A Brilliant Madness Essay Example

incident, Nash interrupted a lecture to announce he was on the cover of Life Magazine disguised as Pope John Paul the XXIII, he declared he knew this because 23 was his favourite number. As things became more unusual, Nash was then offered a prestigious position from the University of Chicago, which he had quickly declined because he stated he was going to be the Emperor of Antarctica.

The DSM-IV also states that individuals with Paranoid type schizophrenia may experience episodes of catatonic behaviour, in Nash’s case this was observed when Nash decided to dress up as a baby, while disturbingly sitting on Alicia’s lap at a party. Through Nash’s unexplainable and “weird” behaviour he portrays several qualities that the DSM-IV regards as schizophrenic. On the contrary, there are aspects of schizophrenia that the DSM-IV over looks. During a diagnosis, the DSM-IV doesn’t acknowledge Axis 4 and 5, both incorporating psychosocial and environmental problems that may have been an onset to the symptoms that Nash was experiencing.

For example: as a child Nash’s mother chose to home school him; taking him away from a social environment, which may have caused a sense of isolation. This could have very well triggered to Nash’s lack of friendships and the incident where he refused to socialize with others when he attended the party with Alicia. The DSM-IV doesn’t look at an individual beyond the medical approach. Anti-psychotic medications can only do so much for a patient suffering from schizophrenia. During Nash’s experience with anti-psychotic medications he said they made him feel “lifeless”.

Following this feeling of insensibility, Nash decided to withdrawal from his medication. Over time he practiced controlling his own thought

and behaviour through a sense of will power until, not only himself, but others as well started to notice a positive change in his performance. One of the phases in the DSM-IV is “Prodromal, which states that the illness starts with slow changes in personality,” (PowerPoints) though many people who interacted with Nash continually stated that it seemed like his personality changed within a week; his hallucinations were becoming more frequent and quickly.

The DSM-IV also fails to state how an individual should be treated outside of a medical approach; it also fails to acknowledge that people suffering from such illness’ may be treated through acts of care and sensitivity. For the duration of Nash’s stay in the hospital, he was essentially tortured; given shots of insulin numerous times a day, dropping his blood sugar to an ultimate low, where it had then lead him into copious amounts a comas and seizures. Furthermore, the DSM-IV doesn’t seem to take into consideration the long term effects of their medications.

Putting an individual into comas and seizures may lead to more server factors such as brain damage, memory failure, etc. , which may generate more adverse affects for the individual. Looking at both the validations and the flaws towards the DSM-IV as a diagnosis method, it seems to raise some legitimate points, but it also fails to look at the individual as a whole. “When tragedy strikes, one of the things that make life bearable for people is the sympathy of friends and relatives” (The Inner World of Madness; Page 30)

People were not designed to work alone, but to maintain a stabilized lifestyle with the help f others. Rather

than several dosages of medication, the key to a safer and healthier path to stability would be through a social work approach, as it focuses on the person, while not judging them or being bias based on their diagnosis. The approach stresses on the individual’s life experiences that may have triggered such “madness”. Discussing with Nash his strengths would have been a vital step towards positively helping his stability.

Strengths such as the fact that he was brilliant, won the highest mathematician award several times, has a family who cared for him etc. would give him a better sense of motivation and help him to gain control over his own life. In the film, Alicia took on a social work approach when she brought Nash into her care after he had been hospitalized and left with nowhere to go. She took him in with hope that she could help him to regain stability and become empowered. This approach gives the individual the feeling of comfort and hope towards “normalizing”, a feeling that most don’t get when they are held captive in a hospital or home. “It is up to each individual to take responsibility for his or her own wellness.

When the individual’s perspective changes from reaching out to be saved, to gaining the power to heal themselves, the recovery tends to increase dramatically”. As a social worker, we are simply there to support the clients own decisions and present them with positive guidance, the true goal is to give the individual the chance to take over and feel like they are ready to help themselves. Moreover, we are there to educate those like Nash, so that

they are aware of their illness, making it easier for them to take the first step to stability.

To fully understand the behaviour of someone like Nash, throwing him into a mental hospital is not benefiting anyone. It is highly effective to research possible family problems, health problems, work problems, oppression/injustice etc. that may have lead him to this illness. The focus is on the “social matrix within the client’s problems,” (PowerPoints) it takes on a humanitarian approach, providing people like Nash with a shoulder of support and guidance, being able to hold a bond using empathetic skills to make the individual feel as if they are not alone.

It is the people who treated Nash like a human being that helped him remerge. In conclusion, the DSM-IV may have strong rationales for the diagnosis of a mental illness; however it can over look major factors in an individual, such as Nash. Ultimately, a social work approach stresses the most positive steps towards stability. “The idea that someone who had been mentally ill and impoverished and really on the fringes of society for decades was being considered for a Noble Prize, this was truly amazing” (A Brilliant Madness). Nash may have been an individual suffering from schizophrenia, but he was still a brilliant mind.