
How is schizophrenia treated in a Beautiful Mind?
Patients suffering from schizophrenia have to be on life-long treatment for this condition. In the movie, A Beautiful Mind, we also see the use of shock therapy in the form of insulin shock therapy. Nash had to undergo this kind of therapy five times a week for duration of ten weeks.
How is shock therapy used in a Beautiful Mind?
In the movie, A Beautiful Mind, we also see the use of shock therapy in the form of insulin shock therapy. Nash had to undergo this kind of therapy five times a week for duration of ten weeks. In the conventional mode of treatment, it was thought that convulsions were a way to prevent occurrence of schizophrenia.
What kind of medication does Nash take in a Beautiful Mind?
In the film A Beautiful Mind, an older Nash (played by Russell Crowe) claims to be taking a new type of antipsychotic medicine, but this line was only written into the script because the film makers wanted to avoid being criticized for making the audience believe that schizophrenia could be managed without medication.
What is a Beautiful Mind Movie about?
The film A Beautiful Mind chronicles the adult life of John Nash Jr., a Nobel Prize recipient widely regarded as a brilliant mathematician who greatly influenced modern economic theory. The film focuses on Nash’s decades long struggle with paranoid schizophrenia after he receives a diagnosis in 1958.
What is the movie A Beautiful Mind about?
What is Nash treated for in the movie?
Why did Nash go into a coma?
Is Nash a psychotic person?
Did Nash have schizophrenia?

What medication was John Nash taking?
Nash in fact received Thorazine when he was committed, but it was prescribed only half-heartedly. Nash must have picked up, on some level, that medication was a second-class treatment. Nash's first exposure to chlorpromazine occurred in a setting where the doctors were, at best, ambivalent about its efficacy.
What type of schizophrenia is in A Beautiful Mind?
A Beautiful Mind depicts the real-life story of mathematician and noble prize winner John Nash. While navigating the normal course of life, Nash is diagnosed with paranoid Schizophrenia, a mental illness where one experiences a series of splits from reality and paranoia.
What treatments are used for schizophrenia?
Antipsychotics. Antipsychotics are usually recommended as the initial treatment for the symptoms of an acute schizophrenic episode. They work by blocking the effect of the chemical dopamine on the brain.
Does insulin shock therapy work?
Insulin shock therapy was found to be effective in the treatment of 182 cases of schizophrenia in the following terms : discharged from the hospital, 34.1% ; remained discharged after a period of 21 to 75. months, 19.8% ; and full social recovery (after that period of time) estimated at about 6%.
Can schizophrenia be cured?
While there is no known cure, it is possible to live a meaningful and happy life with schizophrenia. There are many effective treatments, best provided by a team. These include medication, psychotherapy, behavioral therapy, and social services, as well as tools to help you stay in school or keep working.
What was the first drug used to treat schizophrenia?
Chlorpromazine entered psychiatric practice in 1952 and ushered in a new era of treatment for psychiatric illness. For the first time an effective treatment for schizophrenia and related disorders was available.
What is the main drug used to treat schizophrenia?
Haloperidol, fluphenazine, and chlorpromazine are known as conventional, or typical, antipsychotics and have been used to treat schizophrenia for years. However, they sometimes have movement-related side effects, such as tremors and dystonia, a condition that causes involuntary muscle contractions.
What drug is most used for schizophrenia?
Clozapine is the most effective antipsychotic in terms of managing treatment-resistant schizophrenia. This drug is approximately 30% effective in controlling schizophrenic episodes in treatment-resistant patients, compared with a 4% efficacy rate with the combination of chlorpromazine and benztropine.
What are the types of schizophrenia?
There are several types of schizophrenia.Paranoid schizophrenia. This is the most common type of schizophrenia. ... Hebephrenic schizophrenia. ... Catatonic schizophrenia. ... Undifferentiated schizophrenia. ... Residual schizophrenia. ... Simple schizophrenia. ... Unspecified schizophrenia.
What is paranoid schizophrenia?
Paranoid schizophrenia is characterized by predominantly positive symptoms of schizophrenia, including delusions and hallucinations. These debilitating symptoms blur the line between what is real and what isn't, making it difficult for the person to lead a typical life.
What is the most common type of delusion in schizophrenia?
In one study of patients with schizophrenia delusions, delusions of reference were the most common delusion type, followed closely by persecutory delusions. However, some studies find persecutory delusions are the most common type. A person can experience multiple delusion types.
How does A Beautiful Mind relate to psychology?
While A Beautiful Mind is not an entirely accurate depiction of John Nash's life, it does offer an accurate representation of schizophrenia. Delusions of grandeur, or grandiose delusions, are among the most common signs of paranoid schizophrenia.
What is the movie A Beautiful Mind about?
The movie portrays the symptoms and treatment for paranoid schizophrenia from which John Nash suffers.
Why should we use realistic films like A Beautiful Mind?
Realistic films such as A Beautiful Mind should advertise the newer modes of treatment that will reduce the suffering of the people and allow them to lead happy lives. I would recommend that this powerful medium be used to create awareness amongst common people so that the patients of schizophrenia are not discriminated against and their disorders can be stemmed at the initial stages.
What is the schizophrenia in A Beautiful Mind?
In the movie, A Beautiful Mind, the protagonist, demonstrates the classical symptoms of paranoid schizophrenia. The protagonist, John Nash, suffered from schizophrenia which was only discovered at a later stage. During his college years at Princeton, John’s room-mate and best-friend was a man named Charles, who is later found out to be one of John’s hallucinations (A Beautiful Mind 2001). As time goes by, his hallucinations become more frequent and violent as he soon believes himself to be working for the US government on a top secret project to which no one, not even his wife had access to. When he started missing classes a psychiatrist was called in to look into his condition and he found the stay at the asylum unpleasant and believed it to be a Soviet plan to stop him from working on his secret governmental mission. His wife had trouble believing the psychiatrist at first as she believed her husband’s story to be true and very real. But she realized the problem when she went to his college to find out what he used to do during work and found magazine clippings pasted all over the room. She also discovered the unopened confidential envelopes that were supposed to be sent out to Mr. Parcher, the person who put John up to the secret mission. The story revolves around how John has to face reality when his make-belief world is so real to him. He can finally confront his reality when he realizes that Charles’ niece, Marcee, never grew any older than when he had first met her. With continual medication, he learns to ignore the fictional characters in his life and starts to teach again, at Princeton. He goes on to win the Nobel Prize in Economics and lives a happier life.
What is Nash's treatment?
The major part of Nash’s treatment included Dr. Rosen’s recommendation of insulin shock therapy, which is a conventional method of treating mental illness and is now considered to be outdated and antipsychotic drugs . The insulin coma therapy and convulsive therapy have now been replaced by antipsychotic drugs that have greater efficacy and lesser adverse effects. Antipsychotic drugs are tranquilizing medicines that are used to treat schizophrenia and bipolar disorders. The first generation of anti-psychotic drugs included clozapine (Monson 2008) which acted on the receptor sites of neurotransmitter, dopamine.
Why do people with schizophrenia have to be driven to self-mutilation?
Another significant point to be remembered in this regard is that the person suffering from schizophrenia is often driven to desperate acts like self-mutilation because the people they trust do not believe them and sometimes reject them outright. This, to my mind, adds insult to injury because the need to be heard and understood is very high in people who are confused and trying to grapple with their own demons.
How to help a person with schizophrenia?
Basic skills that need to be reinforced with a person suffering from schizophrenia should include: 1 Training for rehabilitation like being able to perform basic hygiene routine and being able to eat on one’s own 2 Being able to use public transport 3 Train for a job: basic skills and communication 4 Learn how to manage money 5 When to take correct doses of medicines 6 How to recognize signs of relapse and communicate with the therapist.
How often does Nash have to undergo shock therapy?
Nash had to undergo this kind of therapy five times a week for duration of ten weeks. In the conventional mode of treatment, it was thought that convulsions were a way to prevent occurrence of schizophrenia. Hence, this method of treatment was used on patients to induce convulsion and electroconvulsive was often used to protect the patient from personality disorders. In modern times, doctors use anesthesia and varieties of muscle-relaxants to this therapy more bearable.
What are some treatments for schizophrenia?
Asylums. Electro-Shock Therapy. Skull Drills. Pills. Exorcisms. Isolation. Lobotomies. Many of the drastic procedures that have been put in place to relieve a person with mental illness such as schizophrenia are only successful in creating ‘vegetables’ out of patients, not curing their illness but making them ghosts of their previous selves.
What are the four essential fluids that are responsible for mental illness?
These imbalances were in the “four essential fluids”; blood, phlegm, bile, and black bile which produce “unique personalities of individuals.”.
What did Hippocrates do to restore the body's balance?
In order to restore the body’s balance, the Greeks used techniques such as phlebotomies, bloodletting, purging, and imposing diets on the afflicted (Foerschner).One treatment that Hippocrates advocated was changing the occupation and/or environment of the patient.
How did demonic possession heal?
The most commonly believed cause, demonic possession, was treated by chipping a hole, or “trephine”, into the skull of the patient by which “the evil spirits would be released,” therefore healing the patient.
Why did the Persians practice cleanliness?
Although ancient Persians also believed that the illnesses were caused by demons, they practiced precautionary measures such as personal hygiene and “purity of the mind and body” in order to “prevent and protect one from diseases”.
What was the first non-sedative drug?
The first non-sedative drug used in the treatment of patients was chlorpromazine which “cured” many mental ailments and patients “became free of symptoms entirely and returned to functional lives” (Drake).
What is the stigma attached to mental illness?
Historically, those with mental illnesses had a “social stigma” attached to them. It was believed that “a mentally ill member implies a hereditary, disabling condition in the bloodline” threatening the family’s “identity as an honorable unit”. In countries, or cultures, that had strong ties to family honor, such as China and Japan ...
What is the movie A Beautiful Mind about?
The movie A Beautiful Mind is an adaptation of the book by the same name and is a biopic based on the life of Nobel Prize winning economist, John Forbes Nash, Jr. The movie portrays the symptoms and treatment for paranoid schizophrenia from which John Nash suffers. He has episodes of auditory and visual hallucinations and has frequent interactions ...
Why should we use realistic films like A Beautiful Mind?
Realistic films such as A Beautiful Mind should advertise the newer modes of treatment that will reduce the suffering of the people and allow them to lead happy lives. I would recommend that this powerful medium be used to create awareness amongst common people so that the patients of schizophrenia are not discriminated against and their disorders can be stemmed at the initial stages.
What is the protagonist's schizophrenia in A Beautiful Mind?
In the movie, A Beautiful Mind, the protagonist, demonstrates the classical symptoms of paranoid schizophrenia. The protagonist, John Nash, suffered from schizophrenia which was only discovered at a later stage.
How to treat schizophrenia?
Early detection and intervention are the best ways to treat schizophrenia. However, patients suffering from schizophrenia need long term treatment. Advancements made in the field of psychotherapy, psychiatry, medicine, intervention, nursing practices in mental health and awareness in society can combat schizophrenia effectively.
Why do people with schizophrenia have to be driven to self-mutilation?
Another significant point to be remembered is that persons with schizophrenia are often driven to desperate acts like self-mutilation (Challis 2010) because the people they trust do not believe them and sometimes reject them outright. This, to my mind, adds insult to injury because the need to be heard and understood is very high in people who are confused and trying to grapple with their own demons.
Why did insulin therapy end?
Insulin therapy ended, in part, because of the introduction of anti-psychotic drugs.
What did Nash believe?
Nash believed he was doing top-secret government work that could save the United States and that he was being followed by Russians. Doctors would call the former a grandiose delusion and the latter a paranoid delusion, Lamberti said. Both types are common.
Does Nash take antipsychotics?
In the film, Nash relies on anti-psychotic drugs during the worst periods of his illness, and his illness flares up when he is not taking them, then seems to improve.
What is the movie A Beautiful Mind about?
A Beautiful Mind is a movie based on the life of mathematician John Nash and his battle with schizophrenia. Nash developed the first symptoms of schizophrenia in the 1950s. He later made significant contributions to the field of mathematics, including the math of decision-making and the extension of game theory.
What is schizophrenia treatment?
Schizophrenia is a life-long disease that requires consistent therapy and treatment to help the individual adjust and cope with this mental disorder. John Nash himself actually struggled for decades with his mental illness and was unable to work for a long period of time.
What is the scene where John gives a speech about his current research?
People with schizophrenia have trouble differentiating fiction from reality , which is accurately portrayed in a scene where John gives a speech about his current research. During this scene, John sees men in suits and believes them to be soviet spies who have been ordered to capture him.
What are the signs of schizophrenia in Boca?
Withdrawing from others. Paranoia. Hallucinations. Delusions. Incoherent speech. Self-harm. Fear of persecution. Lack of interpersonal relationships. If you or someone you know begins to portray these signs of schizophrenia, we offer different kinds of mental illness treatment in Boca that can help.
Is A Beautiful Mind accurate?
While A Beautiful Mind is not an entirely accurate depiction of John Nash’s life , it does offer an accurate representation of schizophrenia.
Is there a quick fix for schizophrenia?
There Is No Quick Fix for Schizophrenia. In the movie, it appeared that John only spent a short time in the hospital, receiving treatment and taking the appropriate medication before jumping back into his research; however, this is highly inaccurate.
What is the psychology of a beautiful mind?
The psychology in A Beautiful Mind (the movie) provides a valuable lesson for the practice of self awareness by ordinary people. Artistically differing from the actual events, it is a film, which convincingly uses the visual medium to portray stress and mental illness within one person's mind.
How did Libet study the brain?
Each time, Libet had also timed the beginning of motor neuron activity in the brains of his subjects. He discovered that awareness occurred 350 milliseconds AFTER the beginning of motor activity. Nash was merely a witness to the events occurring in his mind. If Nash was to heal himself, his PFR had to understand that a delusional state of mind had already taken control.
Why do reptilian brains exist?
They happen, because the control of your mind shifts between myriad competing and conflicting intelligences. These intelligences were assembled over millions of years to become the present triune human brain. At the lowest level, a reptilian brain controls primitive functions like breathing, hunger and heartbeat.
How to prevent relapse into old habits?
The irrational impulses they trigger need to be acknowledged. Physical and mental exercises, which calm the mind, are necessary to prevent a relapse into old habits. But, only self awareness can inform you, when you relapse into your old habits. Psychology In A Beautiful Mind.
What is conscious awareness?
Conscious awareness of mental events follow their actual occurrence in the mind.
Did Nash have hallucinations?
Nash realized that although all three people seemed completely real, they were in fact a part of his hallucinations. The human mind has small emotional partitions and an immensely wise PFR, the prefrontal intelligence. PFR normally accepts emotional viewpoints as the truth. It is self awareness, which enables PFR to look down into the emotional partitions of the mind. In meditation, the Buddhists advise “staring back” at your thoughts.
What is the movie A Beautiful Mind about?
The film A Beautiful Mind chronicles the adult life of John Nash Jr., a Nobel Prize recipient widely regarded as a brilliant mathematician who greatly influenced modern economic theory. The film focuses on Nash’s decades long struggle with paranoid schizophrenia after he receives a diagnosis in 1958. Although it is well known that Nash was ...
What is Nash treated for in the movie?
In the film, Nash is treated with deep insulin shock therapy (DIST) in the psychiatric hospital when he is first admitted.
Why did Nash go into a coma?
His body experiences violent seizures and falls into a coma, a procedure believed to cure him of imbalances that were thought to cause schizophrenia. This procedure is hard to watch, and deeply upsetting to Nash and his wife.
Is Nash a psychotic person?
Nash experiences a psychotic break from reality during his tenure at MIT and the Rand Corporation, however there were early signs of his illness during his time at Princeton. Nash’s character is clearly functional he has an exceptionally high IQ and is pursuing a difficult math degree at a prestigious institution. However, Nash experiences difficulty working with others and following social norms. When he feels like his intellect is not understood by one of his advisors he throws a desk out of his dorm window. Meeting and dating women do not come easy to Nash either. His flat affect and inappropriately direct tone with several women earn him a few slaps across the face. He has difficulty making eye contact and has detectable psychomotor retardation. At this point in the film Nash comes across as an eccentric but lovable genius, but his early symptoms are consistent with, and foretelling of, his later diagnosis.
Did Nash have schizophrenia?
Although it is well known that Nash was diagnosed with schizophrenia in real life, I will use this paper to discuss specific symptoms portrayed in the film, and consider how his treatment and environment contributed to his relative recovery later in life. In the film, we follow Nash’s long decent and subsequent recovery from schizophrenia as it ...

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Works Cited
- Dain, Norman, PhD. “The Chronic Mental Patient in 19th-Century America.”Psychiatric Annals 10.9 (1980): 11,15,19,22. ProQuest. Web. 25 Sep. 2014. Drake, Robert E., et al. “The History of Community Mental Health Treatment and Rehabilitation for Persons with Severe Mental Illness.”Community mental health journal 39.5 (2003): 427-40. ProQuest. Web. 25 Sep. 2014. Fo…