Friday, January 14, 2011

Reaction- A Beautiful Mind:

This week in Psychology we learned about psychological disorders.  I enjoyed watching the video clips about anxiety and OCD.  It gave me a much more understanding point of view about these disorders.  To finish up the week, we watched a movie called A Beautiful Mind. 

A Beautiful Mind is a true story about a man named John Nash.  He attended Princeton and was immediately classified as a social outsider.  When attending Princeton, Nash becomes close friends with his so called roommate, Charles.  John Nash was a talented Mathematician, and was devoted to finding a new and original theory.  Later, John takes a top secret cryptography job for the government and became a professor at MIT.  A student of his named Alicia becomes quite fond of him, and they end up getting married.  Soon enough, John loses his grip on reality, becomes institutionalized, and is told he has Schizophrenia.
[Schizophrenia is a mental disorder that makes it difficult to tell the difference between real and unreal experiences.  It also makes it difficult for a person to think logically, have normal emotional responses, and to behave normally in social situations.]
After grasping the concept of Schizophrenia, it is clear that Nash has been hallucinating about Charles as well as a few other characters, and desperately needs treatment.  He is then put on medication and undergoes insulin treatments.  Then he is allowed to go back home.  John did not believe he was mentally ill, so he stopped taking his medication when he got home and continued hallucinating.  Years later, John finally became stable again.  Then, he perused his dream of creating his original theory at the University of Princeton.  John Nash finally perfected his theory, and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in economics.
    
This movie was incredibly intruging to me, and it related to class well.  It did a good job introducing Nash's character, then threw us all for an interesting curve, and ended on a hopeful note.  The movie kept me questioning my predictions and wondering what would happen next.  I think this is an important movie that everyone should watch.  It could help prepare us for what possibly could happen as we age.  But beyond that, I think this movie gives people with any sort of disorder hope for their future.  It is possible to overcome psychological disorders, people cannot give up!


Questions?  Comments?  Concerns?  Post your thoughts! 

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