A Beautiful Mind...
I strongly recommend A Beautiful Mind to those who have not watched it yet, and to those who watched it already, watch it again. It's really, really, beautiful. I've forgotten that I watched it years ago, tv premiere in Malaysia, but I remembered it when the movie reached the part where John Nash 'sees' the little girl, Marcee, along with his 'friend', Charles.
Oh man. This movie moved me to tears again. To tell the truth, I have not cried for so long from watching a movie, somehow I felt rejuvenated after a little outburst of tears. I don't really want to write a summary of the movie here. I just want to write out some thoughts and learning points of mine about schizophrenia, combining schoolwork and observations from the movie itself.
Well, as I've learnt, John Nash has paranoid schizophrenia, which meant that he's always extremely suspicious of other people's actions, thinking that they are conspiring against him and so on. This is added on to his delusion that he's working for the government in top-secret operations, and also his hallucinations -- Charles, Marcee and Parcher. It intrigued me immensely that he even managed to survive until now, with a Nobel prize in the bag. This proves that having schizophrenia, (which is 'split mind' in layman terms), doesn't really affect a person's intelligence ( though I believe that having a brain that is too intelligent may have caused schizophrenia too). These patients just lack the ability to differentiate between what's real and what's in their mind, which is the reason that caused them to panic and show signs of distress when they can't even recall the source of certain information they knew or were thinking about. To me, this is scary, to not be able to know how did I know this, why did I think that way. I'm curious to see how are the catatonic patients like since John doesn't have that symptom. I shall leave out the rest of my summative thoughts...[insulin shocks, pink medication]
Anyway, I just felt a little disappointed when I found out that Alicia, in real life, did not stick by him through thick and thin. Though this is pardonable, but I was so touched from the movie that she gave him support when he needed it most, to then find out that it did not happen this way in the actual story is just sad.
(Quite)A few quotes to share:
Nash: Classes will dull your mind, destroy the potential for authentic creativity.
- That's applicable to geniuses only.
Nash: There has to be a mathematical explanation for how bad that tie is.
- This scene was amazing! I loved how they made it so beautifully, with the sunlight and the pattern.
Nash: I've made the most important discovery of my life. It's only in the mysterious equation of love that any logical reasons can be found. I'm only here tonight because of you. You are the only reason I am... you are all my reasons.
- Being a girl, of course I find this a very indulging speech. And it's also from the scene where I cried the hardest.
Alicia: I need to believe, that something extraordinary is possible.
- Where she didn't leave John. An affirmation of love and trust.
Nash: They are my past. Everyone is haunted by their past.
- I like this response to Hansen's question about John's hallucinations.
Hansen: No. They were wrong, John. No one wins.
- Ultimately. There are always give's and take's in life.
Nash: I've gotten used to ignoring them and I think, as a result, they've kind of given up on me. I think that's what it's like with all our dreams and our nightmares, Martin, we've got to keep feeding them for them to stay alive.
- Great insight to his own condition. His hallucinations just followed him silently, and made no more attempts to engage him.
Dr. Rosen: Imagine if you suddenly learned that the people, the places, the moments most important to you were not gone, not dead, but worse, had never been. What kind of hell would that be?
- Terrible. This is something like The Truman Show.
Charles: Mathematics... mathematics is never going to lead you to higher truth and you know why? Because it's boring!
- I totally agree with this! But what surprised me was that, how come Charles, a mathematician's hallucination, is saying that? I would've thought that being a product of John's mind, he would've been hallucinated as liking math too right?
Nash: Terrified. Mortified. Petrified. Stupefied... by you.
- I like the way he takes up Hansen's challenge. Very cool, though not so after he lost.
Oh man. This movie moved me to tears again. To tell the truth, I have not cried for so long from watching a movie, somehow I felt rejuvenated after a little outburst of tears. I don't really want to write a summary of the movie here. I just want to write out some thoughts and learning points of mine about schizophrenia, combining schoolwork and observations from the movie itself.
Well, as I've learnt, John Nash has paranoid schizophrenia, which meant that he's always extremely suspicious of other people's actions, thinking that they are conspiring against him and so on. This is added on to his delusion that he's working for the government in top-secret operations, and also his hallucinations -- Charles, Marcee and Parcher. It intrigued me immensely that he even managed to survive until now, with a Nobel prize in the bag. This proves that having schizophrenia, (which is 'split mind' in layman terms), doesn't really affect a person's intelligence ( though I believe that having a brain that is too intelligent may have caused schizophrenia too). These patients just lack the ability to differentiate between what's real and what's in their mind, which is the reason that caused them to panic and show signs of distress when they can't even recall the source of certain information they knew or were thinking about. To me, this is scary, to not be able to know how did I know this, why did I think that way. I'm curious to see how are the catatonic patients like since John doesn't have that symptom. I shall leave out the rest of my summative thoughts...[insulin shocks, pink medication]
Anyway, I just felt a little disappointed when I found out that Alicia, in real life, did not stick by him through thick and thin. Though this is pardonable, but I was so touched from the movie that she gave him support when he needed it most, to then find out that it did not happen this way in the actual story is just sad.
(Quite)A few quotes to share:
Nash: Classes will dull your mind, destroy the potential for authentic creativity.
- That's applicable to geniuses only.
Nash: There has to be a mathematical explanation for how bad that tie is.
- This scene was amazing! I loved how they made it so beautifully, with the sunlight and the pattern.
Nash: I've made the most important discovery of my life. It's only in the mysterious equation of love that any logical reasons can be found. I'm only here tonight because of you. You are the only reason I am... you are all my reasons.
- Being a girl, of course I find this a very indulging speech. And it's also from the scene where I cried the hardest.
Alicia: I need to believe, that something extraordinary is possible.
- Where she didn't leave John. An affirmation of love and trust.
Nash: They are my past. Everyone is haunted by their past.
- I like this response to Hansen's question about John's hallucinations.
Hansen: No. They were wrong, John. No one wins.
- Ultimately. There are always give's and take's in life.
Nash: I've gotten used to ignoring them and I think, as a result, they've kind of given up on me. I think that's what it's like with all our dreams and our nightmares, Martin, we've got to keep feeding them for them to stay alive.
- Great insight to his own condition. His hallucinations just followed him silently, and made no more attempts to engage him.
Dr. Rosen: Imagine if you suddenly learned that the people, the places, the moments most important to you were not gone, not dead, but worse, had never been. What kind of hell would that be?
- Terrible. This is something like The Truman Show.
Charles: Mathematics... mathematics is never going to lead you to higher truth and you know why? Because it's boring!
- I totally agree with this! But what surprised me was that, how come Charles, a mathematician's hallucination, is saying that? I would've thought that being a product of John's mind, he would've been hallucinated as liking math too right?
Nash: Terrified. Mortified. Petrified. Stupefied... by you.
- I like the way he takes up Hansen's challenge. Very cool, though not so after he lost.
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