Running Head: A Beautiful Mind A Beautiful Mind

In the movie it is shown that John Nash suffered from a very specific type of Schizophrenia called the “Paranoid Schizophrenia” (Rahman, 2017) The 5 major symptoms of the illness which are clearly visible can be divided into 5 categories. A person suffering from the disease is prone to have all or some of these symptoms, and experiences them on a day to day basis (Butcher, Hooley & Mineka, 2015) The prevalence of the illness in UAE is 0.7% of the adult

Running Head: A Beautiful Mind
Movie Analysis-A Beautiful Mind

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A beautiful mind is a movie which was released in the year 2001 and is based on the life of
John Nash, an exemplary brilliant but antisocial mathematical genius. In the movie John
Nash is plagued with a life long illness with Schizophrenia. The film is set in a time frame
where John Nash wax aware of his illness and moving to the point at which he and his wife
find a way to manage his condition(Nasar,2011)
Schizophrenia is the mental illness depicted in the movie. The illness groped John Nash at a
very early age in his life, which later though he successfully overcame, after winning the
noble prize. The illness refers to losing touch with the reality and displaying symptoms of
mental illusions. In the movie it is shown that John Nash suffered from a very specific type of
Schizophrenia called the “Paranoid Schizophrenia” (Rahman, 2017)
The 5 major symptoms of the illness which are clearly visible can be divided into 5
categories. Behavioural symptoms lead to social isolation, disorganized behaviour, hostility,
self-harm, repetitive movements (Carbon & Correll, 2014). Secondly, there are signs in mood
changes. Some of the moods which come along the illness are anger, loss of interest in
activities, elevated mood and inappropriate emotional response. Thirdly, speech disorder,
incoherent speech is some of the symptoms in speech. Fourthly, the patient faces
psychological symptoms like hallucination, depression, fear, delusion and paranoia. Lastly,
cognitive symptoms include mental confusion, memory loss, amnesia, having a belief that
some ordinary vent has a special meaning attached to it, disorientation of thoughts etc.
These are the major symptoms of the illness which are divided in the above mentioned 5
category. A person suffering from the disease is prone to have all or some of these symptoms,
and experiences them on a day to day basis (Butcher, Hooley & Mineka, 2015)
The prevalence of the illness in UAE is 0.7% of the adult population, which is in sync with
the global data from WHO (World health organization) .The problem with the illness in
UAE, is that there are strong chances that it might go unnoticed, because of lack of education
and a mental stigma. It is also mentioned in a health report that cases of this illness are under
reported. The world figure states at 1.1% of the human population suffers from this illness, or
in other world, 51 million people are suffering from this illness, and China being the country
of most number of reported cases(Lee, Nurjono, Wong & Salim, 2017)

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There are various impacts on the individual, family as well as the workplace in which the
individual works. If Socio-cultural impacts are considered then individually the patient is
kept in isolation, with not much of an interaction with the society. He is treated differently in
a light of sympathy, rather than being empathetic. The family of such patient are put down by
the society as not responsible parents, unable to take care of their child. The stigma present in
the society disallows such families to be a part of social gatherings. Also, at the workplace, It
will be difficult to justify the job role, biasedness will occur in the organization. Not giving
the ownership for the work and enough responsibility.
Spiritually as well the person and his environment are deeply affected. It is possible to have
either of the two effects on the individual, either he may turn extremely spiritual and look
forward to god saving his life, or in other case, being an absolute atheist. Most families end
up becoming extremely devoted to god, and wait for god’s charisma to shower on their child.
Workplace involves a lot of teamwork, in this particular case, people will be very judging of
ones behaviour which might not give him mental peace, resulting in frustration, anger and
disappointment in the individual at the workplace.
In the movie, the nursing diagnoses with the patient are careful and appropriate. Visiting the
secret department of defence facility in pentagon, John Nash gets extremely baffled and
disturbed after he breaks the code, assigned to him, and when he is asked to do a further
analysis of it, he gets paranoid and highly delusional(Fortinash & Worret, 2014).
Alicai (Wife of John Nash) opens up the mailbox and retrieves the letter which John Nash
had delivered to pentagon, the letters were unopened, it made John Nash realize that he has
been hallucinating and it was his delusion making him belief that he got in touch with the
secretory at pentagon and has provided him with confidential information. Also, his
assumptions that the Soviets are spying on him got cleared at a later stage (Stuart, 2014)
The nurse was keeping the voice in low tone while listening to the patient, using clear or
simple words and keeping the direction as simple as possible. This was because it is proven
that high pitched voice can lead to anxiety, which further elevates the problem, on the other
hand, low pitch helps in better understanding thus helps to diagnose the problem in a much
more efficient manner.
Focussing and directing the attention of the patient towards the things which are actually
present in the environment. Make him touch the things with his fingers to help him get out of

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his hallucination and paranoia. The direct relation of drawing the attention of the patient
towards the things in the environment is linked with drawing focus to the reality. This helps
the patient in moving away from delusions and focussing on the hard hit reality, very
effective.
Schizophrenia as explained earlier is a severe chronic mental disorder which is characterized
by hallucinations, abnormal behaviour, and psychotic disorder and so on. In this illness a
person finds it really difficult to identify with the reality (Scigliano & Ronchetti, 2013) some
of the different forms of treatment, which are in line with the side effects of the illness and
there are various treatments available for the same.
Weight Management is important as multiple anti-psychotic drugs cause increase in weight of
the patient. Treating the weight problems might lead to better lifestyle and is also proven to
cure the medical illness; regular exercise also helps in weight management (Khanra, Khess &
Srivastava, 2015)
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy is a type of intervention with the patient can help in his
changing patterns, his destructive thought might sublime and his disruptive way of living
might improve. This also helps the patients to test the reality of their thoughts and strike a
balance with the reality (Ohta, 2017)
Some more forms of treatment are Social Skills Training, Supported employment and
Medical treatments including Zyprexa, Risperdal, Seroquel, Geodon, Invega.
There are various side effects of the treatment like uncontrollable movements. The drugs
given to patient might lead to several complications like tremors, ticks, and muscle spasm.
Such uncontrolled movements might be source of trouble in the daily life and can cause
serious concern for the family of the patient (Carrier, 2016)
Weight Increase is one of the strongest side effects of the illness is weight gain. In almost
60% of the cases of the illness patients tend to gain weight. Weight disorder alleviates the
problem and hence it is very much advised to maintain proper eating habits, exercise on a
daily basis and keep the weight under check (Australian, 2017)
Some other side effects are Drowsiness, Dizziness, Dry Mouth, Restlessness, Constipation
and Nausea.

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There are few ways to manage the illness. The most important ways are weight management,
healthy diet, regular exercise and family support. Healthy Diet and regular exercise is proven
by scientist and doctors that it is very important to prevent any illness and at the same time
mask the effect of a chronic illness. A diet enriched in nutrition at regular intervals can create
wonders for the illness. In the similar manner regular exercise, cardio, yoga and other such
exercises keeps the patient in a good state of mind and helps in elevating his confidence level.
Family Support is also very important as this illness has side effects of depression, sad
thoughts, disorientation in his memory etc. At this point in time what he actually requires is
the care of his family and the support they lend to him in his difficult times. A loving, caring
and supportive family can do what sometimes medicine cannot. Thus highly advisable for
families of such kind of illness to support the patient and try to spend as much time as
possible with them.

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References:
Australian, R. (2017). Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists
clinical practice guidelines for the treatment of schizophrenia and related
disorders. Australian & New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry.
Butcher, J. N., Hooley, J. M., & Mineka, S. M. (2015). Abnormal psychology. Pearson
Higher Ed.
Carbon, M., & Correll, C. U. (2014). Thinking and acting beyond the positive: the
role of the cognitive and negative symptoms in schizophrenia. CNS
spectrums, 19(S1), 35-53.
Carrier, C. (2016). TITLE: Reporting side effects of medication among individuals
with schizophrenia: A qualitative study(Doctoral dissertation, McMaster
University).
Fortinash, K. M., & Worret, P. A. H. (2014). Psychiatric Mental Health Nursing-E-
Book. Elsevier Health Sciences.
Khanra, S., Khess, C. R. J., & Srivastava, N. (2015). Chronic non-fatal Datura abuse
in a patient of paranoid schizophrenia: a case report. Addictive behaviors, 43,
39-41.
Lee, J., Nurjono, M., Wong, A., & Salim, A. (2017). Prevalence of metabolic
syndrome among patients with schizophrenia in Singapore.
Nasar, S. (2011). A beautiful mind. Simon and Schuster.
Ohta, H. (2017). Decreased thyroid-stimulating hormone and prolactin-releasing
hormone concentration: case report. Reactions, 1672, 45-7.
Rahman, T. M. (2017). THE VIOLATION OF GRICE’S CONVERSATIONAL
MAXIMS PERFORMED BY JOHN NASH IN ‘A BEAUTIFUL
MIND’MOVIE (Doctoral dissertation, UIN Sunan Ampel Surabaya).
Scigliano, G., & Ronchetti, G. (2013). Antipsychotic-induced metabolic and
cardiovascular side effects in schizophrenia: a novel mechanistic
hypothesis. CNS drugs, 27(4), 249-257.
Stuart, G. W. (2014). Principles and Practice of Psychiatric Nursing-E-Book.
Elsevier Health Sciences.