reduced speaking, ”flat effect”, and various cognitive symptoms such as poor executive functioning. Although the cognitive symptoms do not appear until later, their onset becomes apparent to the audience when Nash meets his roommate, Charles. This is the first time that John’s Schizophrenic delusions are showcased indefinitely. Here it is important to note that although the symptoms are accurate, John never saw the delusional figure of Charles; he suffered mostly from auditory delusions. Overall, the beginning accurately introduces several key attributes of Schizophrenia while also attempting to keep an appropriate storyline.

The peak of Nash’s Schizophrenic delusions occur when he is seen interacting with William Parcher, a fictional agent working for the United States Defence System. As a result, he too thinks he works for the Defence and so the paranoid symptoms are most evident when he hallucinates about a car chase and gunfight between him and the imagined Soviet Spies. All this leads him to think that the men in suits, whom he sees while giving a speech about his current mathematical research, are Soviet Spies who have been ordered to capture him. However, it becomes apparent that these men are not Soviet Spies but are actually men that have been sent to bring Nash to a psychiatric hospital to help with his disability.

In conclusion, his heightened delusions and hallucinations, cause significant impairments in his life, his job, and his relationship with his wife.

Inaccuracies

The movie through numerous instances of Nash’s delusional thinking precisely represents just how much a disability like Schizophrenia can affect a person and how it is not like other disabilities.

When people think of Schizophrenia, they misunderstand it as one having multiple personalities, instead of realising that a Schizophrenic individual has trouble differentiating between reality and imagination.

Throughout the movie, John’s personality never deviates much but his thought process does change as the movie progresses, which contributes to an accurate portrayal of Schizophrenia. However, an in depth analysis reveals that although the movie correctly depicts a lot of facts about Schizophrenia, there definitely are instances which are misrepresented.

Contrary to what is shown in the movie, Nash never experienced visual hallucinations. In fact, most individuals who have Schizophrenia tend to hear voices rather than seeing hallucinations and these voices are what lead to the delusions. However, it can be understood that the movie used hallucinations in order to give a more real understanding into what it is like to struggle with Schizophrenia. Moreover, in the movie the insulin therapy that has been administered is misleading. One sees Nash lying on a hospital bed in restraints as he is subjected to violent convulsions. The scene is extremely disturbing. However, this prime method has been deemed ineffective and been replaced by narcoleptic medicines.

Another major inaccurate representation is when it is shown that people with schizophrenia only need to spend a short amount of time in the hospital and get medication to return back to normal life. This is untrue, as Schizophrenia is a life-long disease that requires consistent therapy and treatment to help the individual adjust and cope with this mental disorder.

About 1 percent of the population develops Schizophrenia in their lifetime, and more than 2 million Americans suffer from it in a given year, out of which, only one in five recover completely — and they probably would not be able to do it through just willpower. In fact, in reality, Nash too was troubled for multiple decades by his disability and during this extended period of time he could not do any work. However, the message that medications are an important part of treatment, although they are not a cure-all, is an accurate message.

Conclusion

The movie, A Beautiful Mind, is a breakthrough of historic proportions. Although Nash's story has been fictionalized, with some edges smoothed over, the essential portrayal is realistic and authentic. Even Mental health experts have applauded it for creating a better understanding of Schizophrenia, although sometimes, it does take liberties with medical realities.

The movie was able to accurately portray the intricacies of Schizophrenia to the audience. Though it may not be an absolutely correct description of Nash’s disability, it does help paint a precise representation of Schizophrenia. Russell Crowe’s acting too was phenomenal and helped enlighten the audience about what it is like to go through life with Schizophrenia. Moreover, the movie also incorporated all correct facts that were known at the time and gives the audience an authentic view of Schizophrenia. Besides its accurate depiction of one’s experience with Schizophrenic symptoms, the movie also did a good documentation of the prognosis and treatment of the disease, as if untreated, the condition can gradually worsen. However, I feel that Nash’s case of Schizophrenia is very unusual and deviates greatly from what the average Schizophrenic individual experiences and encounters.

In conclusion, A Beautiful Mind portrays the experience of individuals with Schizophrenia in a non-stigmatised way while pertaining to the general truths of the disease’s symptoms, course, and treatment. One important thing to recognise is that despite struggling with Schizophrenia, Nash led a functioning lifestyle and went on to win the Nobel Prize. His story and the film adaptation are what we often do not see in media portrayals of mental illnesses. As stated beautifully by Xavier Amador, "The experience of having Schizophrenia is nearly impossible for the average person to grasp. Understanding what is it like and to believe that something is happening to you, when in fact it is not, is nearly impossible unless you personally know someone with this brain disorder. However, this film takes you inside the mind of someone battling to separate reality from delusion. This is no small feat. The positive impact of A Beautiful Mind for people with severe and persistent brain disorders, and for society as a whole, will go far beyond what the filmmakers could ever have imagined."

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🎨: @tarini_puri