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long last, Hollywood ‘gets it’
Jacqueline
Shannon
Something extraordinary is happening. Four Golden Globe awards partly tell the
story. Although Oscar nominations won’t be announced until March, “A
Beautiful Mind” is clearly a real winner, according to many of its toughest
critics — people with mental illnesses and their families.
Directed by Ron Howard and starring Russell Crowe, “A Beautiful Mind” is
based on the book of the same title, written by Sylvia Nasar.
It’s about a Princeton University professor who won the Nobel Prize in 1994
for pioneering “game theory” that’s been used in everything from nuclear
war strategy to labor negotiations. For much of his life, however, John Forbes
Nash Jr. suffered from schizophrenia, a severe
mental illness that includes delusions and hallucinations.
For Hollywood, “A Beautiful Mind” represents a breakthrough of historic
proportions. Although Nash’s story has been fictionalized, with some rough
edges smoothed over, the movie speaks many truths. It is authentic. It hits home
for anyone who has experienced mental illness like my family and like the other
members of our local NAMI group. As one person said, “They get it! Hollywood
actually gets it!”
Too often, people with mental illnesses are stereotyped or ignored. Movies
and television often portray them as violent — even though in reality they are
no more violent than the rest of the population, and actually are three to six
times more likely to be victims of violence.
In “A Beautiful Mind,” however, Nash is the hero, and a genuine picture of
mental illness emerges. Russell Crowe’s facial expressions, demeanor and
gestures are true to life. Under Howard’s direction, the movie also takes
audiences inside the mind of someone struggling to separate reality from
delusions. It is a sensitive, compassionate portrayal, based on facts.
The movie is provoking discussion about mental illness among people who
previously never gave it much thought. Opening people’s minds. Changing the
way they think. One friend told me, “I never understood before how real a
delusion can be for someone with a brain disorder, and how devastating it can be
to live with hallucinations.”
“A Beautiful Mind” also helps to demonstrate that mental illnesses can be
treated successfully. Among the many factors that contribute to Nash’s
recovery:
 | Being treated with dignity and respect.
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| The vital role of medication and the risks of discontinuing treatment. In
the movie, Nash’s hallucinations return when he stops taking his pills.
Later, newer medicines help him to manage his illness, even though the
hallucinations never disappear entirely.
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| Faith and hope. In the movie, Alicia Nash (Jennifer Connally) proclaims,
“I need to believe that something extraordinary is
possible.” For many families, extraordinary things have resulted from
scientific advances. Hope endures for a cure for schizophrenia.
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| Support from family, friends, and others.
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| Community reintegration, which Nash in the movie calls “fitting in,
being a part of a community … attachment to familiar places” when he
asks Princeton University for permission to “hang around.”
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| The tremendous importance of employers who, like Princeton, go the extra
mile to accommodate a person with a mental illness and find a way to utilize
their talents.
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In the movie, Nash survives because of his wife’s love and devotion. In
real life, they divorced in 1963, but their relationship remained
strong. In fact, Nash lived with Alicia during most of the intervening years and
together they faced the challenges of not only his illness,
but their son’s, who was also diagnosed with schizophrenia.
Last year, at the age of 71, Nash remarried Alicia, who is 68. Brian Glazer, the
producer of the movie, said, “John Nash’s victory wasn’t
only that he beat schizophrenia or that he won the Nobel prize. The victory in
the movie and in his life is how the love between him and
Alicia survived and grew and evolved.”
In the summer of 2000, I had the opportunity to meet John and Alicia Nash, when
NAMI presented him an award honoring his achievements. The truth of his story
and the movie is that it is a tribute to everyone who struggles with mental
illness — to their inherent dignity, courage, hope and even in the face of
impossible odds, the ultimate triumph of the human spirit.
Even in the face of tragic illness, extraordinary things happen.
San Angeloan Jacqueline Shannon is immediate past president of the National
Alliance for the Mentally Ill.
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