A BEAUTIFUL MIND

SUMMARY

John Nash was a student who went to Princeton University and pursued mathematics and studied
there. He met his roommate Charles who happened to be a literature student that eventually
became his best friend. He exhibited a personality of awkwardness that he couldn’t speak the
normal way he does and that he couldn’t communicate well with girls. But days after, he then
met another girl at the same bar and the idea from his mind started working and he then
developed his thesis paper that which was approved and his friend Charles was there to witness
it.

After that, he had a job and started teaching at the M.I.T. or Massachusetts Institute of
Technology. Years later as he was teaching Calculus, he wrote a problem on the board and dared
his students to solve it. One day he forgot about the schedule of his class and one of his students
named Alicia went to his office and told him that he missed the class. Also, she went there to
discuss the problem written on board. Then minutes later she invited John to dinner and then he
agreed. At that point of time they were falling for each other. They became a couple and then got
married.

He returned to visit Princeton and in there he saw his roommate or best friend Charles and met
Charles’ young niece. He also encounters a mysterious Department of Defense agent named
William Parcher. As he was invited to a secret United States Department of Defense facility he
was able to read the code mentally to the amazement of other code breakers present. Parcher
observes John’s performance from above and eventually gave him a new assignment. This
assignment was for John to look for patterns in magazines and newspapers, apparently to connect
hidden stories of the state. The part of the task is that he must write a report of his findings and
place them in a specified mailbox at a place only he and Parcher knows. One day after he placed
the confidential files that he discovered, they were chased by a car and exchanged gunfire. After
the incident, it was that night that he became increasingly paranoid and begins to behave
erratically and bizarre.

Later, as he was delivering a guest lecture at a University, John realizes that he was being
watched by a hostile group of people that he perceived. He attempted to run and fight back and
yet he was sedated and was brought to a psychiatric facility. His idea of being caught by these
people was for him a confirmation that these were the people that were trying to get information
from him; he viewed the officials of the psychiatric faicility as kidnappers. He was diagnosed
with schizophrenia. Alicia, his wife was so upset that she investigated almost everything by
herself in the desperation to help her husband. She went to his office and found a bunch of cut
newspapers and then she went to visit the place where John used to go to send the information.
She found out that the house was abandoned and she was able to see the mailbox and retrieved
all of the never-opened, "top secret" documents that John has used delivered there.
When confronted with this evidence, Nash was told that he has been hallucinating. The
Department of Defense agent William Parcher and John’s secret assignment and task to decode
Soviet messages and documents were all in fact all his delusion. Even more shockingly, John’s
best friend Charles and his niece were also only products of his mind. He took therapy sessions
at the psychiatric facility and was later discharged with a condition that he will take his
medication regularly at home. Yet, the medications that he was taking created negative side-
effects that eventually affect his relationship with his wife and affected also his intellectual
capacity. He secretly stops taking his drugs and medication, and he just stores his pills that
triggered a relapse and reversion of his psychosis.

His hallucinations relapsed at the time when he ran through their backyard and in his mind he
met Parcher again who told him to continue his assigned task which he accepts eventually as he
entered a shed near their house. One morning, he bathes his son and his wife was outside their
house busy with the laundry. She noticed that the gate to their backyard was open and she
checked it and her feet brought her to the abandoned shed and she discovered a familiar scene
wherein there were newspapers pasted on the wall. After realizing what was happening she
immediately run onto their house and checked on her husband and their son. She caught her son
was on the tub that was left by John as he wandered and got distracted. Alicia saved their son
from almost drowning and run downstairs to seek help and call the doctor. However, John
doesn’t seem to allow her to call as on John’s mind he can see Parcher who was about to hurt his
wife and he continued arguing with Parcher and accidentally knocked his wife to the ground.
Alicia got scared for the safety of her son and she ran out and got into their car and drive. Yet
John prevented her from leaving.

Eventually, John realized that Charles’ niece named Marcee was only part of his hallucinations
as he noticed that the kid never gets old since the day they met. He then accepted that the three
people, Parcher, his best friend Charles, and Marcee were all part of his hallucinations. John tried
to get over with his conditions as he consciously said goodbye to his friend Charles and Marcee
and he attempts to ignore them. He got a work at Princeton as he was given permission by his old
friend and rival named Martin who grants him a work out of the library. Although, he still suffers
from having hallucinations, he is in the end was able to live with and ignore his psychotic
episodes. He eventually earns the privilege of teaching back again. He was honored by his fellow
professors at the university for his achievement in mathematics. He then goes on to win the
Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics for his revolutionary work on game theory.
FILM ANALYSIS

In the movie, A Beautiful Mind, the mental or psychological disorder that was featured was
Schizophrenia. The main character named John Nash manifested episodes of hallucinations and
delusions throughout the movie. Schizophrenia altered John's overall personality which
eventually affected his life, career and his relationship with other people. John can see, hear
and talk to three different persona in the movie and one thing noticeable is that these person
do not age and they never change their outfits. After the incident, he was chased by an agent
named William Parcher who is an armed man. He got really scared for his own safety and for
his family. His wife begun to noticed his bizarre behavior. One day he was caught by a
psychiatrist and brought to a psychiatric facility and that was the time he was diagnosed with
Schizophrenia.

His wife felt upset of his condition as she was told by the doctor.. She desperately looked for
evidences and she investigated what really happened to her husband. She went to visit his office
and caught a bunch of cut and torn newspapers containing the documents that concerns the
government in which John thought was a secret task that he was assigned to do. This led her to
the abandoned house where John used to go to and send the confidential files that he compiled
and discovered. She noticed the mailbox and opened it, she saw unopened files. She went back
to the psychiatric facility and showed the files to John to convince him that he was really
hallucinating. John denied it at first because for him, all of the events that happened were all
true. He undergone therapy to help relieve his mental condition.

At some point in the movie, John is experiencing Lucid Interval and as time went by, he tried to
live normally even if he still experiences the manifestation of schizophrenia. He can still see
William Parcher the agent who gave him his top secret assignment, his best friend Charles and
the young niece of Charles named Marcee. Until one day when he and his wife Alicia thought
that he can already go through his life and get back to his work, he learned to live normally as
much as he could. He accepted his mental condition and came back to teaching again. However,
he can still see them during episodes of hallucinations. Nevertheless, he chose to ignore it and
just thanked them as he said goodbye to them instead. He lived happily with his wife Alicia.
Even with this condition, he still managed to live his life together with his wife and their baby
who almost drowned halfway in the movie. In the last part of the movie, he received a Nobel
Prize Award in the field of Economic Sciences in Stockholm, Sweden. He delivered a heart-
warming speech about his greatest discovery and to his wife. This movie is based on a true
story, about a brilliant mathematician who struggled to live with schizophrenia but was able to
overcome the major changes that it brought to his life, family and career. This movie proves
that psychological disorders are real and people who struggle with schizophrenia and other
mental conditions should be valued and appreciated by the society.