I've now seen the film "A beautiful mind" of the life of the Nobel prize-winner John Nash and his battle with schizophrenia. I've been having an interesting debate with a social worker friend concerning the visual hallucinations depicted in the film.
First, it seems clear that they're an artistic invention. For example, this is from an on-line _Slate_ interview with the author of the book on which the film is based: [at http://www.msnbc.com/news/690375.asp?cp1=1] Question from dickie: Were John Nash's hallucinations in the movie for real? The creepiest scene is when his wife finds everything in the shed in the back of the house. Sylvia Nasar: Nash suffered from delusions, for example believing that he was organizing a world government, that he was the emperor of Antarctica, that he was a religious figure of great but secret importance and those are detailed in the book. He also at a certain point in his illness, began hearing voices. One thing that lots of people who've watched the movie have asked about is the relationship between the characters in the movie and Nash's hallucinations. We spoke at a fund raising dinner at Princeton a few weeks ago and he actually spoke to that point. He said that they corresponded to voices, not the particular ones that he heard, but it was a way of visualizing the hallucinations, a way of depicting in a movie what would otherwise just be voices. The debate with my friend concerns her challenging my (rash) assertion that visual hallucinations are "rare" in schizophrenia. It seems they're not, but they're not common either, and only auditory hallucinations are mentioned as diagnostic in the DSM-III (too lazy to go get IV). The best I could come up with is a references to an old paper (Sartorius et al, 1974) which found that 74% had auditory hallucinations. That doesn't say anything about the relative percentages of auditory and visual hallucinations, and PubMed surprisingly didn't turn anything up. Anyone have data? -Stephen Sartorius, N. et al (1974). The international pilot study of schizophrenia. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 2, 21-35. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Stephen Black, Ph.D. tel: (819) 822-9600 ext 2470 Department of Psychology fax: (819) 822-9661 Bishop's University e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Lennoxville, QC J1M 1Z7 Canada Department web page at http://www.ubishops.ca/ccc/div/soc/psy Check out TIPS listserv for teachers of psychology at: http://www.frostburg.edu/dept/psyc/southerly/tips/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
