A Beautiful Mind (2002) takes place between the late 1930s and present day. John Nash is a mathematical genius studying at Princeton University with hopes of discovering his own original mathematical theory. John is socially awkward, has trouble getting along with his peers and his only real friend seems to be his roommate, Charles. At the university, John spends an unprecedented amount of time on an original mathematical theory and finally comes up with a theory that earns him recognition. Later, Nash then begins giving math lectures at MIT where he eventually meets his wife and starts his second job. Nash’s second job is top-secret, -and involves a mission to figure out where different bombings around the world will take place. Nash becomes paranoid after he drops off one of his top-secret code-breakers and things go awry. Things take a turn when Nash is supposed to be giving a lecture and people who he thinks are Russian spies start to chase him. The audience learns that these “spies” are from a psychiatric ward, and that they have come to take Nash into their care. These top secret missions and numerous assignments that Nash has been working on are, in fact, the symptoms of his illness -a psychological disorder called schizophrenia. In actuality, the assignments are not based on reality and are instead products of Nash’s mind. The audience notices first sign of Nash’s schizophrenia at this point in the movie, - when Nash is talking to Charles at the ward but in reality, no one is present other than the psychiatrist. This is when Nash is faced with the harsh reality that the life he has been living is a lie. The audience has discovered that all of his top-secret missions are made up and that Charles, his best friend, does not even exist… except for in his mind. The movie highlights Nash’s struggles with the disorder and the ways it impacts his close relationships. However, Nash eventually under goes shock treatment and learns to cope with his illness. Throughout this paper, the main character from A Beautiful Mind (2002), John Nash will be discussed. John’s interactions with the people around him show the symptoms of his illness. One sign of schizophrenia is when you feel as though “somebody or some people are plotting against you.” At Nash’s new “top secret” job, he was constantly in danger because of the type of work he was doing. Also, he thought that other countries were planning bomb threats against America; his job was to stop those bombs. People with schizophrenia also have “difficulty telling the difference between real and unreal experiences”. For example, when Nash first begins his “job”, he has a device implanted into his arm. Later on we see Nash using this device in order to drop off his “top secret” findings about where bombings will take place. Nash was not unable to realize that this event was not real and did not take place until years later when he is placed in a psychiatric ward. The most relevant psychological principal in this movie is Psychological disorders. The most important part of A Beautiful Mind (2002) is the fact that Nash a mathematical genius has schizophrenia. Schizophrenia is a “psychological disorder that involves severely distorted beliefs, perceptions, and thought process”. A theory that is important to this particular subject is Watson and Skinner’s Behaviorism theory. Behaviorism “is a theory of learning based upon
