My class has spent the last two weeks learning about mental illnesses and mental health. We reviewed a critical thinking case and abnormal psychology. We also went through the making of a basic mental exam before we go to create our own. Here is my mental exam for John Nash from A Beautiful Mind:
John Nash was diagnosed with schizophrenia early onto his illusions. His perception of the world is quite different to those of the healthy mind as his hallucination confuses him from what is around him. He sees people and has interactions with people (little girls, college roommates, and russian spies) that have never existed.
His perceptions are seen through hallucinations, which are auditory (woman at bar), Visual: russian spy, child, roommate, people always watching him. John’s thoughts resemble those of delusions (codes in everything and spies continuously watching him). Specifically Neologisms show he is a very smart man, but made up systems of cracking codes that really weren't there. He is fully conscious of where he is but has a bit of confusion on the details specifically. For example, he knew he was in a shed, but his hallucinations show him that the Russians are using it for coding. His orientation shows he doesn't quite grasp all three spheres of a person. He knows who he is and is alert with time. He checks off the person's sphere but lacks in the place. He is aware of his surroundings but hallucinations are more extreme situations than the ones present. His intelligence skyrockets as he thinks and views information more abstract and coded than the average mind. His judgement socially contradicts behavior in our society (ex: Acts childish after losing, doesn’t understand people are pranking him, laughs at damage). All of these examples show inappropriate and unexpected behavior to the people around him. His Affect may show a sense of being flat as he fully understands he does not like people. He does not care much about treating women at the bar as objects and almost experiments of his work. His medications dulled (flattened) his emotions to his wife. He could not grasp she was going through hard times herself. Physical complaints were not quite expressed other than lack of much feeling.
Diagnosis: John Nash is being diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. A patient with paranoid schizophrenia has characteristics of delusions and hallucinations. The separation of real life and fake is easily blurred and hard to overcome. He is diagnosed with paranoid as his symptoms are more severe than those of of the Catatonic. Catatonic schizophrenia patients shut down with everything physically, mentally, and emotionally (which John never directly did). He may show symptoms of undifferentiated schizophrenia as he doesn't show much emotion or motivation to please his wife or his life. He was constantly in a state of delusion and confusion. All of his symptoms line with those of the paranoid and slight undifferentiated(whether that be his social skill, reactions, emotions, and more).
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