Do you think the movie A Beautiful Mind potrayed Schizophrenia good or not why?

Question

I am a psychology major in school and my professor asked students this question Do you think the movie A Beautiful Mind potrayed Schizophrenia good or not and Why.? I want to know your opinion. Thank You.

Answer 1

Underlying the controversy about "A Beautiful Mind" was an ugly agenda, one aimed at garnering billions more in drug sales and research funds.

The movie alters the most remarkable element that led to John Nash's recovery from schizophrenia - his refusal to continue psychiatric treatment and drugs, thereby changing the entire success of what Nash was able to accomplish. The film portrays Nash as taking "newer medications" at the time of his Nobel Prize.

Nash, himself, says this is pure fiction; he hadn't take psychiatric drugs for 24 years and recovered naturally from his disturbed state. The fact that the screenwriter's mother is a psychiatrist may have had something to do with the film's distortion, Nash said. Two of the "newer medications" that dominate the treatment of "schizophrenia" are a more than $5 billion a year industry. The consequences of this current cinematic glorification of psychiatric drugs will inevitably lead, as it has in the past, to escalating psychotropic drug consumption in the community.

While Hollywood has been attacked for its "violent movies begetting violence," more recently the target has changed to demanding that its portrayal of "mental illness" fits rigidly within the psychiatric drug model.

In March, 2000, a coalition of psychiatric community groups formed as the Mental Health Coalition Against Stigma in Hollywood, calling on the White House to "use its influence with the entertainment industry to help lead a challenge to the stigmatization of mental illness in movies and television shows."

The coalition approached the National Mental Health Awareness Campaign, headed by Tipper Gore and liberally funded by pharmaceutical interests. Gore awarded director Ron Howard with its Awareness Award for "A Beautiful Mind."

Members of the Coalition group, along with NARSAD (The National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia) - groups that have been acknowledged in relation to the story - are heavily funded by drug interests.

Psychiatry has long refused to accept and suppressed workable non-drug treatments to overcome mental difficulties, even of the severity experienced by John Nash. In the 1970's, psychiatrist Loren Mosher, Chief of Schizophrenic Research for the National Institute of Mental Health, established a drug-free program - Soteria House - for schizophrenic patients. "The idea was that schizophrenia can often be overcome with the help of meaningful relationships, rather than with drugs, and such treatment would eventually lead to unquestionable healthier lives," Mosher said. Between 85 percent and 90 percent of the acute and long-term clients were able to return to the community without use of conventional hospital treatment.

But like "A Beautiful Mind," this amazing accomplishment was buried and discredited. According to Mosher, "By 1980, I was removed from my post altogether. All of this occurred because of my strong stand against the overuse of medication and disregard for drug-free, psychological interventions to treat psychological disorders."

Too many psychiatrists and pharmaceutical interests were allowed input and special access to this movie. Psychiatrists and their front organizations have their own agenda in utilizing the Hollywood set as a means of financing their movement. This propaganda covers up psychiatry's created problem: the growing dependency our culture has on prescribed psychotropic drugs that can cause violent and suicidal tendencies, depression, impotence, and at least one of the "newer antipsychotics," can cause a deadly blood disorder.

Nash believes that he willed his own recovery. So why invent a fictitious ending when the truth is so much more inspiring? Certainly John Nash deserves better than that.

Answer 2

Yes I have seen it and it relates to Schizophrenia when the man John Nash (Russell Crowe) starts developing symptoms such as social withdraw, hearing and seeing people, finding codes in papers and delusions that he is a top person hired by the government. However the parts about his medication taking effect so fast and well there is not many parts that are wrong about Schizophrenia because the video was based on a true story so basically everything is pretty accurate.

Answer 3

I belive what you meant to say was "Do you think the movie 'A Beautiful Mind' potrayed Schizophrenia well? Why or why not?"
Yes, I think it was very well-portrayed; I've never been schizophrenic, but I would imagine that it would be very hectic and stressful, as the movie shows.

Answer 4

Yes, I think it did. The person with the disorder sees an entirely different reality than most of us. The film really did not let on that the Professor was ill until we experienced his perceptions, then it came as a shock to us when we saw that he was hallucinating. That is the way it is with the delusional mind. They truly see things in a certain way, and they have no more control over it than we have with our dreams.
And, most schizophrenics have a high degree of intelligence,
though most people are not aware of this as they cannot communicate very well. As you saw, when the Professor came off his meds, he wrote gibberish. It probably made sense to him, but he simply could not express it meaningfully.

Answer 5

Well, because it was a MOVIE they could not feature as much of the audiotory hallucinations and it make as much sense. As a result, the audiovisual parts of the illness are shown a bit more than they normally occur with most patients. However, overall, the total overview is very good.

Answer 6

Yes in a way it gave a good explanation and examples but yet some of the parts made it sound bad and in ways it really isn't. Good luck in your class :)

Answer 7

I enjoyed the movie. I have no experience with schizophrenia and neither do I so we can't answer your question. sorry.

Answer 8

yes, it showed how it effected a briliiant man but remember it effects others in a different way

Answer 9

there are lots of grammar and spelling errors in the question.