A Beautiful Mind: In-Depth Clinical Analysis

It appears that some characters connected with John Nash are only products of his own mind. Certain events that involved the same characters are also stirred by imagination. With the help of his wife who sought psychiatric intervention, the medical team of the McArthur Psychiatric Hospital was able to help in diagnosing and treating him. All these, including other significant symptoms pertinent to his behavior and cognition led the psychiatrist to diagnose him with paranoid schizophrenia.

Like many other disorders, schizophrenia can happen in various stages, specifically in three distinct phases. The Prodromal stage is the initial point of the illness, wherein the affected person shows a clear decline from previous levels of functioning. From the very start of the movie, John Nash appears to be a little different from his colleagues. He doesn’t talk too much and opts for silent moments of solitude.

The Active phase is perhaps the most crucial. It is in this juncture that schizophrenic episodes are easily triggered by stressful events. Functional deficits may worsen, and the prognosis for an affected client may worsen with each acute phase, especially if left untreated. In the film, shortly after John Nash was diagnosed, his psychotic episodes worsened. It came to a point that his relations with his wife and son were severely compromised because of the manifestations of his illness, which worsened because of his noncompliance of taking antipsychotic medications. He refused to take part of his drug regimen because of his belief that this only caused a lapse in his intelligence, when in fact, he is only feeding his illness to exacerbate. It was also at this phase that his wife, Alicia, started to become very affected to the point that she was confused on what to do.

The last stage is the Residual phase. Here, the client has established the illness pattern, so the disability level is stabilized. Late improvements may also appear. John Nash, as what was portrayed in the film, eventually became stable. As he became older, he began to adjust with his illness and learned how to effectively cope with it. He started to talk with people and engage in various social activities. Though most students made fun of him especially with his bizarre gait, he eventually began teaching again in his alma mater, which was of significant help for him to cope up. Though he still sees the same people in his previous hallucinations, he was able to distinguish what was real and what was not.

Certain factors should be present in order for a disease condition to occur. In schizophrenia, a variety of factors may predispose a person to be affected. It may be biological, such as significant alterations in the biochemical and neuroanatomical structures; genetic, such as having a twin, whether fraternal or identical; psychological, such as having stressful life events, low-esteem, poor social skills and family problems; or environmental, such as being in poverty, isolation, unemployment and an unsatisfactory housing. In some times, antenatal viral infection may also pose a risk.

Precipitating stressors may also be biological or symptom-related. In the film, it is obvious that the symptoms manifested by John Nash were easily triggered through stress. He is a highly intellectual mathematician, with his mind being the most powerful personal asset. Because of his illness that altered his usual routine of solving problems, his schizophrenic episodes only became worse. Just the thought that he can no longer do his “work against the Russians” makes him even more psychotic and more difficult to manage.

His symptoms were quite obvious from the very start. He appears to have a blunted affect, and opts for solitary moments than to be with a group of people. His emotions are often inconsistent with actual events, and he seems disinterested in activities that are commonly enjoyed by others.

As the plot intensified, he started to manifest random impairments of short-term memories. Soon enough he starts missing his classes and arrives late during his dates with Alicia. His responses to his wife and to other people gradually deteriorated. His hallucinations became even very overwhelming, initially leading his wife to believe that these people actually exist according to what he says, despite of the lack of evidence to prove their respective existences. Clearly, he has ultimately lost his grasp for reality and is unable to distinguish what was real from the imagined.

As a nurse, I know that dealing with psychiatric clients is more difficult to manage than those who only have somatic problems. They therefore need special attention and care to achieve optimum improvement.

In a schizophrenic client, for instance in John Nash’s case, my plan of care should start with a thorough nursing assessment. This not only includes the physiological aspect, but also the emotional, social and cognitive facets that are all equally important. Interviewing the client himself and collaborating with his significant others are few of the many ways in which I can gather enough data to come up with a comprehensive appraisal regarding his illness. In Nash’s case, his hallucinations seem to be of greatest concern.

The movie, in general, is surely one of the best influential movies ever produced. Personally, I have come to appreciate the manifestations of schizophrenia in a different way, and not just relying on books to study about it. Watching the movie was one effective means of retaining facts about the disorder itself, compared to the simple act of repeatedly going over my notes to remember everything about it. Digging deeper into the story, I have also come to realize the severity of the stigma that comes with this illness, and the ignorance that most people have towards the people affected with it. It presented the illness in a different and serious way—by looking deeply into how it changes relationships, how the mind can actually destroy itself, and how difficult the situation is if a person was on John Nash’s shoes. Surely, A Beautiful Mind is one beautiful adaptation, one beautiful film and one beautiful story. It highly deserves all the awards it garnered.

“What truly is logic, who decides reason? My quest has taken me through the physical, the metaphysical, the delusional, and back. And I have made the most important discovery of my career, the most important discovery of my life. It is only in the mysterious equations of love that any logical reasons can be found. I am only here tonight because of you. You are all I am. You are all my reasons.”

–John F. Nash, A Beautiful Mind