Rashiq Zaman [Type text] [Type text] [Type text]
The film A Beautiful Mind is a 2001 American film based on the life of John Nash, a famous American mathematician. The movie revolves around Nash's life as he develops and has to deal with paranoid schizophrenia. It explores the symptoms, social responses and treatment of schizophrenia. The film was created as a biographical drama; as such there are some concepts and ideas which have been altered to better suit production, which do not necessarily reflect the real life scenario.A Beautiful Mind is set in the time period between 1947-94. The context in which is film is set is of much relevance. In 1959 psychiatrist Kurt Schneider, came ...view middle of the document...
The electroconvulsive therapy shown in the film was accurate with the patient being injected with a substance, and then exposed to shocks of electricity, causing the body to convulse (hence the name). The medication was a common treatment, and medication is still in strong use today. It is an accurate representation of how schizophrenia was often treated. The side effects of the pills were also kept accurate, namely the hindrance on one's cognitive ability. In the film this was Nash's ability to do his mathematical work. The third treatment shown in the film is social rehabilitation. He has his loving wife always by his side supporting him; he is not abandoned (albeit the real story occurs differently with him becoming divorced, but the concept behind the treatment is accurate). When Nash is trying to recover he seeks to get involved in a community, in this case going back to Princeton. The idea of being in a place familiar to people to help prevent social withdrawal is one that has been used in real society.While aspects of the from the original story may have been edited in order to make for a more entertaining movie, the film, A Beautiful Mind, still gives many accurate portrayals of schizophrenia, especially in the context in which it has been set. The symptoms shown by Nash were in line with the theories of the time by Schneider, and the treatment processes used are also a true reflection...