Schizophrenia is a disease that affects many people today and although medications can help alleviate the symptoms there is no known cure for the disease. There are a multitude of portrayals of schizophrenia in the media. This article will focus on A Beautiful Mind; a film centered on John Forbes Nash Jr. Nash was a mentally gifted individual. He attended Princeton and his mathematical work greatly changed society. In the film, Russell Crowe played John Nash in A Beautiful Mind. Throughout the film Crowe did an amazing job of depicting the multiple symptoms of schizophrenia. Within this article I will focus on positive symptoms, negative symptoms, positive hallucinations, drug effects, and the time period of the disease depicted in the film. The film shows many positive symptoms of schizophrenia such as delusions of grandeur, delusions of influence, and persecutory delusions. Positive symptoms of schizophrenia are symptoms present in an individual due to the illness. In the film, Nash hallucinates an individual named William Parcher, played by Ed Harris. Parcher works for the United States Department of Defense. He enlists Nash's help in cracking a Russian code and finding a portable atomic bomb. The whole portable atomic bomb situation is a figment of Nash's mind. This specific illusion falls into the category of delusions of grandeur. The illusion of grandeur involves an individual starting to think more highly of himself and believing that he is more important than other individuals in society. Nash believes he is the most gifted mathematician and the only individual capable of deciphering the Russian codes hidden in ordinary written media. During a mul...... middle of paper ......le to concisely communicate one's feelings to another interlocutor. While there are individuals who have difficulty communicating, there are individuals like John Nash who have the power to communicate but are disturbed by other symptoms of schizophrenia such as delusions of persecution. In short, I learned that mental disorders are complex; Therapists must approach each ailment with the same seriousness so that they can be of service to their patients. The restrictions for each disorder must also be specific and narrow so that it is possible to accurately diagnose a patient and avoid misdiagnosis. By learning about the specific characteristics of different diseases, I gained a greater understanding of the biological aspect of mental disorders and how different medications can interact internally with different chemical imbalances in the body..