Psychological Movie Presentation

Psychological disorder and selected movie

The psychological disorder I observed was paranoid schizophrenia in the movie, A Beautiful Mind.

Here is the trailer:

 

Paranoid schizophrenia

 

Paranoid schizophrenia is characterized by predominantly positive symptoms of schizophrenia, including delusions and hallucinations.

 

These debilitating symptoms blur the line between what is real and what isn’t, making it difficult for the person to lead a typical life.

 

DSM-V criterion

 

In the DSM-V Criterion A lists the five key symptoms of psychotic disorders:

 

1) delusions,

 

2) hallucinations,

 

3) disorganized speech,

 

4) disorganized or catatonic behavior, and

 

5) negative symptoms.

 

In DSM-IV, 2 of these 5 symptoms were required. In DSM-5, two of these five symptoms are required AND at least one symptom must be one of the first three (delusions, hallucinations, disorganized speech).

 

How friends and family are impacted

 

A Beautiful Mind stars Russell Crowe as Nash, and Jennifer Connelly as his wife, Alicia, who is pregnant with their child. It tells the story of a man whose mind was of enormous service to humanity while at the same time betrayed him with frightening delusions.

 

Crowe brings the character to life by sidestepping sensationalism and building with small behavioral details. He shows a man who descends into hallucinations of schizophrenia and then, unexpectedly, regains the ability to function in the academic world.

 

Alicia his wife stands by his side, but she is overwhelmed with Nash’s symptoms and imaginary friends. Nash almost drowns his baby while giving him a bath.

 

Character’s means of coping and forms of treatment

 

The movie traces his treatment by an understanding psychiatrist ( Christopher Plummer), and his agonizing courses of insulin shock therapy. Medication helps him improve somewhat–but only, of course, when he takes the medication. Eventually newer drugs are more effective, and he begins a tentative re-entry into the academic world at Princeton.

 

The best form of treatment is anti-psychotic medication.

 

How the movie contributed to my understanding of disorders and their treatment

 

The movie helped me understand how those with schizophrenia are in denial and are so submersed in their symptoms they don’t understand the impact it has on their family.

 

It also helped me understand how them engaging in their giftedness can help their symptoms.