A Beautiful Mind - a Successful Hollywood about Nash's Life - Movie Review Example

Mental illness Introduction John Forbes Nash, Jr. is one of the most famous American mathematicians. Born on June 13, 1928, he made immense contributions in such areas as differential geometry, game theory and partial differential equations among many others. His fame in the discipline precedes him. He was a fundamental member of American Mathematical Society, gave numerous lectures on various topics, and formulated various mathematical theorems. His life story is the subject of a Hollywood movie entitled A beautiful mind. Such developments portrayed the extent of his fame. However, John Nash suffered from a unique mental illness that affected both his career and public life thereby compelling him to restructure his lifestyle as the discussion below portrays. Nash began experiencing mental disturbances in 1959. He explained that at the time his wife was pregnant when began experiencing a change from a scientifically rational way of thinking to a delusional thinking. Among the symptoms, he experienced included hallucinations since he reported hearing voices. He also experienced delusion and disorganization of both thought and speech. As his condition worsened, the symptoms strengthened to include impairment in social cognition and social withdrawal. The symptoms evolved to paranoia as he began feeling that some people posed meant to harm him. He could not identify the people yet the feeling kept intensifying (Brown, 2013). He acquired an attitude of hatred and fear against people who wore red ties believing that such people were conspiring to kill. As such, he became withdrawn and could not work effectively. The symptoms affected his interactions with people thereby affecting his career. As a public figure, the various symptoms of the mental illness made it difficult for him to work and further his researches in mathematics. Among the symptoms, that John Nash exhibited included a wide range of abnormal social behaviors (World Psychiatric Association Symposium on Depression in Schizophrenics, Williams & Dalby, 1989). Additionally, Nash could not recognize what was real and what was not. He portrayed signs of intense paranoia coupled with erratic behaviors. In his paranoia, he believed that every man in a red tie was part of a deep conspiracy that targeted him. He therefore avoided anyone in red ties and lived a life of fear. He for example wrote a number of letters to various embassies in Washington D.C reporting that a number of people that he did not identify were forming a parallel government. As the conditioned intensified, Nash avoided social gatherings a feature that affected both his career and his personal life. Other symptoms that Nash often portrayed included delusion, hallucinations and disorganized thinking and speaking. As expected, the mental illness affected Nash in a various ways. He strived balancing between the strange disease and his public life. He faced a number of coping difficulties most of which arising from his lifestyle and the busy schedule of his career. Detection of a mental illness is always challenging since they influence behavior. Noticing the gradual change in behavior is always difficult. This implies that it took a while before Nash and his family realized that he was suffering from the disease, late diagnosis made managing and treating the disease difficult thereby presenting a number of coping difficulties. Nash for example gave an incomprehensible lecture at an important American Mathematical Society symposium at Columbia University. As explained earlier, he experienced disorganized thinking and speaking. The two affected the quality of the lecture thus proving his mental illness to the public. He faced numerous challenges as he tried socializing with people thereafter. His fear of people in red ties implied that he selected his social groups. As the problem worsened with the paranoia heightening, he limited his social interactions opting to stay at home away from the public, as is a typical symptom of the disease (Podsobinski, 2010). This affected his career since the profession required him to interact with various people at various platforms such as when doing researches and when giving out public lectures at organized symposium. With the heightening paranoia, he limited his social engagements. The disorganized thoughts and speeches implied that he could not engage in any meaningful undertaking in the complex profession. Most people became critical of his hypothesis given his inability to defend them. While some people celebrated him, others became increasingly critical of his works. Fortunately, mathematical theories have unique ways of proving their viabilities, a feature that safeguarded his inventions (Venter, 2012). However, his inability to think and speak properly affected his subsequent works. An incident in which he gave an incomprehensible lecture at the University of Colombia marked the beginning of medical therapy. His colleagues at the conference noted the unique behavior and took him to McLean Hospital. The diagnosis revealed that Nash suffered from paranoid schizophrenia. The diagnosis and subsequent admission to the hospital implied that he would resume his work immediately until he recovered. Nash underwent a series of medical therapies and spent a substantial amount of time in various psychiatric hospitals. Nash recovered in 1970 and ended his commitments to any hospital. As such, Nash purposed to resume his career since his interests in mathematics was still rife. The mental illness influenced his career since after recovering from the disease; Nash won a number of awards and worked with various groups of mathematicians in fostering the growth of the subject. He discovered the non-cooperative equilibrium also known as Nash equilibria. The discovery earned him the coveted John von Neumann Theory Prize in 1978. Nash began looking for other mathematician in the 1980s. He used email to link up with the few mathematicians he could trace thereby building his social network once again. He introduced himself as the Nash to the few he could find thereby inviting the, to work with him since he believed his new work was equally valuable. Nash set out to prove that his mental illness had not affected his works. He furthered his work on the game theory thereby winning a Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 1994. The Paranoid Schizophrenia in deed influenced his career and lifestyle. Nash became among the few success stories in the fight against the mental illness. His recovery was a process that awed much thereby increasing interest on his life. While he had lived a life as a private figure doing his research in his private capacity, he invigorated his researches soon after recovery. Nash for example won more awards in his career after recovering from the mental illness than he ever did before. This portrays the attention the disease attracted to his life. The society loved his success story and he purposed to prove that anyone could recover from the illness. As such, he became a public figure with the recovery from the illness compelling him to work in a field in which fame was important. Nash’s life changed tremendously after he recovered from the mental illness. Firstly, he sought to prove that he had recovered from the illness and that he could continue his work. He began reconstructing his social circles by contacting other mathematicians in different parts of the word. Additionally, he furthered his researches in some of the concept he began investigating before the illness. The success he enjoyed from such works earned him immense public recognition including the various wards besides a celebrity status in the society. Following his new commitment to mathematics research after he recovered from the mental illness, Nash worked with a number of fellow mathematicians. They formed a group that would help vouch for the rights of other scholars who would suffer from such conditions. Among the preliminary works of the group was to contact the committee of the Bank of Swedens Nobel award and demand for the recognition of Nash’s early works, his ability to recover from a mental illness and resume fostering research in mathematics (Nash, Kuhn & Nasar, 2001). They argued that his life was one of commitment to the science thereby growing knowledge. While he resumed his work as a mathematician and a researcher, the mental illness led him to a field where fame was important. As explained earlier, A Beautiful Mind is a successful Hollywood movie in which Nash’s life comprises the subject. His willingness to let the film portray his experiences enhanced his fame throughout the world. He even let the developers of the film portray some parts of the film that did not reflect the truth about his life. Nash explained that the film portrayed him erroneously taking new atypical antipsychotics. He explains that he permitted the erroneous representation since he understood that the scriptwriter wanted to discourage people with the same condition from quitting their medications. He worked hard in his researches after recovering from the mental illness because he sought to prove that the disease was like any other and that people could recover. His works after recovery enjoyed immense success thereby increasing his fame throughout the world. He became an encouragement to people with various forms of mental disorders, a feature that enhanced his engagements in fields in which fame was important. References Brown, J. (2013). Surviving paranoid schizophrenia: A real life story. Brentwood, Essex: Chipmunka publishing. Nash, J. F., Kuhn, H. W., & Nasar, S. (2001). The Essential John Nash. Princeton, N.J: Princeton University Press. Podsobinski, L. (2010). In the grip of paranoid schizophrenia: One mans metamorphosis through psychosis. S.l: s.n.. Venter, B. (2012). Paranoid schizophrenia: My label, my life. aBloomington, IN: Authorhouse. World Psychiatric Association Symposium on Depression in Schizophrenics, Williams, R., & Dalby, J. T. (1989). Depression in schizophrenics. New York: Plenum Press. Read More