A Beautiful Mind: Psychological Disorders

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A Beautiful Mind illustrates many of the topics relating to psychological disorders. The main character of the film, John Nash, is a brilliant mathematician who suffers from symptoms of Schizophrenia. His symptoms include paranoid delusions, grandiosity, and disturbed perceptions. The disease disrupts his social relationships, his studies, and his work. The more stressful his life becomes the more his mind is not able to distinguish between reality and fantasy. Nash's first hallucination is in his college dorm room when his drunken roommate Charles appears. Charles acts as a mentor to Nash by making him realize that work and studies are not the only things life has to offer. Throughout his life, Nash has been a "lone wolf", and Charles pushes Nash to go out with friends and have "respect for beer." It is then, when his mind relaxes that he is able to come up with his ultimate goal, an original idea, and set himself apart from the rest of his classmates. When he is recognized for his achievements he is given the facilities at M.I.T. he needs to further his research. In his new position at M.I.T., Nash is given a class to teach in addition to his personal research. Eventually Nash finds himself as a highly respected code breaker and does confidential work for the Pentagon and Wheeler Defense Laboratories. Around the same time he finds the love of his life in the class he teaches. Although his stressful job interferes with this relationship, Nash and Alicia decide to stay together. As the relationship progresses, so does Nash's disease and his delusions. His second hallucination is a man who he refers to as "Big Brother", a.k.a. William Parcher. He first sees Parcher out of the corner of his eye on one of his trips to the Pentagon. Parcher then approaches Nash about a confidential job in which his lack of personal connection would be an advantage. The job involves cracking codes that are supposed to lead to information about a conspiracy involving the Soviet Union...
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