A BEAUTIFUL MIND

FILM BY RON HOWARD AND BRIAN GRAZER WRITTEN BY AKIVA GOLDSMAN BIOGRAPHY BY SYLIA NASAR Scott H. Smith Ron Riggs, M.A., Sociology 101 H00166781 October 19, 2011

A Beautiful Mind is the 2001 movie interpretation of Sylvia Nasar biography about John F. Nash Jr. by film makers Ron Howard, Brian Grazer and screenplay written by Akiva Goldsman. The film is about the true life story of John Forbes Nash Jr. of West Virginia. The movie has succeeded in showing that the very brilliantly minded John Nash can suffer from a debilitating mental disorder such as Paranoid Schizophrenia and still achieve greatness. The reason that I picked this movie was because I had never seen it and a while back a few years ago I heard of this movie which was supposed to be great. Since, this movie is about the life and times of a real person; I will be using three of the five criteria in order to write this assignment properly. They will be how does the movie reflect its social context, how does the movie distort social reality and to what degree does the movie connect biography, social structure, and history. We will look at what is Schizophrenia, the treatments for it back then, Johns different statuses in life with regards to this illness and his remarkable recovery. Finally, did the movie make a difference in how people view mental illness? The main focus of the film is what happened to a young man, starting in the late 1940s, while attending graduate school. He was destined to be someone of greatness because he could do mathematics equations about subjects that most of us wouldnt know where to start. He has an insight into mathematics that people who had been professors for decides dont have (Henry 2002). However, at the same time he started acting a bit different than his classmates and friends around him. What kept his disorder from being discovered earlier was the fact that his

fellow mathematicians dismissed his behavior as par for the course for a mathematician of his caliper. When a person gets so involved in his research that the mundaneness of everyday life is so far from what they are working on, most people just leave them alone. Johns true to life story is put on film in such a way that he is still a hero, as opposed to just another person with a mental illness. Keep in mind that the film isnt a realistic, actual event by event of Johns life. The films production team did extensive research into how to best represent what happened in a way that the audience could feel what he went through. He has gone on to achieve many different statuses in his life so far. It would be a good idea at this point to see what it was like to have a mental illness back then and what treatments were available. While attending graduate school at Princeton or a short time later, John started hearing voices and having very different patterns of thought than those around him. The way that the filmmakers were able to show everyone that John had a disorder called Paranoid Schizophrenia was to portray him as a person who could see people around him that only he could see. According to Silvia Naser, who spent three years doing extensive research into Johns life, recalls that John only had auditory delusions and not full blown hallucinations (Kadlecek 2002). To get a better picture of what John was dealing with, Paranoid Schizophrenia, Dr. Richard Noll, Ph.D. says The symptoms of Schizophrenia should have two or more of the following, each present for a significant portion of time during a 1-month period: 1. Delusions 2. Hallucinations 3. Disorganized speech (e.g., frequent derailment or incoherence) 4. Grossly disorginized or catatonic behavior 5. Negative symptoms, i.e., affective flattening, alogia, or avolition. Note: Only one Criterion A symptom is required if delusions are bizarre or hallucinations consist of a voice keeping up a running commentary on the persons behavior or thoughts, or two or more voices conversing with each other. John was diagnosed with Paranoid Schizophrenia which has these

additional characteristics: 1. Preoccupation with one or more delusions or frequent auditory hallucinations. 2. None of the following is prominent: disorganized speech, disorganized or catatonic behavior, or flat or inappropriate affect (Noll 2007). In the 1950s, one of the treatments that was used to treat Schizophrenia was Insulin Coma Therapy. The procedure goes as follows: a patient is injected with a dose of insulin, and then waits for that persons blood sugar to hit rock bottom. Just before the patient goes into an insulin coma, the body starts to shake very violently. While at the same time a hose (gavage) is placed in the persons nose that leads to the stomach containing a solution of glucose. The patient would then start to regain consciousness, feel sluggish and then want to eat everything in sight. This treatment would leave them not worrying about their delusions or hallucinations. Dr. Fink said this about what a patient would get out of this type of treatment, the benefits of ICT were best assured when the brain's electrical activity changed, and this occurred most often after a prolonged coma. The benefits in ICT were seen to be in developing new (different) brain rhythms of electrical activity that did not encourage psychotic thoughts. Similar observations were made in support of a neurophysiologic theory for ECT (Max Fink n.d.). According to John himself, this treatment would take sections of his memory away from him however; it never affected his ability to do mathematics (PBS.org Insulin Coma Therapy 2002). This scene in the film was portrayed by Russell Crow; it was so convincing that when John Nash Jr. watched the movie, it made him very uncomfortable because of the realism. The reason that Insulin Coma Therapy was chosen over the other type of treatment at the time which was Electro Shock Therapy had to do with the massive amount of permanent memory loss that would occur. Keeping a patient medicated back then wasnt easy; you either used insulin, or one of the 1st generation medications designed to help Schizophrenia patients. In an article that I found online, patients in North America to include Canada who were in institutions were given 1st

generation medication in the late 50s and early 60s, the main ones that were available at that time were Thorazines, Haldol, Chlorpromazine and then Stelezine. They all could keep the patients calm and controllable; however, the biggest problem was the side effects of these drugs.(Zeek
2008) (PBS.org Drug treatments in the 1950's 2002)

John has had many different statuses in his life so far, his master status should be a Doctrine of Mathematics, but this is overshadowed by the stigma of having had Paranoid Schizophrenia. He also has achieved status as a Nobel Prize winner for Economics in 1994. There are two other ascribed statues that shows people his job status and level of importance in the community would be Professor of Mathematics and Researcher at Princeton University, still to this day. John also has a status set that is quite impressive as well. John married Alicia Larde, who was an 21 year old El Salvadoran physics major when they meet at M.I.T. while he was teaching at the time in 1957, which made him a husband. He is also the father of two boys: his first son, John David Stier, was born by a nurse named Eleanor Stier. While she was pregnant, John wanted nothing to do with her unborn child. Since then John has reconnected with his estranged son. (Nasar 1998) (Henry 2002). John Charles Nash, his second son was born by his wife Alicia, who by the way received his Ph.D. from Rutgers University in 1985 (Nasar 1998). As fait would have it, he has been diagnosed with Excited Schizophrenia. John Forbes also has the status of being an inventor. While attending Princeton, he invented a board game called Nash. Later, it was sent to Parker Brothers and the name was changed to Hex. An even bigger invention of Johns was his refinement of Game Theory (Nasar 1998). The one other status that he has is being able to say that at some point in his early career that he had the oppernity to consult with one of the greatest physicist of all time: Einstein (Robertson 2002)

As mentioned earlier, A Beautiful Mind isnt a day by day account of Johns life, so a lot of events were left out or werent elaborated on. Personally, I really enjoyed the way the movie was made. I had to see some of the features of the second disk to notice how they did certain scenes. The film makers did John a great service by not bring some of the non-glamorize parts of his life on the big screen that were in Mrs. Nasars book in great detail (being bi-sexual, and not taking responsibility for his first son tell later) Although, there are several critics who have a problem with how the laissez-faire way the movie made taking care of a person with Schizophrenia seems so easy. A person with this condition can be very unpredictable. However, the movie as a whole does puts a positive spin on the mentality Ill. (Christian Perring, Ph.D. 2004) The conclusion of this movie review is about how much I enjoyed watching this movie, and the way that the filmmakers took care of some of the not so flattering things that John has done in his life. Trying to take a book that is over four hundred pages and put every single thing that a person has done in a life that has spaned eight decades is imposible without making this movie over four hours long. So, far those who say that a lot was left out of this movie, get over it. John Nash not only had a condition that usually puts people in an instutation for the rest of their life, over three decades has done something that isnt done that often. He has recovered from Schizophrenia and is currently working at Princeston as a researcher and teacher of mathematics. Over the years John has had a lot of people who keep him from being on the streets without any hope. Should John be treated as a national treasure? The answer is most likely. Since, John isnt threw writing how his life is going to go, we should hold off tell have seen the final scene. John like many other very brillent people of this century should be placed in a catogery that will let them lead the way toward the next century. I could end this movie review by saying that John has been there and done that, but I wont state the obvious. He is quite a person that deserves our respect for all that he has done

to better himself and his country, not to mention the World.

Thank you John for doing all you

have done for the better ment of mankind.

Works Cited
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PBS.org Drug treatments in the 1950's. "A Brillient Madness." American Experience. PBS.org. April 18, 2002. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/nash (accessed October 9, 2011). PBS.org Insulin Coma Therapy. "A brilliant Madness." American Experience. April 18, 2002. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/nash (accessed October 9, 2011). Robertson, J J O'Connor and E F. "http://www-maths.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/." http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk. May N/A, 2002. http://www-history.mcs.standrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Nash.html (accessed October 9, 2011). Zeek, Luce and. Yahoo answers. 01 15, 2008. http://nz.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070914220154AAINmOD (accessed 10 9, 2011).