Stolen Minds Schizophrenia Analysis

The documentary Schizophrenia: Stolen minds, Stolen lives covers the stories of a few different individuals who have suffered from schizophrenia and talks generally about the disease. Schizophrenia is a disease that evokes psychosis. Many patients experience delusions, hallucinations, disorganized speech, catatonic behavior, and/or lack of emotion, pleasure, or initiation. The disease effects about 1% of the population and typically begins to effect people in late adolescence—early adulthood. There has yet to be a cure discovered for schizophrenia, but there are treatment options. The film discusses causes of the diseasing, looking into both biological and environmental causes. The film talked to several individuals who suffer from schizophrenia and their families. The first was Steve: A MIT graduate. Next, Sean and Steven a set of twins. Sean suffers from schizophrenia, but Steven is completely healthy. The film also included John, a Nobel Prize winner for his work in mathematics and John’s son, Johnny. Each of the individuals in the film had very accomplished lives prior to their diagnosis. A very

Steve, the first person that was discussed in the film, graduated from MIT and completed a year of medical school before being diagnosed with schizophrenia. Sean was a successful artist. John, another person with schizophrenia that was interviewed, was a Nobel Prize awardee. After being diagnosed, Steve never finished medical school, John was hospitalized many different times, and Sean stopped making his art. Personally, I think that before watching the film I never considered how successful and intelligent patients with the disease may have been. Therefore, I now have a much better understanding of what can be lost because of