The Soloist

The Soloist is a film based upon the true story of Nathaniel Ayers, a Juilliard musical prodigy who has schizophrenia, and Steve Lopez a journalist for the Los Angeles Times, who befriended the (then) homeless Ayers when he was living on the streets of LA. Schizophrenia is a chronic and severe mental disorder that affects how a person thinks, feels, and behaves; those who suffer from schizophrenia may seem like they have lost touch with reality. The symptoms of schizophrenia fall into two categories: positive and negative. People with “positive” symptoms may “lose touch” with some aspects of reality, and those with “negative” symptoms are associated with disruptions to normal emotions and behaviors. The movie presents a realistic portrait of schizophrenia and the associated problems of homelessness. It also uses a significant number of the mentally ill homeless population of Los Angeles as extras, which seems to give the film a greater authenticity.

John Nash is an intensely unsociable man. Throughout the movie, ‘A Beautiful Mind’ he shows that in a few different ways. First of all, John Nash shows that he an intensely unsociable man when his wife finds out that his best friend is a not a real person. It’s just a figment of his imagination. He has no real friends. Secondly, he shows that he is unsociable because he eats and works alone at Princeton. He prefers to work alone in the library as opposed to being with his classmates in the faculty lounge. Lastly, he showed that he

1. The psychological disorder portrayed in character of John Nash in the film A Beautiful Mind is schizophrenia. The most prominent symptoms were hallucinations, grandiose delusions, paranoia, a persecutory complex. Beginning with DSM-V, two or more symptoms from the list of schizophrenic criteria must be present for at least six months and active for at least one month. John Nash certainly qualifies for another DSM-V criterion of diagnosis, social/occupational dysfunction, due to his apparent abandonment of relevant mathematical work in favor of conspiracy analysis/obsession. Nash is given the official diagnosis of schizophrenia during his admission to the mental hospital.

In the movie A Beautiful Mind, which primarily takes place in the 1950s, John Nash exhibits signs of schizophrenia. He shows both positive and negative signs of the disorder. However, the movie does not portray all symptoms of schizophrenia accurately. Throughout Nash’s life-long battle with his illness, his family is dramatically affected. Overall, the movie implements a positive stigma of the disorder. While John Nash’s journey with his illness is not an entirely accurate depiction, the movie gives a positive light and awareness to schizophrenia.

Through this, the film is able to show the struggles of a “regular” person attempting to perform as optimally as a designed human. As the plot moves forward, it becomes very apparent that modified humans are able to perform tasks effortlessly that prove much challenging for those born without that

In addition to hallucinations and delusions, other symptoms were portrayed in the film. Nash was constantly suspicious of the people around him. This was a result of his belief that the Russians were after him. For example, when Nash was taken to the psychiatric hospital, he thought that Dr. Rosen was Russian and trying to stop him from doing his work. As a result, Nash resorted to violence in order to protect himself.

According to the DMV-IV John Nash was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia because of certain criteria he showed, hallucinations and delusions. It is listed in the DMV-IV as 295.30 Paranoid Type-Schizophrenia (DSM-IV, 1994). Dr. Nash had a break from reality when he

John Nash suffers from Paranoid Schizophrenia. He is a gifted mathematician who began graduate school at Princeton University in 1947. We will begin Mr. Nash’s history from this point in time, for it is here that his symptoms first began to emerge. During this time in his life he is in what is known as the prodromal phase of schizophrenia, which is a period before active

The purpose of the movie “A Beautiful Mind” is to raise awareness among the general population to ease misconceptions about schizophrenia and to show examples for better understanding of this mental illness. By emphasizing several virtues that the main character, his wife, and his friends present throughout the movie, viewers can learn to be more respectful of those who suffer from schizophrenia and

In the movie it seemed like he did not have a lack of social involvement with the outside world but once the viewer realized that the roommate and Parcher were not real then it all came together. All of Nash’s symptoms started when he began looking for his original idea to be published. The DSM5 says the reaction to stress causes individuals with schizophrenia to have increases in negative mood and behaviors. I believe the stress of trying to find something new pushed him over the edge and forced him to create a world that helped him cope with the pressure but in reality it created more work for him to do. Nash’s over all functions in everyday life were impaired due to his disorder. After going to the psychiatric hospital and beginning his medication he began to suffer from intellectual paralysis cause by the medication. His delusion might have gone away but his work and overall well-being suffered which caused him to stop taking the medication and have another psychic

A Beautiful Mind: Schizophrenia’s Troubling Past Ron Howard’s A Beautiful Mind takes a dive into the true story of a brilliant mathematician who also had to cope with demons far darker than anyone could have imagined. The film takes many twists and turns until the ultimate curveball is thrown at the audience: John Nash is schizophrenic, and many of the characters seen throughout the movie aren’t real. Schizophrenia doesn’t make frequent appearances in the media world, and although A Beautiful Mind isn’t perfect on its depiction of the illness, it certainly allows a conversation to start. The film touches on many important points about schizophrenia that are still prevalent today, such as the social stigma about mental illness,

A Beautiful Mind Commentary “Schizophrenia is a chronic and severe mental disorder that affects how a person thinks, feels, and behaves.” ("Schizophrenia") People with schizophrenia are not able to discern what is real from what is not. But, even though; this disease can have disabling symptoms, it does not make it impossible to make great rational thinking. An example of this is John Forbes Nash, a Nobel Prize winner mathematician who suffered from schizophrenia.

In the film, A Beautiful Mind, John Nash exhibited many visible symptoms of Schizophrenia. One is that he experienced delusions of persecution, which is the patient believing that others are plotting against him/her (Okami, 2014, pg.653). In A Beautiful Mind, Nash believed that the Russians were going to capture and kill him. He also experienced delusions of reference, which involve the patient believing that public messages were intended for that individual person. In A Beautiful Mind, Nash believed that the military was sending secret codes through newspapers that only he could decode.

John Nash is well above average in terms of intellectual functioning. He is diagnosed with schizophrenia. He first started exhibiting symptoms of schizophrenia when he attended Princeton University. The symptoms that were observed were hallucinations and delusions. In Nash’s mind, he had a college roommate name Charles Herman. In addition, he stated that he met Herman’s niece named Marcee and a secret agent named William Parcher, whom he worked for at a secret location by breaking Russian codes. He developed persecutory delusions while working for William Parcher because he believe that Russians are trying to kill him for

The evidence of the cognitive symptoms, as with any disease, is more difficult to see externally in a person suffering from Schizophrenia. John Nash was not a very social person and I believe that this is attributed to the inability of expressing thoughts and feelings caused by the disease. His office in the movie looks somewhat like what I imagined the inside of his mind to look like; cluttered. Pictures on top of articles, on top of more pictures. There were papers hanging from the ceiling and string connecting pictures while forming patterns. One pattern I saw repeated a few times throughout the film was a spider- web image. This to me just shows how everything in his mind seemed as though it was connected in some way.