Disturbia: A Beautiful Mind

John Forbes Nash Jr.

John Forbes Nash Jr. (June 13, 1928 – May 23, 2015) was an American mathematician who made fundamental contributions to game theory, differential geometry, and the study of partial differential equations. Nash’s work has provided insight into the factors that govern chance and decision-making inside complex systems found in everyday life.

His theories are widely used in economics. Serving as a Senior Research Mathematician at Princeton University during the later part of his life, he shared the 1994 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences with game theorists Reinhard Selten and John Harsanyi. In 2015, he also shared the Abel Prize with Louis Nirenbergfor his work on nonlinear partial differential equations.

John Nash is the only person to be awarded both the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences and the Abel Prize.

Mr. Nash was appointed a C.L.E. Moore instructor at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) in 1951. While at MIT, he solved a classical unsolved problem relating to differential geometry. He taught classes, and met and married MIT physics major Alicia Larde (S.B. 1955). And it was during his tenure at MIT that he began to be consumed by the disease that he would later almost miraculously overcome.

In 1959, Nash began showing clear signs of mental illness, and spent several years at psychiatric hospitals being treated for paranoid schizophrenia. After 1970, his condition slowly improved, allowing him to return to academic work by the mid-1980s. 

His struggles with his illness and his recovery became the basis for Sylvia Nasar’s biography, A Beautiful Mind, as well as a film of the same name starring Russell Crowe as Nash.

Paranoid Schizophrenia

Paranoid schizophrenia manifests itself in an array of symptoms. Common symptoms for paranoid schizophrenia include auditory hallucinations (hearing voices or sound effects) and paranoid delusions (believing everyone is out to cause the sufferer harm).

What are the symptoms of a paranoid schizophrenic? Symptoms can include:

• hallucinations and delusions.
• disorganized thinking.
• lack of motivation.
• slow movement.
• changes in sleep patterns.
• lack of attention to hygiene.
• changes in body language and emotions.
• lack of interest in social activities.

Disturbia

People are fascinated by people-especially when they are acting in a way that does not seem to make sense.

Unpredictability in a fellow human is as unsettling as unpredictability in the weather, especially during hurricane season, lol, and almost as dangerous.

Our ancestors lived in what could be perceived as a “small world” but now with the ‘world wide web’ the world had become very small.

In ancient civilizations, there were the spiritual leaders of the group whose job it was to diagnose and interpret the illnesses within the tribe.

They would then prescribe the appropriate antidote intended to ward off the problem so that the sufferer and the whole tribe could return to normal everyday life.

However, as the great civilizations emerged from places like Egypt, India, China, Greece and Mexico, the following two new professions were created.

The Physician group was responsible for physical health while the Priesthood was responsible for spiritual health.

A physician’s power comes from their ability to classify symptoms into meaningful categories.

A doctor’s knowledge conveys a comforting sense of order, predictability and control.

This along with time, a good bedside manner and the prescribe medications usually works for most patients.

During my ongoing research, I learnt that our personalities are a pattern of our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.

Outwardly we display our unique personalities in the special way we think, love, feel, make decisions, and take action.

If you think about it as I have- the extraordinary range of human personality is what lends special color to our lives and is the woven fabric of tragedies, comedies and melodramas.

The systematic study of personalities had its origins very early in the history of medicine and philosophy.

However, I don’t want to focus so much on that as I would like to highlight a few Personality Disorders.

Personality Disorders

According to Allen Frances, M.D. and Michael B. First, M.D. research on mental health, you have a Personality Disorder if:

• You have and enduring pattern of inner experience and behavior that puts you at odds with the expectations of the world around you.

This shows itself in the following ways:

1. How you perceive and understand yourself and others

2. How you respond emotionally

3. How you interact with people

4. How you control your impulses · You are unbending and inflexible and cannot adjust your behavior to the needs of a particular situation, activity, or relationship.

• Your personality problem started early in life (by adolescence or early adulthood) and has persisted in a pretty stable way over time.
• Your personality is upsetting to you or limits your success at school, at work, or in relationships
• The behavior is long-standing and is not caused by another chronic or recurrent psychiatric disorder, by a medical condition, or by substance use.

Having a personality disorder means you are not the kind of person who can adapt smoothly to the normal give and take of everyday life.

Instead you expect the world and people to change for you rather than being able to adjust to the requirements of different situations and relationships.

However, there is a silver lining in this otherwise stormy cloud.

I’ve learnt that some of the personality disorders’ characteristics can be adaptive and even necessary if they occur at the right time in the right place, and in the right measure.

Antisocial Personality Disorder

A person with Antisocial Personality Disorder is known for their ruthlessness and aggression, however that same tendency, if well-modulated may be your saving grace if that person is your trial lawyer, politician, corporate raider or combat hero.

Things that make you go Hhmmmm.

On these rare occasions when a personality disorder is combined with enormous talent and perhaps great luck, a world historical figure or a modern day tragic hero may emerge- but more often, these disorders create unfulfilled hopes and stormy relationships.

Dissociative Identity Disorder or Multiple Personality Disorder

The idea that people can have very distinct, independent and rapidly alternating personalities has captured the imagination of the general public and have been exploited on TV talk shows, written in books and have had all types of movies created.

Most of those suffering from true Dissociative Identity Disorder have been exposed in childhood to extremely traumatic events like chronic physical or sexual abuse, torture, or severe neglect.

Each personality fragment (usually referred to as an “alter”) develops its own characteristics and its own memories.

Often the person is not consciously aware of shifting from one personality fragment to the other and the evidence of multiple personality comes only when someone actually sees the change occur or from frequent gaps in memory that result from different personality fragments being active at different times.

The label “multiple personality disorder” is very stigmatizing and people labeled as such often feel less responsible for and in control of their behavior.

A Factitious Disorder

A Factitious disorder is the term used to describe when a person fakes their symptoms, or an illness in an attempt to maintain the role of a sick person.

People with these disorders may go through extraordinary lengths and elaborate means to falsify and fabricate medical histories, intentionally produce physical symptoms or bruises for illustrations or even take excessive amounts of medication which is suppose to be for the perceived illness.

Interestingly enough, Munchausen’s disorder is a classic example of a factitious disorder and was first describe in 1951.

According to studies done, the individual would intentionally produce physical symptoms or signs of a disorder but the disorder may also include self-inflicted wounds and the exaggeration of already existing conditions.

Munchausen’s Syndrome by Proxy

There is also Munchausen’s syndrome by proxy, and this is defined as the fabrication of an illness in a child by a parent (most often the mother).

Studies also believe that approximately 20% of the patients with Munchausen’s by proxy themselves, also had mothers who were diagnosed as having Munchausen’s syndrome.

However, knowledge is still power and we must be vigilant of people who blame their criminal or irresponsible behavior as the product of a mental disorder or victim-hood.

Unfortunately, the exploitation of these illnesses makes it very problematic for people and their loved ones who are actually suffering.