Photographer: me. Model : Henrietta
I recently attended a talk on schizophrenia which surprised me no end. I was expecting a list of facts and clinical case studies and indeed there was plenty of it. But the young woman who delivered it - it was an introductory talk for arts therapists dealing with clients affected by this condition - whilst demonstrating she had the DSM IV at her fingertips, seemed unimpressed with its categorisations, which she would not take at face value. I was truly intrigued, even more so when she showed a few clips from A Beautiful Mind. She thought it made a statement about stigmatisation of schizophrenia sufferers and thus praised it, despite its limitations.
I never paid attention to this movie when it came out in 2001, I discovered it much later. I do have a DVD of it and watched it again following the talk.
Photographer: me. Model: Henrietta
Based on the life story of mathematician John Nash, a schizophrenia sufferer who obtained the Nobel Prize in Economics for his 'game theory' and led a quiet life as an academic at Princeton University, the film makes the point that schizophrenia sufferers can learn to live with their condition.
It is a good film, though I hated the soppy romanticism with which the relationship of Nash with his wife was depicted. No doubt Mrs Nash was a tower of strength and truly loved her husband - without that support John Nash would have probably suffered a lot more - but this is thrown into the viewer 's face in true Hollywood style and somehow it demeans the relationship.
I liked what Nash, interpreted by Russel Crowe, says in the film about the way he coped with his hallucinations - he learnt to ignore them, even though they were there. Projections of himself, no doubt, but for him the experience was painful. Yet his mathematics would not have thrived if he had been treated like a 'sick' man.
Self portrait. Reprocessed by DG
I think this is an important point. The film does not suggest that madness and genius go together, a very trite romantic notion that is still embraced. Rather, it attempts to make the general public aware that schizophrenia does not turn people into monsters. With the right treatment people can still blossom. The right treatment is not necessarily based on drugs, it involves a lot more than that, it involves the family, the environment, the community.
Only last October Rachel Whitehead wrote an article in The Guardian about the stigma attached to schizophrenia even today, one hundred years after the term was first used by the medical establishment.
People with schizophrenia 'deserve a better deal in every area of their lives.' says Rethink Mental Illness. Schizophrenia is not an impairment, it can be an enrichment. That's a pretty revolutionary view. Let's hope for a change in attitude.
(Unless otherwise stated photos are modelled by Alex B.)
Thanks for sharing...
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