The Soloist is a film based upon the true story of Nathaniel Ayers, a Juilliard musical prodigy who has schizophrenia, and Steve Lopez a journalist for the Los Angeles Times, who befriended the (then) homeless Ayers when he was living on the streets of LA. Schizophrenia is a chronic and severe mental disorder that affects how a person thinks, feels, and behaves; those who suffer from schizophrenia may seem like they have lost touch with reality. The symptoms of schizophrenia fall into two categories: positive and negative. People with “positive” symptoms may “lose touch” with some aspects of reality, and those with “negative” symptoms are associated with disruptions to normal emotions and behaviors. The movie presents a realistic portrait of schizophrenia and the associated problems of homelessness. It also uses a significant number of the mentally ill homeless population of Los Angeles as extras, which seems to give the film a greater authenticity. Most of Ayer’s schizophrenic symptoms were actually quite typical for this disorder. Ayer’s experiences auditory hallucinations, disorganized speech, a blunted affect and negative symptoms such as social withdrawal and anhedonia, all of which are clearly present for greater than six months. In Nathaniel 's introductory scene there is already some evidence his schizophrenia. When asked by Steve if he likes Stevie Wonder (which is written on his visor and shirt), Nathaniel begins to express tangential thoughts with rapid speech
The True Life episode, I have Schizophrenia, documented the struggles of three adults who suffer from Schizophrenia and Schizoaffective disorder. This paper will focus around Josh and whether he actually has Schizophrenia.
In the movie A Beautiful Mind, which primarily takes place in the 1950s, John Nash exhibits signs of schizophrenia. He shows both positive and negative signs of the disorder. However, the movie does not portray all symptoms of schizophrenia accurately. Throughout Nash’s life-long battle with his illness, his family is dramatically affected. Overall, the movie implements a positive stigma of the disorder. While John Nash’s journey with his illness is not an entirely accurate depiction, the movie gives a positive light and awareness to schizophrenia.
Nathanial Ayers portrayed the “textbook” diagnosis of schizophrenia appropriately throughout the movie. During The Soloist, Nathanial experienced hallucinations and delusions. Individuals diagnosed with schizophrenia can experience symptoms. Nathanial would hear voices inside of his mind, telling him he was not talented enough to perform at Julliard. Nathanial also had delusional thoughts about his family trying to poison and kill him. There are positive and negative symptoms related to schizophrenia (Reed, 2014). Nathanial displayed signs of more positive symptoms of schizophrenia rather than negative symptoms. Nathanial would get overly excited about Beethoven and classical music. When Nathanial talked about
This reaction paper is based on a film by the name of “Lone Star.” The Director of this film is an independent director by the name of John Sayless. Lone Star is a contemporary film that was created in 1996. This film is a Western based film that. But it is set in the present day was created on the U.S./Mexico border. It describes a sheriff that is trying to get revenge of his father’s Buddy Dee death. In doing so he sorts out to solve a crime. The crime has to do with him and his father, Buddy Dee. The film also details the sheriff's love life and his relations to his high school history teacher. The teachers mother a restaurant owner was one of many people to jump the US border. Towards the end of the movie the Sheriff finds out the love of his life is not only his true love but his sister. He finds out that his father and the teacher’s mother had an affair in which the teacher was conceived. It was ironic because the sheriff had method to the teacher while having sex with her that it felt weird later to find out that they were brother and sister.
Schizophrenia is a mental ailment in which the person inflicted is taunted by uncontrollable voices heard inside their heads and very vivid, realistic hallucinations. The voices and hallucinations can be benevolent, but they can also be violent. Many cases constitute of people being told by such voices to hurt themselves or others. People who suffer from Schizophrenia are often isolated from society and admitted into psychiatric wards and mental institutions for the majority of their lives. The general public does not understand the torment that these people go through on a day-to-day basis. In order to give readers insight into the mind of a schizophrenic, the poet Jim Stevens uses the depleting condition and turmoil taking place inside
Nathaniel Ayers, a 54 year old schizophrenic man who lives on the street of Los Angeles, uses music to fill in the void of his life. Growing up, Nathaniel learned how to isolate himself from the violent environment he was exposed to; music was his way out. His time and dedication to music eventually paid off as he was able to get to Juilliard, one of the world’s best art schools. Unfortunately, he eventually dropped out after his second year as he had a mental breakdown and was later diagnosed with Schizophrenia. For a short time, Nathaniel went home to his sister, but later ran away after his illness affected their relationship; he thought his sister was going to poison him. Since then he moved from shelter to shelter and eventually end up
The challenges you are facing while having this disorder can have an extremely negative toll on your life. Another dimension Schizophrenia related to is Social. Social health is the ability to relate to and connect with other people in our world. Also, our ability to establish and maintain positive relationships with family, friends and co-workers contributes to our Social Wellness. Schizophrenia relates to Social health because it puts you in a different mental state than the norm. The side effect of hallucinations schizophrenia comes with affects their ability to relate and connect with other people since, they are seeing differently than everyone else. In the video it socially created a problem for him considering his aspect to relate and connect with other people was discombobulated. He reacted as if everyone was staring at him and judging him in an non productive manner which affected his ability to establish an relationship to relate and connect with other people. For example, another dimension Schizophrenia relates to is intellectual Wellness. Intellectual Wellness is the ability to open our minds to new ideas and experience that can be applied to personal decisions, group interaction and community betterment. The desire to learn new concepts, improve skills and seek challenges in pursuit of lifelong learning contributes to our Intellectual Wellness. Schizophrenia relates to this aspect of the Wellness Wheel because this specific mental state does not comprehend the difference between what they imagine is happening and what is actually
SCHIZOPHRENIA Schizophrenia, from the Greek word meaning “split mind”, is a mental disorder that causes complete fragmentation in the processes of the mind. Contrary to common belief, schizophrenia does not refer to a person with a split personality or multiple personalities, but rather to a condition which affects the person’s movement, language, and thinking skills. The question of whether schizophrenia is a disease or collection of socially learned actions is still a question in people’ mind. People who are suffering from schizophrenia think and act in their own the world and put themselves in a way that is totally different from the rest of society. In other words, they have lost in touch with the reality. Most schizophrenics accept
Both A Beautiful Mind, directed by Ron Howard, and The Soloist, directed by Joe Wright, are films that attempt to explore the obstacles people with schizophrenia face in a society where mental illness is often met with negative stigma. From finding sufficient treatment to maintaining an independent lifestyle, individuals with schizophrenia are put under a great deal of pressure to meet social norms despite the sometimes debilitating and emotionally draining effects of their disease. A Beautiful Mind and The Soloist highlight these struggles, and because they are both based on true-stories, they are able to depict the realities of what living with a mental illness is like in a relatively realistic manner.
The Motion picture “The Soloist” is about L.A. Times writer Steve Lopez discovering a musically gifted homeless man named Nathaniel Ayers. Desperately needing to catch a deadline Mr. Lopez considers writing a story about Nathaniel. While researching Mr. Lopez begins to discover interesting things about the talented musician. Nathanial Ayers was accepted to The Julliard’s School of music, the most prestige school for music in North America. After one year at Julliard Nathanial dropped out, it turns out that Nathanial had a case of Paranoid Schizophrenia that forced him into a spiral of madness, which soon caused him to become homeless and lose a chance at becoming on of the greatest musicians of
According to Mathers et al., (1996) “Schizophrenia ranks among the top ten causes of disability worldwide and affects one in one hundred people at some point in their lives.” (Cardwell and Flanagan, 2012). Schizophrenia is a severe mental disorder which is commonly diagnosed in 15-30 year old individuals. It disrupts a person’s cognition, perceptions and emotions, making it extremely difficult to diagnose. Bleuler (1911) introduced the term schizophrenia, which translates as ‘split-mind’ or ‘divided self’ and accounts for the earlier interpretations of the disease. These misunderstandings and the ongoing misrepresentations, especially within the media, has stigmatised the illness. This raises the need for better understanding and
exaggerating symptoms and stereotyping individuals with a mental disorder. For example, Alfred Hitchcock’s classic film Psycho, in which man with schizophrenia murders guests in a hotel, influences viewers to believe that all individuals suffering from schizophrenia are dangerous. However, that is rarely the case (Polatis, 2014). Therefore, it is refreshing to find a movie that accurately portrays the true personality of and individual living with a mental illness. The movie Silver Linings Playbook chronicles the experiences of Pat Solitano, a man suffering from undiagnosed bipolar disorder who was recently released from a psychiatric facility. Although this paper focuses on Pat’s experiences, it is important to note that the film not only takes on the task of portraying bipolar disorder, but also mental illness in general with other major characters suffering from a mixture of psychological or personality disorders. The film opens with Pat at Karel Psychiatric Facility in Baltimore, Maryland. We later learn that Pat was institutionalized for nearly beating to death the man with whom he caught his wife Nikki cheating on him. The rest of the film details
Schizophrenia is a disease that has plagued societies around the world for centuries, although it was not given its formal name until 1911. It is characterized by the presence of positive and negative symptoms. Positive symptoms are so named because of the presence of altered behaviors, such as delusions, hallucinations (usually auditory), extreme emotions, excited motor activity, and incoherent thoughts and speech. (1,2) In contrast, negative symptoms are described as a lack of behaviors, such as emotion, speech, social interaction, and action. (1,2) These symptoms are by no means concrete. Not all schizophrenic patients will exhibit all or even a majority of these symptoms, and there is some
Schizophrenia is a psychotic disorder that causes severe mental disturbances which disrupt ones thoughts, speech, and behavior. According to Paul Thompson, Associate Professor of Neurology, one percent of the world’s population suffers from this disorder. There is no one specific cause of schizophrenia, because it is caused by a combination of problems during development. It is a disorder which not only affects the patient, but their family and society as well. Schizophrenia can be a debilitating disorder, however, there are many treatments that can allow people who suffer from it to lead normal lives.
What is the first thing you think of when you hear the word “Schizophrenia” ? Sadly, most people react with “they’re going to hurt me” or “they’re not normal”. The main cause behind schizophrenia is believed to be that there is two neurotransmitters that have a change in their levels. This causes the person to generally have memory problems, makes them easily agitated, might make them very anxious and they also might not have good emotional responses. The symptoms caused by it are different for everyone, which I will explain later. So today I am going to tell you about Schizophrenia and what it does to people. In my paper, I will enlighten you on the causes of it, the symptoms and the people it affects. I will also tell you how the families