Psychoanalysis of John Nash of the Movie "A Beautiful Mind"
Instructions
1. Select a character in a film who presents as suffering from a major mental disorder – as your client.
The following movies (and movies like these) present characters about whom a case study may be considered. This is not an exhaustive list, but one you can use and/or to generate ideas for other characters.
If you have another movie and character in mind, please let me know.
A Beautiful Mind
Apocalypse Now
Black Swan
Clockwork Orange
Fight Club
Girl, Interrupted
Good Will Hunting
Inception
Long Day’s Journey Into Night
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
Ordinary People
Psycho
Silver Lining Playbook
The Lost Weekend
Vertigo
We Need to Talk About Kevin
2. Below are detailed instructions for the sections and sub-sections of the case study paper.
(N.B.: The case study outline herein is for this paper, only. Case study formats will likely vary at practicum sites, public facilities/clinics, and in private practice settings.)
Title Page
Include a Title page consistent with current APA style/formatting. Do not include an Abstract page – case study papers do not use Abstracts.
Introduction
Begin your case study with a one-paragraph introduction of the character that you will present, a brief description of the movie, and the purpose of the paper, i.e., a case study examination of the character.
Presenting Problem/s
Provide a brief narrative statement describing the specific problem/s the client presents: his/her/their symptoms, reported issues, concerns, struggles, etc. This section is explicitly descriptive, based on client’s self-report (and/or collateral information, if applicable); it is not analytical, explanatory, conceptual, therapist-observational, evaluative, or diagnostic, etc.
You can certainly report here if the client has been previously diagnosed with schizophrenia, for example, but rather than discuss the overall characteristics of this disorder, detail instead, the client's specific presenting symptom/s.
A prior diagnosis can be noted in this section, if the character is diagnosed in the movie. But, as the author of the case study, you must render a defensible diagnosis (that may or may not be the same as a prior one), based on the information available to you (from the movie). The diagnosis/es you provide should be placed in the Diagnostic Formulation subsection of Case Formulation (not in this Presenting Problems section).
Background/Historical Information
This section is also descriptive; that is, what is reported, claimed, or alleged by the client, significant collaterals, records, etc. and/or the evaluator’s observations; not, what you currently diagnose, assess, or hypothesize. This section is comprised of two components: (1) Life Domains (with sub-section headings, per below) and (2) Critical Incidents.
Life domains: Provide cursory, relevant, available information regarding each life domain, including:
Present Living Situation/Family Constellation and SES status, including composition of the client’s present family, socioeconomic status, if available
Quality of Relationships with Parents and Siblings (past and present)
Current Friendship and Romantic Relations
Mental Health Issues in the Family
Mental Health Issues of the Client
Educational and Occupational History
Problems with Substance Use and/or Legal Problems
Cultural Considerations
Information reported in this section should be based only on the film. Avoid creative license, speculation, made-up information, or facts available from other sources to fill in gaps. If no information is available for a particular life-domain, then say so.
Demarcate life-domain sub-sections with sub-headings (e.g., Present Living Situation, Relationships with Parents and Siblings, etc.)
Critical Incidents from the Film: Describe two to four ‘critical incidents’ that will support your case formulation. Critical incidents typically include major, life-affecting and/or life-changing predispositional circumstances and precipitant events.
Case Formulation
Provide a brief overview of the diathesis stress model, followed by a detailed discussion of the four factors that help us understand and explain the deeper nature of the client’s problems. Finally, hypothesize about the subject’s presumed DSM-5 diagnosis/es with substantiating criteria.
Overview of the Diathesis Stress Model: Present a brief (one paragraph), introductory explanation of the biopsychosocial diathesis stress model being applied in this case study. This identifies the theoretical framework within which the case formulation is developed.
Case Formulation: For this section, demarcate sub-sections with headings (e.g., Predisposing Factors, Precipitating Factors, etc.
Predisposing Factors: Major diatheses and stressors that contributed to the development of the character’s disorder
Precipitating Factors: Major event/s that, inferentially, triggered the disorder
Perpetuating Factors: Circumstances that, inferentially, serve to maintain the disorder
Positive/Protective Factors: The client’s strengths and resources that are likely to be useful in treatment and/or augur a more favorable prognosis
Then, present your diagnostic formulation.
Diagnostic Formulation: Integrating the background information with your analysis of the four Ps, present your DSM-5 diagnosis/es. Summarize the DSM-5 criteria to substantiate your diagnosis/es. Address alternative and/or any other diagnoses that you considered and ruled-out.
Treatment Plan
Based on your case formulation and diagnosis, present a recommended treatment plan that is responsive to the client’s mental disorder/psychological challenges, social, cultural (if applicable) situation/resources, and/or personality.
Be sure to detail how you will address any risk factors. For example, if the subject has a history of suicide ideation/attempts, state how your treatment plan will address this.
When preparing a case study, a common clinical practice standard is to consider any strengths and/or limitations of the treatment approach you recommend. If another concurrent and/or subsequent treatment approach would seem to benefit the client, you can add a brief discussion of that approach as well.
You can consider any responsible, ethical, clinically defensible treatment approach; including CBT, DBT, transdiagnostic models, psychodynamic, Adlerian, behavioral, existential, Rogerian therapies, etc., and their contemporary derivative approaches.
Be sure to identify treatment goals, difficulties that may be encountered with this specific client, and possible limitations to the recommended treatment approach.
Conclusion
Finally, add a brief (one-paragraph) conclusion/summary (one paragraph) of your work on this assignment.
References
Lastly, provide an APA-styled list of references that you used and cited for this paper.
Structure
Required components: An outline for this project is as follows (see below for detailed considerations):
Title page
Introduction (brief description of the movie and purpose of the paper)
Presenting problem (description of the client’s reported symptoms)
Background/Historical Information (as only revealed in the film)
Case formulation (based on the biopsychosocial diathesis/stress model)
Treatment Plan (a treatment approach if the client were to enter treatment.
Conclusion (brief summation of the case study paper)
References
Length of Assignment: The text body of paper (i.e., not including references or title page) should consist of approximately 2200 +/- words, (i.e., 10-pages double-spaced typed pages, Times New Roman font size: 12).
Format: Please, format your assignment in Word (files with extension .doc or .docx), or Rich Text Format (files with extension .rtf).
References: 5 scholarly sources
Considerations
Do not make up or fabricate information – the movie is the only source of information, even for non-fictional characters about whom other sources of information may be available.
Sub-sections for which no reported or observed information is available should be noted as such. Do not over-tell the movie’s story or plot-line. Follow the formatted outline.
Note that this assignment is not a theory paper, literature review paper, or research paper; it is, rather, a case study paper. A case study, by definition, provides a concise clinically defensible conceptualization about a client.
In the case formulation section, the DSM-5 may be used to substantiate your assessed diagnosis; however, do not list out the diagnostic criteria, in a bulleted-like or tabular fashion, in your paper. You can assume that the reader (me) is familiar with diagnostic criteria. Instead, summarize the salient criteria that, in your clinical opinion, warrants the diagnosis.
Sources published within the past ten years should be used. One or two older seminal sources are acceptable, provided that they are necessary and relevant to this assignment. Sources can be used in the diagnostic case formulation section and/or to support treatment recommendations and planning.
Appendices, tables, and figures are not acceptable for this assignment.
Since you are one author, use of first-person singular ("I," "me," "my") is acceptable - and preferred, consistent with current APA style.
Psychoanalysis of John Nash: A Movie Character
Name
University
Course
Instructor
Due Date
Psychoanalysis of John Nash: A Movie Character
Introduction
The movie “A Beautiful Mind” was produced in 2001 and chronicles the life story of John Nash, who was a renowned Mathematician. Russell Crowe plays the role of John Nash. The movie is based on the biographical novel of the same name and presents a timeline of Nash’s life as he begins his graduate program at Princeton University, and starts to exhibit various symptoms of Schizophrenia (Howard, 2001). The signs and symptoms continue to be a major part of his life with his abilities manifested by the fact that he managed to win a Nobel Peace Prize even when he was dealing with the disorder. In this paper, John Nash is considered as the client for my practice. Thus, the presenting problem, background information, case formulation, and a treatment plan based on the movie shall be completed. The purpose of the paper is to provide John Nash with a well-developed treatment plan that can help him ensure that the condition does not significantly limit his ability to contribute to society.
Presenting Problems
Based on the film, John Nash experiences auditory hallucinations first, which are followed by visual hallucinations. The first hallucination that Nash reports is the auditory hallucination of a roommate, Charles Herman who is a Literature student at the University. In the scene where Herman is introduced, there is a shot of mesmerizing Nash after shaking hands with the roommate indicating that Nash is unsure about the extent to which Herman is a real person. Eventually, the audience learns that Herman is not a real person when Nash is diagnosed as a schizophrenic and the existence of Charles Herman is debunked by Dr. Rosen, who notes that the University did not assign John a roommate (Howard, 2001). Nash has other hallucinations including William Parcher in 1953 who is proven as non-existent by Nash’s wife Alicia and Marcee who is supposed to be his niece. In addition to auditory hallucinations, Nash experience tactual hallucinations as he believes that he has an implant planted on his arm.
In addition to hallucinations, Nash presents various forms of delusions. First, he exhibits delusions of grandeur as evidenced by his insistence that he has been contracted by the United States Government to track bombs that were placed by Russians as he is the best code cracker in the country. Second, Nash reveals a delusion of influence as evidenced by the belief that he had no option but to continue working as a codebreaker for the United States (Howard, 2001). When Alicia becomes pregnant, John informs his auditory hallucinations of the intention to quit as a codebreaker. However, William Parcher convinces Nash that the Russians were already aware that he was the codebreaker contracted by the United States and that he should not quit the position (Howard, 2001). The delusion of influence is also evident when Nash wants to hurt Alicia to prevent her from committing him back to the hospital. During the scene, Nash is influenced by his various hallucination to shoot Alicia to prevent her from taking him back to the hospital. Third, Nash has delusions of reference in the sense that he believes that people are talking about him (Howard, 2001). As he holds that he is a secret agent, Nash believes that Russians are spying on him. Further, Nash has delusions of persecution as he believes that Russians want to harm him due to his code-breaking abilities.
In addition to hallucinations and delusions, Nash exhibits thought and speech disorders stemming from his inability to organize his thoughts coherently. The speech disorder is evident in a scene where Nash offers a rhyme statement as a response to a challenge from his friend Martin Hansen. After being challenged, Nash responds by saying, “Terrified. Mortified. Petrified. Stupefied… by you. No starch. Pressed and folded” (Howard, 2001). The sentence does not make sense and is a presenting problem common among schizophrenics.
Nash also exhibits emotional disturbance as one of the major symptoms of his disorder. Though one would expect him to have an emotional reaction in some of the interactions within the movie, it is hardly the case. The review of Nash’s facial expression following a scene where he is mistaken for a waiter by Martin Hansen shows the absence of emotional expression as was the case when he lost a Go game or was hired by Wheeler Labs (Howard, 2001). The pinnacle of emotional disturbance is a scene where he is carrying a crying infant baby without a facial expression indicating that he was distressed by the baby's cries. Notably, the scene does not provide evidence that Nash was taking steps to stop the baby from crying.
The film also reveals motor disturbance as another symptom associated with Nash’s schizophrenia. In the scenes where Nash is shaking hands with other people, he is either talking to other people or he is not looking at their faces. During his conversation with others, Nash also exhibits significantly awkward gestures as is the case when he is interacting with Martin Hansen about his paper, or when he is invited by Alicia for dinner (Howard, 2001).
Further, Nash has social withdrawal. The movies portray his character as an unsociable person who rarely interacts with others. During his Graduate school years, John tells Charles that he does not enjoy interacting with other people and that other people do not enjoy his company (Howard, 2001). Notably, Nash’s fixation on developing and pursuing novel ideas serves to further his isolation from others and he ends up spending most of his time completing calculations in his dorm room. In one of the scenes, Nash forgets that he has a date with Alicia as he was focused on the work that he believed to have been assigned to him by the government (Howard, 2001).
The movie also reveals that Nash has challenges sustaining attention. While his friends had found topics for their dissertations, Nash struggles to come up with a topic and his professor complains that he was not focused on his studies. During dates, Alicia had to constantly work to gain his attention as he was not focused.
Background/Historical Information
Present Living Situation
In the movie "A Beautiful Mind," John Nash's living situation was depicted as being highly impacted by his schizophrenia. At the beginning of the film, Nash is shown as a young and brilliant mathematician who is just starting his academic career at Princeton University. However, as his illness progresses, Nash's living situation becomes increasingly unstable. He experiences hallucinations, and delusions, and becomes paranoid, leading him to withdraw from his social circle and become increasingly isolated. Nonetheless, he eventually meets Alicia and they start a family together. Nash almost drowns his son and Alicia must take him to the hospital.
At the end of the movie, Nash lived with his wife who offered him the support required to continue adhering to medication. While Nash's socioeconomic status is not directly revealed in the movie, it's safe to say that he was of relatively high socioeconomic status. As a professor, Nash would have had a steady income and a job with good benefits, which is a key indicator of high socioeconomic status. Additionally, his Nobel Prize in Economics, which he won in 1994, would have further elevated his status and provided him with financial security.
Current Friendship and Romantic Relations
Nash has a romantic relationship with his wife, Alicia, who is one of the most important people in his life. To this end, Alicia acts as the person who grounds Nash to reality and ensures that he is committed to seeking the medical help he needs to function in a normal life (Howard, 2001). John also has a friend who is known as Martin at Princeton University. Notably, Martin plays a key role in helping Nash start adapting to normal life after his treatment.
Mental Health Issues in the Family
There is no information presented about...