A Beautiful Mind: Psychological Issues in the - Movie Review Example

As a mathematics graduate scholar at Princeton University, Nash is renowned for his brainpower, self-importance, and social-ineptness. His self-awareness is what returns him to his normal life, although he also took medicine to subdue the symptoms. In the movie, the psychological symptoms commendably express the hurdles in the separation of the subliminal arrangements in the mind.

Primarily, Nash is unable to separate his delusions from reality. One moment he is ecstatic, the next he is overwhelmed in bitterness. This is quite normal in a society where ordinary people display similar characteristics and psychological swings. Such mood swings are often attributed to conflicting astuteness in the mind, whereby there is a myriad of inconsistent decisions at disposal. The mind switches through different levels subconsciously, resulting in the indisposed diversion of moods. Several illusions occur in Nash’s beautiful mind as the movie progresses that characterize his split from reality through his unsystematic thoughts and unfitting feelings and engagements. His severe delusions and hallucinations, and cases of oppression or grandness, are supposed as indications of paranoid schizophrenia.

Schizophrenia patients often behave in dissimilar ways from other people. Some positive symptoms associated with the disorder include delusions, visions, thought disorder, and disorganized conduct, although they often vary among patients. Even so, delusions and hallucinations are the defining characteristics that occur early in life and are easily discernible. Additionally, there are minor symptoms such as social withdrawal, unusual emotional responses, and disinterest in normal-day activities. In the main, Schizophrenia patients are not entirely normal in terms of the way they associate with others in the societal context.

Nash, a math prodigy, creates several people in his mind in a clandestine and imaginative world. The triggering mechanism of his psychological state is the anxiety about attaining a place at university and the opportunity to study arithmetic at a higher level. The movie brilliantly describes how schizophrenia, paranoia, and the effect of ostracism rescind the mind in a myriad of disparaging ways. When John arrives at Princeton University, he meets several characters, most of whom are based on hallucinations. Charles, who later becomes a close ally, is his imaginary roommate. As a new student, Nash portrays both his scholarly capabilities and social paucity in terms of interactions. Depressingly, Nash does not understand that most of his new friends, such as a mysterious defense agent and his colleague's young niece constitute a psychotic ailment that furthers his hallucinations. His erratic behavior and social dysfunctions are guided by the hallucinations. Nash realizes his condition after a workmate reports him to the authorities and he is restrained in a psychiatric location.

It all started early in life, as Nash associated himself with books and ignored the outside world. Remarkably, he perceived others who were not as intellectually intelligent as him as inferior. Although he later became a well-rounded student, as per his parent’s wish, Nash was never socially attached to anybody or anything for that matter. Psychologically, this later affected him in life because his fellow students and colleagues considered him a social outcast. He seemed to only relate well with his imaginary friends.

The problems Nash encounters in the movie, based on a book with a similar name, affect ordinary humans at all levels differently, mostly without their knowledge. In the process of resolving challenging life situations, one often finds themselves in a worse condition because of poor decision-making. The movie is easily relatable both for mental health care professionals and laypersons who have an insight into the psychological world.