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Given the usefulness of visual effects in passing across an important message, movies have become an integral part through which society is educated on various issues. In modern days, entertainment scene, for instance, filmmakers use their skills to tell historical events, celebrate famous people, pass across political messages, or conduct public education on different diseases. A Beautiful Mind is a prime example of how movies have made a significant contribution in the field of mental health by demonstrating how a mathematical genius was also a social misfit due to schizophrenia. Social misfits barely adhere to the approved social cues and have little to no social skills. For non-schizophrenic persons, schizophrenic patients are often making mistakes in social interactions as they display flagrant disregard of acceptable social norms. Unfortunately, displaying socially unacceptable behavior by schizophrenic patients is unconscious, but they receive much judgment from others. Schizophrenic patients lead a sad life as delusions of grandeur, both audio and visual hallucinations, language disturbances, and social withdrawal unfairly turns them into social misfits
Despite their best attempts, schizophrenic patients do not have the ability to hold courteous conversations as delusions of grandeur turn them into social misfits. While delusions of grandeur are a common type of delusion among schizophrenic patients by affecting about half of them, there has been little progress made in clinical research. In schizophrenia, delusions of grandeur refer to unfounded beliefs that one possesses unique wealth, power, identity, or superiority over others (Isham et al., 2021). In A Beautiful Mind, John Nash experiences delusions of grandeur on different occasions when he inflates his sense of importance and superiority. A prime example is when he explains to Hansen, one of his classmates, that he is not only used to miscalculations but that his paper does not contain any innovative idea (Arfani, 2018). Due to their mental disability, schizophrenic patients ability to be remorseful for wrongful actions is replaced by delusions of grandeur. Ultimately, schizophrenic patients continuously offend their peers and are easily labeled as social misfits regardless of whether their utterances or actions were not deliberate.
Besides delusions of grandeur, hallucinations are another avenue through which schizophrenic patients unintentionally act as social misfits. Hallucinations lead individuals to perceive people, events, and things that may not be real. Consequently, hallucinations cause a person to interact with audio and visual perceptions that are non-existent. To a non-schizophrenic person, these audio and visual perceptions are non-existent, are easily distinguishable, and carry no meaning in their lives. However, schizophrenic patients do not have the ability to differentiate the real and imagined audio and visual perceptions in their lives, which deteriorates their ability to operate properly in any social space. In A Beautiful Mind, John Nash does not only hallucinate a roommate named Charles Herman, yet he has been admitted to a single occupancy room, but also about being part of a secret code-breaking operation led by agent William Parcher from the Department of Defense (Arfani, 2018). Hallucinations induce paranoia and lead to errant behavior among schizophrenic patients. While there are ways in which these effects can be mitigated, the overall effect of hallucinations makes schizophrenic patients be labeled as social misfits.
Unfortunately, hallucinations place limitations on most schizophrenic patients, yet there is little that has been done to alleviate the situation. Research has shown that while schizophrenic patients suffer from hallucinations, more than 70 percent of these are auditory (Hugdahl et al., 2008). As a result, most schizophrenic patients will interact with speech perceptions that do not have an external source while hallucinating more often than they would with visual perceptions. However, that does not underplay the seriousness and prevalence of hallucinations among schizophrenic patients. Unfortunately, for John Nash in A Beautiful Mind, he experiences a complex set of audio and visual hallucinations that become the core part of his life (Thacker, & Hughes, 2013). Evidently, there is sufficient research-based incentive to warrant more effort to be directed towards finding a solution to hallucinations for schizophrenic patients while simultaneously alleviating the social stigma of being seen as social misfits.
In addition to hallucinations, language disturbances experienced by schizophrenic patients unfairly make them appear as social misfits. Aberrant language occurs in more than 80% of schizophrenic patients and can present as abnormality in syntax, semantics, or phonology (De Boer et al., 2020). While language disturbances may not be apparent in all patients, they may present in the form of abnormal speech. For most schizophrenic patients, language disorders occur as a symptom of schizophrenia-induced psychosis (Arfani, 2018). In A Beautiful Mind, John Nashs language disorder is highlighted by Mercy, who is Charles Hermans niece, when she explains that the formers speech is funny (Howard, 2001). With language being an integral part of how people interact with each other, social interactions automatically become harder for schizophrenic patients. Unfortunately for schizophrenic patients, language disturbances lead to inconsistent social behavior hence the label of social misfits.
Additionally, schizophrenia-induced social withdrawal is another avenue where patients unfairly earn their tag as social misfits. Social withdrawal is a common sign of social dysfunction that is popular in neuropsychiatric disorders where people tend to remove themselves from opportunities for peer interaction (Van der Wee et al., 2019). Social withdrawal is practiced by schizophrenic patients both consciously and unconsciously and opens up avenues for hallucinations to further torment them. Nash opens up to his roommate Charles when he tells him that he does not like people and they do not like him too (Arfani, 2018). Nashs statement reiterates that the idea of discomfort experienced by schizophrenic persons in social environments. Since there is no known permanent treatment for schizophrenia, social withdrawal continues to debilitate patients. In the end, cruelty from the outside world and persons who do not care for schizophrenic patients use such an avenue to label them as social misfits.
In conclusion, schizophrenia is one of the most common mental disabilities and is associated with some form of stigma. More specifically, schizophrenic patients are largely labeled as social misfits due to their inability to act in ways that are seen as normal. Their compromised social skills are based on their symptoms, with social withdrawal, language difficulty, hallucinations, and delusions of grandeur being the most common culprits. Unfortunately, for schizophrenic patients, their symptoms cause them to perform socially offensive acts both consciously and subconsciously. The situation is further complicated by the lack of medication and a public that does not understand the plight of living with schizophrenia. A Beautiful Mind is not only an inspirational movie but also one that educates the public on how difficult it is to live with the tag of social misfit that is attached to schizophrenia. Despite his mathematical genius, John Nash did not overcome the tag of a social misfit, which further reinforces the impact of schizophrenia.
References
Arfani, S. A. (2018). The schizophrenia in the main character of a beautiful mind movie directed by Ron Howard. Wanastra: Jurnal Bahasa dan Sastra, 10(1), 9-16. Web.
De Boer, J. N., Voppel, A. E., Brederoo, S. G., Wijnen, F. N., & Sommer, I. E. (2020). Language disturbances in schizophrenia: The relation with antipsychotic medication. Nature Partner Journals, 6(1), 1-9. Web.
Howard, R. (2001). A Beautiful Mind. [Film]. Universal Pictures
Hugdahl, K., Løberg, E., Specht, K., Steen, V., Van Wageningen, H., & Jørgensen, H. (2008). Auditory hallucinations in schizophrenia: The role of cognitive, brain structural and genetic disturbances in the left temporal lobe. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 1(6), 1-10. Web.
Isham, L., Griffith, L., Boylan, A., Hicks, A., Wilson, N., Byrne, R., Sheaves, B., Bentall, R. P., & Freeman, D. (2019). Understanding, treating, and renaming grandiose delusions: A qualitative study. Psychology and Psychotherapy: Theory, Research and Practice, 94(1), 119-140. Web.
Thacker, M., & Hughes, C. (2013). Movie review: A beautiful mind. Mental Health Clinician, 2(8), 246-247. Web.
Van der Wee, N. J., Bilderbeck, A. C., Cabello, M., Ayuso-Mateos, J. L., Saris, I. M., Giltay, E. J., Penninx, B. W., Arango, C., Post, A., & Porcelli, S. (2019). Working definitions, subjective and objective assessments and experimental paradigms in a study exploring social withdrawal in schizophrenia and Alzheimers disease. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 97, 38-46. Web.
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