Portrayal of Schizophrenia in A Beautiful Mind

A Beautiful Mind is a movie on the life of the late John Nash, an American mathematician who won the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences. It overlooks his heartrending life experiences, as he fights schizophrenia to make something of himself. Schizophrenia, as defined by WHO, "is a severe mental disorder, characterized by profound disruptions in thinking, affecting language, perception, and the sense of self." (who.int, n.d.) Schizophrenia is a rare disorder, affecting just 23 million people over the world, but the staggering statistic is that almost 40% of Schizophrenia cases are left untreated. (who.int, n.d.) For many of his college and professional years, John's case was the same. The question to consider, however, is how accurate the portrayal of Schizophrenia in 'The Beautiful Mind' is.

An accurate portrayal can be judged by three major aspects. Firstly, one must look at the first symptoms of Schizophrenia to see how it manifested itself in Nash's life. Secondly, one must examine the symptoms which accompanied Schizophrenia and see if they are factually correct. Thirdly, one also needs to see if and how Schizophrenia has been overcome in the movie.

In the movie, the first symptoms of Nash's Schizophrenia started surfacing during his time at Princeton when he was in his 20's. Despite this being a deviation from his real life, where he started displaying the symptoms in his early 30's, this portrayal sticks to the typical surfacing of Schizophrenic symptoms. The first signs of Schizophrenia manifest themselves in the form of Charles, John's imaginary roommate. This initial visual delusion cements the foundation for future phantasms like Charles' niece Marcee and his supposed OSS handler, Parcher. While this veers away from the real-life experiences of Nash, who experienced auditory delusions, it does accurately portray how a singular hallucination can pave the way for further phantasms.

To understand how well the intricacies of Schizophrenia do incorporate in the movie, one must analyze two primary areas: His disposition and relationships, and how society perceived him. Nash's character is one that does not understand social cues well and is oblivious of how humans are supposed to interact with each other. He is shown to be a compulsive and an eccentric genius. All of this points towards a sign of Schizophrenia: having unclear thoughts and the inability to express these thoughts coherently. A striking feature of Nash's personality is his discontent with himself and the work he does. He constantly pressures himself to come up with an original idea. It is his dissatisfaction with his work, which incites him to concoct a delusion in which he helped his government decipher critical military codes. When he is discontent, he lashes out. The scene in which he hurls his table out of the window and his other eccentric reactions establish this. The way other people reacted to his condition, accurately portrayed how mental disorders were handled in the mid 20th century. In one of the first scenes, he was called a 'pyscho'. People never interacted with him, but rather just looked at him like one looks at a circus animal. The treatment which he received was also accurately represented, as insulin shock therapy and psychiatric drugs.

In the movie, he finally learns to live with Schizophrenia and overcomes it, to a great extent. He achieves this by realizing that Marcee never grows up and becomes aware of his condition. This realization proves to be pivotal in his battle with Schizophrenia. However this being said, there is much debate about the practicality of will power helping a person battle Schizophrenia. According to WebMD, "the medical accuracy of how the on-screen Nash gains some measure of control over his mental illness, some mental-health experts say, is similarly softened and simplified." (Casey) Thus, in a case as severe as Nash's, it is not possible to overcome it without medication, on sheer will power alone.

Thus, 'A Beautiful Mind' does accurately portray how the symptoms of Schizophrenia manifest in patients. It also shows the reaction of society and the treatments done in a particular timeframe. However, the way the movie ended is a factually incorrect way of portraying how Schizophrenia is dealt with. There are also several deviations from Nash’s actual life.

‘A Beautiful Mind’ might have deviations from Nash’s life and a cure which is more fantasy than reality, however, it does display the symptoms of Schizophrenia sensitively and accurately. It is one of the few movies which do not glorify or demean mental illnesses but rather treat it for what it is.

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·         A Beautiful Mind. (2001). [film] Directed by R. Howard. Hollywood: Imagine Entertainment.

·         who.int. (n.d.). Schizophrenia. [online] Available at: https://www.who.int/mental_health/management/schizophrenia/en/ [Accessed 7 Nov. 2019].

·         who.int. (n.d.). Schizophrenia. [online] Available at:
https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/schizophrenia [Accessed 7 Nov. 2019].

·         Casey, John. "Butting Heads Over 'A Beautiful Mind'". Webmd, 2002, https://www.webmd.com/schizophrenia/news/20020314/butting-heads-over-beautiful-mind#1.