Mateo,
Alyssa De Fiesta
2011-49236
John Nash seemed to be the
stereotypical genius—extremely intelligent, possessed a lot of different
quirks, and had great difficulty in social situations—however, he took this
stereotype a step further. John Nash was diagnosed with schizophrenia, defined
as a severe brain disorder which causes the individual to experience
hallucinations, delusions, and extreme paranoia.[1] His
illness damaged his academic career, his relationship with his family, as well
as his perception of himself. “Your worst enemy is yourself,” is a common
adage, but it is especially true for John Nash, whose mind is both his sense of
purpose and his ultimate obstacle.
A
Beautiful Mind highlighted this struggle. It illustrated Nash’s persistence
and tenacity in overcoming a tremendous hurdle—one’s own mind. It must take a
great amount of will to fight against oneself, as well as a great amount of
passion: His love for his field as well as his dedication to his family has
allowed him to transcend the boundaries set upon him by psychology and by
society. The struggle was a long one, and in fact, it never quite ended. By the
end of the film, John Nash still was not able to completely get rid of his
hallucinations, but he certainly learned to manage them better. This leads one
to the realization that some battles are never totally won, but that this does
not equate to a loss. It becomes a continuous learning process that allows the
individual to grow and become better as people; and sometimes, that is all we
can ever really ask for.
One of the strongest themes of the
movie is the science of psychology and psychiatry. As a Sociology major, I have
been trained to view these disciplines with a bit of skepticism because of
their tendency to normalize certain behaviors and to create boundaries between
normal and deviant which is often argued to be a social construction. Upon
watching the film, however, I saw the need for recognizing mental illnesses if
they are truly detrimental to the individual. However, it also calls into
question society’s definition of “crazy” and whether or not we can truly say
that a condition is a disorder.
[1] National
Institute of Mental Health, What is Schizophrenia?, n.d., (accessed May 11,
2014); available from http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/schizophrenia/index.shtml
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