Schizophrenia

Character: John Nash Movie: A Beautiful Mind DSM IV MULTIAXIAL EVALUATION Axis I: Clinical Disorders Other Conditions That May Be a Focus of Clinical Attention 295.30Schizophrenia, Paranoid Type, Episodic With Interepisode Residual Symptoms. Axis II: Personality Disorders Mental Retardation V71.09 No diagnosis Axis III: General Medical Conditions None Axis IV: Psychosocial and Environmental Problems None Axis V: Global Assessment of Functioning Scale Score = 28 Time Frame: On admission An Analysis of John Nash`s Paranoid Schizophrenia This paper analyzes the mental condition of the character John Nash, as depicted by Russell Crowe in the movie, ‘A Beautiful Mind`. The analysis is restricted to the time period from which Nash experiences his first hallucination, until after he was able to receive proper treatment for his condition. Nash had been experiencing vivid hallucinations, the first of which appeared as he started out as a student in Princeton University. He was under the impression that he had a roommate named Charles, and eventually the two became good friends. Charles appeared again to Nash once he went back to Princeton from Massachusetts, except this time he was accompanied by his niece, Marcee. These visions were soon followed by the appearance of William Parcher, who Nash believed worked for the CIA and had asked Nash to provide his services in cracking codes from the Soviet Union. As a result, he started to devote a lot of his time to deciphering these Soviet codes that he found hidden in newspapers and magazines. He would then send the decrypted messages via mail in a particular mailbox, supposedly to the Pentagon. Shortly afterwards, he also believed that he had been chased by Russians who were trying to kill him. The description of Nash`s experiences provided above illustrate why he is considered to be and was diagnosed with a Paranoid type of Schizophrenia. He displayed the presence of persecutory delusions, in the form of Russians who were spying on him and were out to get him. Also, he displayed the presence of hallucinat...