Introduction To Psychology

Submitted by

Assignment

College

Date

Part A

Although the film "Beautiful Mind" is a biography film of John Nash, a schizophrenic patient, but also with the color of the movie story, the film did not state how John Nash got sick at the beginning, and the state at the time of onset. Instead, it increases the artistry of the film in a suspenseful way. If the audience didn't watch the whole film, at the beginning of the film, he couldn't think of his prodigal roommate Charles Herman, and the little girl Marcy. The superior William Pacher who gave him the task was his fantasy figure. Everything looks so True and trustworthy. Nash fancied that there were Soviets to kill him, to shut himself down in a dark room, to be afraid of the lights at night, and to imagine that the killers would be bad for his wife and asked her to go to her sister's house to take refuge. His wife, Alicia, felt that Nash’s behavior was too abnormal, and she called Dr. Rosen, a doctor at MacArthur Psychiatric Hospital. When Nash gave a speech at the Harvard National Mathematical Symposium, he treated Dr. Rosen as a spy killer of the Soviet Union and tried to escape. Dr. Rosen took control of him and injected him with a tranquilizer before he took it. He was taken to a mental hospital.

Since then, we have learned that Nash suffers from schizophrenia. When we think about the behaviors of Nash in the previous film, we can see that there are many details that reflect the signs and manifestations of Nash schizophrenia. According to DSM-IV the criteria for schizophrenia including delusions, illusions/ Hallucinations, emotional monotony and lack of will power and all are clear in this movie.

Delusion: delusion is a strange thought in the patient's mind that is related to oneself or others, mainly including control of delusions, victimization, relationship delusions, suspected delusions, etc. From the film we can know that the main expression of Nash is to control delusions. And the murderer delusion. Nash believes that his body has been injected with LEDs that can display numbers; when Nash attends the banquet and marries, he feels that someone is monitoring him; these are control delusions. Nash’s manifestation of murder is mainly reflected in the fact that after imagining that he was chased by Soviet Russian spies, he kept himself in a dark room, afraid of lighting, paying close attention to the movement outside the window, fearing that his wife was killed because of himself; When Dr. Rosen wanted to send him to a mental hospital for treatment, Nash thought that Rosen was a Soviet spy, wanted to kill him and struggled to resist. (Green, Horan & Lee, 2015). When he treated his second relapse at home, he fancied that William Pachcher wanted him to make up his mind to kill his wife and children. These are the manifestations of Nash's murder.

Illusion: In the film, most of the plot is a manifestation of Nash's fantasy. Nash fantasies three characters: roommate Charles, little girl Matthew and Defense Department official William Pach. The film truly shows how real the illusion in the eyes of a schizophrenic patient is. Both illusion and auditory hallucination are an aspect of Nash's illusion. He can see them clearly and talk to them. When Nash studied at Princeton University, he had an illusion. Charles is an image of Nash's deep consciousness. (Klosterkötter, Steinmeyer & Schultze-Lutter, 2001). Charles's character is completely opposite to Nash, and often appears when Nash needs it. When Nash can't think of the theory of the thesis, he is not willing to fail, and when the pain hits the wall; when Nash finally completes a major breakthrough in theory and is appreciated by the instructor. And when Nash participated in the National Mathematical Seminar, when Dr. Rosen took the treatment, and so on. The little girl Matthew is the performance of Nash's inner female experience. Nash is not good at communication and has poor communication with women, but he also desires to be loved. Matthew is also the key to making Nash finally realize that he is sick. Because Matthew did not grow up from the beginning to the end, Nash understood that Charles, Matthew and William are just their own illusions. Defense Department official William Pacher, a character transformed by Nash's heroic plot, Nash is convinced that he was appointed by the Ministry of Defense to help the country save the people from Soviet attacks by breaking the password. This is actually something that does not exist at all. In the film, when Nash returned to the Wheeler Research Office from the Ministry of Defense, he said: If I am hot, who will save the world? From this sentence we can see Nash's inner heroism.

Emotional monotony: People with schizophrenia often have some emotional disorders. Emotional retardation and apathy, emotional response and thinking content and external stimuli do not cooperate, is an important feature of schizophrenia. Most of the emotional disorders are strong reactions caused by hallucinations and delusions, manifested as excitement, excitement, nervousness, fear, anxiety, depression, or sudden emotional outbursts. Moreover, as the disease progresses, emotional apathy and apathy often become the main cause of the patient. symptom. Such as Nash's excitement and excitement when he received an invitation from the Ministry of Defense officials, the tension and fear of being chased by Soviet agents, and the fear and anxiety that his personal safety was violated, as well as old friends visiting and sitting still. Holding the crying child, he has no reaction, etc. Nash's behaviors are consistent with the above performance. (Siris, 1991).

Lack of willpower: As a schizophrenia patient, Nash lacks interest in external things, does not take the initiative to participate in activities, often in meditation; does not touch people, is isolated, completely out of reality. This was reflected in the first act of the film. When the instructor gave a welcome speech, Nash looked down at the corner, lonely and sitting faceless; Nash often had a corner in the library. People think about problems, and so on are all manifestations of his lack of willpower.

From the description of the film and the above analysis of the Nash disease, we can judge that John Nash's schizophrenia is a paranoid schizophrenia characterized by stable paranoia.

Part b

1. I think the important factor in objecting “good guards” is a kind of experiment and due to the nature of experiment they need to be strict and brutal for example prisoner #416 refused to eat and give threat of hunger strike but prisoner punished him due to this thing and tell other prisoners to bang and shout over him for his behavior.

2.The student at some point believed that this is a true experiment not the designed study and they start behaving like the actual prisoners. They were turned fearful for them and some of their sounds were representation their behavior. And due to stress and fear they were discussing with each other what is going on and what kind of behavior they may suffer in jail.

3.The harsh treatment was done by the bad guards including; bad treatment, being sprayed, shouting, or using fire extinguisher to spray on them. Prisoners were able to distinguish between good and bad guards due to their character and behavior. (Zimbardo, 2016).

4.Yes, it is unethical behavior the reason behind is the research. It conducted in jail and in psychological researches consent is must here no consent is used neither it is disclosed to people who contributed during research that it is not real just an experiment.

References

Green, M. F., Horan, W. P., & Lee, J. (2015). Social cognition in schizophrenia. Nature Reviews

Neuroscience, 16(10), 620.

Klosterkötter, J., Hellmich, M., Steinmeyer, E. M., & Schultze-Lutter, F. (2001). Diagnosing

schizophrenia in the initial prodromal phase. Archives of general psychiatry, 58(2), 158-164.

Miller, T. J., McGlashan, T. H., Woods, S. W., Stein, K., Driesen, N., Corcoran, C. M., ... &

Davidson, L. (1999). Symptom assessment in schizophrenic prodromal states. Psychiatric Quarterly, 70(4), 273-287.

Siris, S. G. (1991). Diagnosis of secondary depression in schizophrenia: implications for DSM-

IV. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 17(1), 75-98.

Zimbardo, P. G., Haney, C., Banks, W. C., & Jaffe, D. (1971). Stanford prison experiment.

Zimbardo, Incorporated.

Zimbardo, P. (2016). Revisiting the Stanford prison experiment: A lesson in the power of

situation. Perspectives on Contemporary Issues, 309-317.