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Russell Crowe (left) plays John Forbes Nash Jr. in "A Beautiful Mind." Ed Harris is on his right.

Crowe has been hailed for his accurate depiction of mental illness in "A Beautiful Mind."

Gannett News Service
John Nash Jr., standing, and Alicia Nash, third from right, are shown in this undated file photo. Nash is the central figure in the motion picture "A Beautiful Mind."

Beautiful minds

South Sound mental health community reacts to film's look at schizophrenia

SARAH JACKSON, THE OLYMPIAN

Originally published Sunday, February 3, 2002

OLYMPIA -- Dan Bennett has his own TV show -- two, actually.

Airing regularly on Thurston County Television, Bennett's goofy shows focus on mental illness awareness.

While Bennett offers updates on more serious issues in "Mental Health News," his other show, "That's Just Crazy," mixes education with humor when he talks in a fake Texas accent.

"I just go over something different -- transportation, housing, psychosis, trials," Bennett said, "targeting anyone who's interested in mental health issues."

This is how Bennett fights his own severe depression, how he hopes to educate the public about mental problems and illnesses such as schizoaffective disorder, an illness his partner, Cheri Hall, has lived with -- survived, really -- most of her life.

But there are bigger guns in entertainment than Bennett and, this time, that might be just fine.

Bennett -- as part of an Olympian reader panel of South Sound citizens connected to the mental health system -- watched "A Beautiful Mind."

It's a movie, some say, that has already changed the face of mental illness.

Citing the film's accurate portrayal of schizophrenia, the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill has dedicated part of its Web site to accolades for "A Beautiful Mind" -- calling it "an Historic, Authentic Achievement" and accurate portrayal of "an illness which is too often misunderstood and marked by stigma in popular culture."

Directed by Ron Howard, the Hollywood blockbuster biopic was inspired by the life of John Forbes Nash Jr., a Princeton mathematician who developed schizophrenia in his 20s.

Nash struggled with the illness for 30 years but eventually recovered and, in 1994, won the Nobel Prize for his work's influence on economics.

"Our members are the movie's toughest critics," said NAMI executive director Richard Birkel. " 'A Beautiful Mind' is a breakthrough of historic proportions. Although John Nash's story has been fictionalized, with some edges smoothed over, the essential portrayal is realistic. For our community, it hits home. It speaks many truths."

Today Nash works as a senior research mathematician in the Department of Mathematics at Princeton, where he recently received a National Science Foundation grant to pursue further research on economic theory.

Stigma

Though Bennett will keep doing his TV shows, he believes Russell Crowe's performance in "A Beautiful Mind" may ease the stigma of schizophrenia and other mental illnesses.

"It will shed a more favorable light on schizophrenia than any other movie I've seen so far," Bennett said. "A brilliant director creates a brilliant movie that not only is inspiring, but it doesn't depict someone with a mental illness as a monster."

Bennett believes next time people see a woman on the bus talking to herself, they might be more compassionate.

"There might be a glimmer of understanding or acceptance," Bennett, of Olympia, said, "if for no other reason, (the movie) describes what a person experiences."

Hallucinations

Suffice it to say, "A Beautiful Mind" shows Nash's hallucinations to be unmistakably real and, at first, likeable.

Though the real Nash has said he experienced primarily auditory hallucinations, the film employs visual hallucinations -- people, places, things.

Hall, diagnosed with bipolar disorder as well as schizoaffective disorder, knows firsthand how real hallucinations feel.

"It's just like someone's there," Hall said. "There's no difference. I liked that part (of the movie). His hallucinations were so real."

Hall -- in the past six years -- has made immense advances in her recovery.

At last, after enduring devastating side effects of many anti-psychotic drugs, she's on the right medication, the kind she can take without extreme fatigue, constant fidgeting, weight gain or unbearable numbness.

Two years ago, testing revealed her allergies to wheat, pork, beef and many other foods, and changes in her diet have helped, too.

Now she works part-time at the Thurston Mason Regional Support Network and plans to attend South Puget Sound Community College.

Still, Hall remembers hallucinations, how real they seemed, how drastic some of the voices' demands.

Hall experienced auditory hallucinations, which are generally more common among people with schizophrenia.

Though it hasn't happened in years -- voices sounding somewhat like a male, God-type figure -- told Hall to kill herself, to sacrifice herself to save other people, such as the people in plane crashes on TV.

Sometimes when those people died, Hall was convinced it was her fault because the commanding voices -- coming from somewhere behind her -- said so.

Delusions

Hall's delusions -- a symptom of schizophrenia -- seemed real, too.

"It's not even based in reality," Hall said. "(Once) I thought I was a baker and I thought I had to deliver cakes."

Susan Stone of Olympia, also working to recover from schizoaffective disorder, said she used to experience delusions in which she thought people around her were angels.

"It wasn't voices," Stone said. "I believed I was communicating with these people."

Nash's delusions in the film mix with his hallucinations, and they begin to run his life.

Nash's wife, Alicia Nash (played by Jennifer Connelly), doesn't notice a problem until his symptoms escalate.

Support

Phyllis Congilosi, a registered nurse in the psychiatric ward at Providence St. Peter Hospital, said the film portrayed the illness well, but also showed the power of loved ones -- especially through Connelly's portrayal of Nash's wife.

"She was a magnificent woman," Congilosi said, "to stick with him all those years and see him through it. The message of love is true."

Stone believed the movie offered some hope for Nash, who eventually stood in a tuxedo at a podium to accept his Nobel Prize.

"I thought he was going to be a little house husband," Stone said. "I was so relieved at the part when they acknowledged him. They didn't throw him out with the bathwater."

Congilosi said Crowe's portrayal of Nash as a schizophrenic was accurate right down to his gestures and abnormal walk -- caused presumably by Thorazine, a common anti-psychotic drug used during Nash's time and still in more limited use today.

"What that movie showed was the pain and suffering," Congilosi said. "He did his homework -- the affect changes, the gait."

Therapy

Valerie Hammett, a licensed mental health counselor at Behavior Health Resources in Lacey, said she fears people may make generalizations about schizophrenia after seeing the move.

"This was this person's story and just a piece of who he was," Hammett said. "It doesn't change every part of you."

Hammett said people often find it easier to ignore people with mental illness than regard them as individuals.

Nash's character -- early on -- is established as a man with intelligence and charisma despite his withdrawn personality.

Crowe's Nash was engaging, loveable, likeable.

"He's still himself with this piece," Hammett said, "a lot of people wish it wasn't true."

Chante Ramirez of Tumwater, who has suffered from severe depression since she was 10, said there's only so much Hollywood can do with a movie.

Ramirez fears people will continue to group everyone with mental illness -- from depression to schizophrenia -- together.

"People need to understand that everyone is different," Ramirez said, "that everyone needs individual care."

Ramirez, on and off a wide variety of difficult medications, is still working on treatment and solutions for her life.

"They didn't show any counseling," Ramirez said of "A Beautiful Mind." "I don't want people walking into the movie and saying -- it's that easy."

Hammett said all kinds of things can affect the brain -- internal and external forces -- including talk therapy.

"We don't listen to the client enough," Hammett added in regard to medication and therapy. "I think the clients have more answers than we do."

Accuracy, influence

Dr. John Haws, who has practiced psychiatry since the late 1960s, earned his undergraduate degree at Princeton.

Today he works at Providence St. Peter Hospital, where he treats a variety of patients, including those with schizophrenia.

Haws also found the depictions of the illness accurate.

"It looked to me like there was a lot of consultations with medical professionals," Haws said. "They portrayed his delusions system very well."

Though Haws said "A Beautiful Mind" is one of the best movies he's ever seen, he's not optimistic about the film's ability to change public attitudes.

"I've very skeptical that any portrayal of mental illness lasts too long with the public," Haws said. "I think it could help, but I don't think it'll have a massive effect.

"People are very frightened of people that have mental illnesses. When it comes to the psychosis, it's still relegated to 'Let's not associate with them.' "

"(A) schizophrenic isn't just a crazy person 24 hours a day. They can hold jobs, they can maintain daily living."

Medication

While the film makes a direct comment about the danger of going off medication, it also addresses the sometimes unbearable side effects Nash's character endured, such as a mental numbness and loss of sexual appetite.

Nash's delusions and hallucinations return with a vengeance when he stops taking medication.

Haws agrees going off medications -- even if the patient feels better -- can often land the schizophrenic person back in the hospital.

"They start feeling better. They start functioning better and they go off their meds just like he did," Haws said of Nash's character. "For the chronic schizophrenic, that's a disaster."

Many doctors have criticized Nash's medical treatment in the film in which the character is subjected to what today is an outdated, unused insulin therapy.

Still, Haws points out, that technique -- which causes violent convulsions -- was used during Nash's time.

"I think he (Ron Howard) was trying to teach, to portray Nash's world," Haws said. "I felt that the (overall) psychiatric treatment was very caring."

Awareness

Bill Pilkey, president of the NAMI Thurston-Mason County affiliate and state NAMI board treasurer, said he believes the movie could improve acceptance and tolerance of mentally ill people.

But as long as mental health disorders go underfunded -- especially compared to medical health coverage for physical illnesses -- solutions and recovery will come slowly and with casualties.

"It's going to get worse. We're going to see more Kent DeBoers," Pilkey said, recalling an incident in which DeBoer, an Olympia man diagnosed as a schizophrenic, was critically wounded by police during a psychotic episode brought on in part by changes in his medication.

"My biggest concern or impression of the movie -- How many more thousand of beautiful minds out there in our own area are being overlooked? We're going to see more and more people lose the opportunity to get better."

There are success stories and reasons for hope, however, Pilkey said.

NAMI's Thurston-Mason County board boasts three people with serious mental illness such as schizophrenia who work in professional settings and run their own businesses.

"I think -- John Nash -- the movie about him could be done about many, many people," said Pilkey.

"Unfortunately those with schizophrenia, quite a few of those are very, very brilliant people and that's a great loss to our society as well as to their families and to themselves."

Though the real Nash isn't the same as the Nash in the movie, Pilkey believes there's power in the message.

"I think with the more awards this movie gets the more people will want to see it and realize that John Nash is a human being," Pilkey said. "He's a person with skills, talents, with hopes, with fears, with concerns, with frustration just like everybody else."

Sarah Jackson writes for The Olympian and can be reached at 360-704-6871 or olyjax@yahoo.com.

Resources

- National Alliance for the Mentally Ill: www.nami.org.

- Autobiography by John F. Nash Jr.: www.nobel.se/economics/laureates/1994/nash-autobio.html.

- Read the Princeton Weekly Bulletin's interview with John Nash Jr.: www.princeton.edu/pr/pwb/01/1210/1b.shtml.

- Internet Movie Database: http://us.imdb.com/Title?0268978.

- The movie: A Beautiful Mind http://www.abeautifulmind.com/.

Schizophrenia

- Schizophrenia is a brain disorder that affects approximately 2 million Americans. It can affect anyone at any age, but most cases develop between adolescence and age 30.

- Untreated, schizophrenia impairs a person's ability to think clearly, manage his or her emotions, make decisions and relate to others. Schizophrenia left untreated also can result in hospitalization to treat severe delusions or hallucinations, serious suicidal inclinations, inability to care for oneself or severe problems with drugs or alcohol.

The Olympian Copyright 2002

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