Surreal Life

Surreal Life

Have you ever had a dream which seemed so real that when you woke up you had to take a minute or two to decide whether it was real or not? Well, imagine living over half of your life only to find one day that it was all a lie, that what was reality to you was not for everyone else. In the movie “A Beautiful Mind” written by Akiva Goldsman and directed by Ron Howard with Russell Crowe as the protagonist of the biographical film. Crowe plays John Nash, a man who develops schizophrenia while attending Princeton University as a graduate student.

John Nash is a very intelligent young man who receives the prestigious Carnegie prize for mathematics. The university had told him that he would have a room to himself but to his surprise when he arrived at his room another man, Charles is moving in as well. Nash later tells Charles that he is better with numbers than with people, which comes as no surprise due to his friendship with other students at the university was very awkward and talking to women does not come easy for him.

As the recipient of the Carnegie prize, Nash is under increasing pressure to seek a truly original idea for his thesis paper. Finally, he is inspired to the concept of governing dynamics which is a theory in mathematical economics. Once finished with his studies at Princeton, Nash is hired at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). At MIT, Nash teaches a class on calculus where he eventually falls in love with one of his students, Alicia Larde, played by Jennifer Connelly. Nash and Larde eventually get married.

Later, Nash returns to Princeton on a visit, there he runs into his former roommate Charles who is accompanied by his young niece Marcee. He also encounters a Department of Defense agent, William Parcher. Parcher invites Nash to a secret United States Department of Defense facility located in the Pentagon. There Nash is to “crack” an encryption of an enemy telecommunication, which he is successful at. One day Nash’s wife goes to his office where she finds newspaper and magazine clippings all around the office, from top to bottom and all over the walls. Concerned with his odd behavior, Alicia decides to inform a psychiatric hospital about it. Eventually, Nash is taken to the psychiatric hospital where he informs the doctors that the Soviets are trying to extract information from him. In his mind, Nash views the officials of the psychiatric facility as Soviet kidnappers. The doctors diagnose Nash as a schizophrenic who has visual hallucinations. Alicia and the doctors try to convince Nash that what he believes about the Soviets is not true but he is not convinced.

Bessie Head’s novel, “A Question of Power,” is about a young woman, Elizabeth, who suffers from hallucinations, similar to those of John Nash.  Elizabeth is different in a sense because she “knows” and understands that the individual whom she “sees” are not real.  Unlike Nash, Elizabeth can control the hallucinations somewhat better by ignoring them when she is talking to other people.  Both Nash and Elizabeth are troubled individuals that are affected negatively due to their mental illnesses.

Years pass by and Nash is now taking medication to ignore his psychotic episodes. The medication works but one of the side effects is that he is not able to think and use his mind like he used to. Eventually Nash stops taking his medication and triggers a relapse of his psychosis. Nash finally realizes that although he is aging, Marcee is not and that is when he recognizes that it is only a figment of his hallucinations.

Elizabeth’s also finds a way out of her hallucinations by making friends and talking to them about her suffering.  “I need to talk to someone, because there’s a terrible pain inside.”  (pg 189) she says to Tom, one of the individuals who she opens up to about the people who she sees, Dan and Sello.  For Elizabeth and Nash finding people who cared about them really helped them deal with the unfortunate situation which they were in.  Tom was the key out of hell for Elizabeth’s pain and Nash found that his friends and wife were the reason for which he was not institutionalized in a hospital, instead he lived a more normal and happy life.

In the end Nash earns the privilege do to what he most loves to do and that is teach again. Shortly after returning to teach Nash is honored by his peers and receives the Nobel Prize in Economics for his work on game theory. This story proves what an individual can overcome through modern medicine and self will. Nash was able to deal with his inner demons and move forward with his life alongside his wife Alicia. This story also teaches everyone else a lesson about dealing with individuals with mental illnesses and why they need to love and support these individuals so they can cope with their illness. It’s amazing what one can accomplish when self motivated and surrounded by a good group of people.