Movie Review of a Beutiful Mind

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The movie, A Beautiful Mind, is based on the life of Nobel Prize winning economist, John Forbes Nash, Jr. The movie portrays the symptoms and treatment for paranoid schizophrenia from which John Nash suffers. He has episodes of auditory and visual hallucinations and has frequent interactions with imaginary people. He was treated for hallucinations with medication that had caused him to have some negative reactions to the medicine. So, he avoids taking the medication and thereby relapses into his earlier condition. He mentions taking ‘newer’ medications later on which also help him decide between the reality and delusion. At the end of the movie, he is seen to have overcome this disorder by learning to ignore his hallucinations. After watching the movie my views on mental illness have greatly changed. I guess I am guilty about having judgments about someone with schizophrenia. I never envisioned that they could lead such productive and happy lives. Although John had his hard times, with medication and treatment he was able to overcome his illness and have a pretty normal life. The movie also reinforced to me that I need to keep in the forefront of my mind that people with mental illnesses can’t help how they are acting. They suffer from a disease just as if they were suffering from cancer. John overcomes schizophrenia and attains a true sense of accomplishment, and even a sense of greatness. In this movie, the theme of discrimination against mental illnesses becomes plain. Illnesses such as schizophrenia still remain misunderstood in all places, even though it affects so many people. Watching this film, it helped me to sympathize with everyone who has a mental illness. Another lesson I learned is the value of deinstitutionalization in the treatment of the mentally ill. John could have simply been institutionalized for most of his life due to his

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