Movie: A Beautiful Mind
Psychological Issue: Schizophrenia

1) Using material from the text (or internet resources), describe your understanding of the disorder portrayed in the film. [This asks you to describe what someone with this disorder might really look like.]
In the movie “A Beautiful Mind” directed by Ron Howard; the disorder that is portrayed by the character John Nash is schizophrenia. This brain disorder alters the normal mechanisms occurring in the brain. The best explanation for this disorder can be pin pointed to the faulty interpretations and misfiring of dopamine neurons and their receptors in the brain. Although there are also other likely causes and effects such as low activity in the frontal lobotomy and …show more content…

If it weren’t shown to the extent and exaggerated manner it had been portrayed in the movie, audiences who have never heard nor read about schizophrenia wouldn’t be able to understand the disorder as good.
Moreover, one thing I particularly liked was how the filmmakers created some sort of an escalating portrayal of schizophrenia. As the story develops, the symptoms of the disorder itself become more pronounced and better portrayed. In the beginning, it wasn’t really clear why he was socially defected and all awkward. We thought that all his friends were actually real. However as the story progresses, the film makers did a great job in portraying to the audience that all his social deficiencies and very rare good-friendships with his friend Charles are pin pointed to the fact that he has the scrizophenia brain disorder. By making it more clear as the movie progresses, and not directly in the beginning on why John Nash was behaving in an ill and weird manner I believe gives a better perspective to the audience on what damages can schizophrenia cause to an individual. If the audience were directly told that John Nash had schizophrenia, the audience would rather expect the unusual behavior out of the common norm and wouldn’t question it. Having them introduced to the symptoms first portrayed by John Nash educates the audience on how do schizophrenic people see, hear, and feel the symptoms from their perspective.

3) Does the film come to some