A Beautiful Mind Free Essays

Mental illness and mental disorders have plagued individuals for many years before the development of the psychiatric community embraced the challenges of treatment with understanding.   It can be assumed that everyone has had an encounter with someone who is mentally ill at some point in their life. Stereotypical images of those with mental disorders encompass the erroneous image of a filthy homeless individual viewed talking aloud to some imaginary person or thing. We will write a custom essay sample on A Beautiful Mind or any similar topic only for you Order Now    Other images depict the mentally ill individual ranting and raving like some ravenous animal with wild eyes and an animal-like posture. These images are poor portrayals of the mentally disturbed often created by Hollywood as a means to keep viewers entertained.   Contrary to popular belief, a mentally ill person looks just like any other human being despite some peculiarities, however, in the society of today, anyone could be mentally ill. Background The Hollywood motion picture, A Beautiful Mind, was directed a documental-like story of an actual world renowned mathematician named John Nash (Grazer Howard, 2001).   Nash was born in West Virginia and later went on to attend graduate school at Princeton University in Princeton, New Jersey. He was then twenty-one years old.   Throughout his secondary academic career, Nash remained somewhat unsociable and preoccupied with his research and coursework.   He did not appear to have much time for dating or socializing with members of the opposite sex either. Nash’s competitive nature served as a driving force for his academic research and achievements.   His economic theories and studies enabled him to win appointments and academic recognition through much of his time while studying at Princeton University.   While his mathematic theories would leave a reasonable person ultimately dumbfounded and confused, PSYCHOLOGY it became like a second language to Nash.   Simple tasks like games became too complicated for him to participate in (Grazer Howard, 2001).   If it did not equate into a mathematical equation, then in Nash’s thinking, it could not be logical or proven to be absolute. Nash later met a woman, Alicia, while teaching at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).   Over a period of time, the two began dating and later married.   Together they would have one child, a son, named John.   During the course of their marriage, Nash would become more and more distant.   He would blame the distance on his work and research. Analysis Psychological Symptoms Friends began to notice that his personal hygiene was lacking in the area of care and presentation.   He would regularly forget to shave, his shirts would not be tucked in properly, and his hair would be stringy and unwashed. He began walking with a noticed shuffle while simultaneously clutching his briefcase tightly against his chest as though it bore protection.   He socially disconnected from his colleagues by informing them that his research was classified (Grazer Howard, 2001).   Worst of all, he started forgetting that he was required to teach a class at MIT, and he would often not show up. During Nash’s time studying at Princeton University, he became good friends with his roommate.   He would meet up with his old college chum several times over the course of the following years.   It would later be revealed that Nash had no roommate at Princeton University, but rather he was assigned to a dormitory and resided alone the entire time (Grazer Howard, 2001). The imagined roommate was a hallucination (American Psychiatric Association, 1994).    How to cite A Beautiful Mind, Papers A Beautiful Mind Free Essays I enjoyed many things from the film A Beautiful Mind including the cast, the interpretations of being schizophrenic, and also the small amount of romance between John and Alicia. Think that the cast was very well picked, Russell Crower did an outstanding job portraying a man with schizophrenia. I could tell that Crower was eve comfortable with this role, considering how well he portrayed John Nash. We will write a custom essay sample on A Beautiful Mind or any similar topic only for you Order Now When I think about John Nash and his awkward, yet sophisticated, rationality Russell Crower really does justice to John Nash. Also, the cast for the other students, John’s peers, were well picked out also. All of the other students were intelligent and also a little cocky which makes sense as to why they don’t accept John. I also enjoyed the interpretations of being schizophrenic. It is very interesting going into the mind of John Nash and seeing the people that only he sees, and hearing the voices that only he hears. Lastly enjoyed how the film had a little spark of romance between John and Alicia, but that the entire film wasn’t about the romance, and love. The film was more about John and his brilliance than his love life. My only dislike for this film is that it was slowly moving. L, personally, enjoy movies that can invest myself in and really feel the characters. I could not relate to any of the characters considering they are all brilliant. Johns Anna’s second grade teacher tells Nash that he had been given two helpings of brain but only one helping of heart, I think that she means that he would stop putting math and science before how he is really feeling and that he should try to make friends and be more in-touch with others. As said before I really enjoyed Russell Crow’s portrayal of schizophrenia. I thought that it was very believable, from what I have seen, and was interesting whenever he would have schizophrenic fits around other students. The scariest part of schizophrenia for me is seeing things that others cannot. People with schizophrenia do not know if what they’re seeing is real or fake, and that is scary. How to cite A Beautiful Mind, Papers