Schizophrenia In A Beautiful Mind: A Literature Review

Introduction

The ways that movies portray schizophrenia shape the public’s views, attitudes and responses towards people with schizophrenia, treatment, caregiving and professional service; therefore, it is vital to examine the accuracy of depicting schizophrenia in the movies. This essay will examine the schizophrenia portrayal accuracy in A beautiful mind (Grazer, 2001).

Literature Review

Schizophrenia Symptomatology and Heterogeneity

Schizophrenia disorder (SZ) is a serious mental illness that affects approximately 1% of the population; characterised by: (1) an extreme disintegration with reality in form of delusions and hallucinations (i.e., positive symptoms); (2) a number of negative symptoms (e.g., avolition, alogia, anhedonia, and

In this regard, an obvious lower overall IQ was observed prior to SZ-onset; and that a reduction in cognitive functions between ages 12 to 18 was found to correlate with increased risk for SZ-onset, otherwise, cognition development processes (e.g., education, and social learning) found to enhance symptoms; In addition, social perception deficit was found to significantly associate with negative affect, and influence the variance in interpersonal relations and social functioning; which consequently influence the SZ-onset, and both positive and negative symptoms severity (e.g., delusions of persecution, and social withdrawal) (Hedman et al., 2012; Agnew-Blais et al., 2015; Osler, Lawlor & Nordentoft, 2007; Pinkham & Penn, 2006; Martínez-Domínguez, Penadés, Segura, González-Rodríguez & Catalán, 2015; Hooker et al., 2011). Moreover, research revealed the interchangeable effects of cognitive and social training with neural activities (i.e., neurocognitive abilities) in SZP, in that enhancement in one showed enhancement in the other, and vice-versa (Hooker et al.,

The extent of social interactions was found to correlate with cognitive functions and SZ- cognitive-related symptoms (Barlow & Durand, 2015; Osler et al., 2007; Ochoa et al., 2006). Whilst, from the cultural content perspective; the collectivistic culture exhibited more SZ-protective characteristics when compared to individualistic culture. For instance, the Mexican Americans (i.e., collectivistic) exhibited more SZ-protective approach (e.g. familial warmth and caregiving) when compared to the Anglo Americans (i.e., individualistic) who showed critical approach that promoted SZ-adverse effect (Maslowski, Rensburg & Mthoko, 1998; Lopez et al., 2004). Similarly, those who currently moved to urban environment exhibited higher risk for SZ-onset than those who were born in an urban, although both groups were SZ-vulnerable (Dragt et al., 2011). However, maybe it is not only the effect of urban lifestyle content; in that, they found that receiving state benefit and social adjustment obstacles to correlate with adverse cognitive and social functions which consequently trigger SZ (Magaña et al., 2007; Osler et al., 2007; Dragt et al., 2011). And this consequently stresses the significance of family support and approach to SZ (García, Chang, Young, López & Jenkins, 2006); such as promoting adherence to treatment, and the level of familial emotion expressed in conjunction with familial