The purpose of this paper is to introduce, discuss, and analyze the film "A Beautiful Mind" directed by Ron Howard. Specifically it will discuss an analysis of how the character deals with a mental health disorder. This film is based on the true story of John F. Nash, Jr. a mathematician and winner of the Nobel Prize who also was diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic. Nash was hospitalized in several institutions involuntarily and voluntarily, and would often become rational enough to be released, and then relapse. His symptoms included bizarre behavior such his belief in an elaborate "spy network" where he believes he is solving Soviet codes for the U.S. government. He also began hearing things and seeing things that other people did not see or hear. In his paranoia, he believes the television is talking to him, and he creates a beautiful woman who appears often throughout his life but is not real. He behaves erratically enough that he is taken forcibly to a psychiatric facility, and the facility doctors are the ones that make his diagnosis. .

             His illness affected his life in a variety of ways. In effect, he "lost" thirty years of his life to the illness, because he could not think clearly, and he would have bouts of lucid time and bouts where he would fall back into paranoid schizophrenic behavior. For example, after he stops taking his medication because it clouds his thinking process, he nearly drowns his son by believing there is an imaginary person watching the baby in the bathtub. What is most amazing is that after many years, Nash regained his lucidity, and began teaching again. He is not cured, but he manages his illness, and even checks himself to make sure the people he "sees" are real. He still keeps an office at Princeton University, and he won the Nobel Prize for Economics in 1994. .

             How does the character cope with the symptoms of his disease? Some people would say that he does not cope well at all, because he stops taking his medication, and literally cannot function normally for decades.