The movie "Beautiful Mind" is a psychological blockbuster familiar to domestic audiences, and the male protagonist Nas is a typical schizophrenic patient. This article psychologically analyzes Nas from the performance of Nas in the film, and from the perspective of analytical psychology to reveal the psychological causes of Nas's schizophrenia, thus helping the audience to better understand the film and psychopaths.
Even now, when people talk about schizophrenia, the usual reaction is still to feel fear, incredulity and rejection, discrimination, and it is difficult for normal people living in real society, ordinary life, to understand the strange behavior and behavior of psychopaths. However, in our society, there are more and more mentally ill people, and they not only need to get the attention of doctors and psychologists, but also need to be recognized and supported by the public. And "A Beautiful Mind" undoubtedly succeeded in achieving this goal.
Akival Goldsman, the screenwriter of "A Beautiful Mind", carefully arranged the plot, and the performance of Russell Chloe, the actor who played TheRnace, was also fascinating. There's also the beautiful campus of Princeton in the autumn, the calm and ethereal music, and the cascading shots, all of which make "A Beautiful Mind" a delicate and beautiful film and win four Oscar awards in one fell swoop. However, what is really impressive is the wonderful ideas and legendary experiences of Nas in the movie, and the real touching heart is the touching love brought by Alyssa, which is the beauty of human nature that Nas has experienced through a lifetime of legend.
Achiva Goldsman's parents, both well-known psychiatrists in New York, have a good understanding of the mentally ill. In this sense, Goldman was the first psychoanalyst of the "Nas" archetype, and both film and psychoanalysis were trying to elaborate a story, trying to penetrate deep into a person's heart. Goldsman's psychoanalysis makes Nas's mind real and deeply reproduced on the screen, and we hope to help ourselves and the audience better understand the film and better understand Nas's mind through some psychoanalytic points of view.
First, personality analysis: the conflict between thinking and emotion
(1) The imbalance between thinking and emotion
Nas's initial impression of the audience was at the Princeton University orientation reception, in which the image of sunlight peering through the glass and lemon floated in the air, and then coincided with the tie pattern of a student next to him. Nas smiled slightly and said to the classmate, "You know? I can explain mathematically how ugly your tie is. This was Nas, the genius of West Virginia, who in his mind seemed to explain everything. He observes everything in life and expresses everything in life with mathematical formulas and mathematical reasoning. Such as the rugby game, the pigeon's activity cycle, the performance of a woman chasing her wallet, etc., his famous game theory was inspired by the observation of the social activities of men and women in bars. Through the window full of formulas, one can see Nas's thoughtful face, the world in his eyes being a rational world full of numbers, logic, and reasoning, and tirelessly pursuing the rational world as he understands it.
Contrary to his quest in the mathematical world, he had little enthusiasm for real life. The beginning of the film also shows Nas's personality through some fragments. He is withdrawn by nature, does not speak much, refuses to socialize, and is incompatible with the lives of other classmates. Undoubtedly, the development of Nas's thoughts and emotions is very uneven.
When jung, the master of psychoanalysis, talked about mental types, he regarded thoughts, emotions, feelings, and intuitions as the four poles of the functional cross diagram, and the center of which was the self. In it, thought and emotion are relative, feeling and intuition are relative. The ego may be biased in both dimensions of this relative. The willpower of the person who likes to think is directed to the end of the mind, and the emotion can only be placed at the lower end and is in a secondary function. When the two are relatively balanced, the ego can still understand and control the emotion well, and the emotion is a rational emotion. But the more accustomed people are to thinking, the more easily their emotions are rejected. When the mind occupies the whole of consciousness, emotions can only function in the unconscious. Emotions, because they are rejected and cannot be understood and controlled by consciousness, often lose their rationality and become irrational emotions. So Nas is not afraid of attacks on his mind, because that is what he can consciously and control, but he is afraid of emotions that come from the unconscious, which are areas that he cannot understand and cannot control. In the film, we can feel that hidden under Nasnamuna's expression is the complex conflict within him, success and failure, loneliness and recognition, love and results...
(2) Three irrational emotions
Fear of failure: He fears failure, refuses to fail, and cannot accept failure. There is a scene in the film where his rival Hansen challenges him to play chess. Hansen said, "Scared, huh?" Nas said confidently, "Scared, very scared, but the person you are afraid of is you." However, when Nas lost the chess, he was stunned, could not accept the facts, and said: "You should not have won, I went first, seamless, this chess must be flawed." Nas stood up nervously and knocked the chessboard over in a panic. Later, when he talked to his fantasy roommate about this matter, he was still grumpy: "I lost to a self-righteous guy, I originally had the initiative, I didn't know how to do it and lost my hand, it must be a ghost he secretly made." 」 In the film, we can also see many of Nas's anxious expressions of fear of failure, and when he did not write a recognized paper, he felt a deep sense of frustration, crashed into the glass window full of complex formulas, and said bitterly: "I can only think of so much." Nas's pursuit of success, his pursuit of honor, his emotions were deeply occupied by this desire.
Although Nas has superhuman intelligence, he is a lonely talent. When he first entered the campus, he walked up the stairs alone, with a long shadow behind him, which was a lonely figure. Several times in the film he talks about his views on others. The first time he talked to the fantasy Charles, he said, "I don't like people very much, and people don't like me very much." His mentor, Hellinger, told him, "Your isolation may have greatly affected your academic development." Human-to-human interaction will bring us new visions. Nas said, "I don't make friends because I'm a stupid donkey." He also said in his first conversation with the fantasy Pacher: "I like to be alone, and more importantly, people don't like me." In fact, it can be seen from the film that Princeton's environment is quite tolerant of Nas. Nas believes that people don't like him is just a projection of "not liking others" in his heart. His isolation isolates his emotional connection with others, especially when there is pressure in the environment, which can easily transform into a state of hostility with the environment, thus aggravating his anxiety. But at the same time he needed recognition, and his eyes filled with longing when he saw many teachers in the dining room placing their pens in front of an old professor to show respect.
It can be said that Nas does not attach importance to the feelings between people, he not only disdains the interaction between classmates, but also, at first, he has no interest in the feelings between men and women. An interesting scene is of a classmate at the school bar encouraging Nas to chase a girl. He came to the girl's side and looked at her calmly, "I don't know what I should say if I want to sleep with you, but can you just say those things when I've already said them?" I mean let's just skip those opening remarks and get straight to the point. Nas didn't believe in adult romance, so he made a prank on the girl. Here, Nas sees only the purpose and result of the intercourse between men and women, seeing it as a completely objective and emotionless process. From this detail we can also see that his emotions are rejected by rational consciousness.
From the above analysis we can see that Nas's personality and psychological experience, thinking and emotion, conscious and unconscious are very unbalanced, and he is plagued by irrational emotions, which is what motivates him to schizophrenia. Those psychological elements that he rejects, disdains and resists, those emotions that are not realized can only be expressed in abnormal ways.
Second, symptom analysis: unconscious intrusion and self-loss
(1) Unconscious compensation function
Nas's main symptom is the appearance of three hallucinatory figures in his life, who influence and control Nas's life. All three hallucinations are derived from Nas's unconsciousness and are pathological manifestations of the unconscious compensatory function.
The unconscious, which includes all unconscious mental experiences, is part of our personality. For normal people, the unconscious is often used as a supplement to consciousness through desires or dynamics contrary to conscious tendencies, for example, dreams in daily life are a manifestation of the unconscious compensatory function. People with unbalanced mental development are often victims of an imbalance between the conscious and the unconscious, and they struggle with their own unconscious, and the normal compensatory function of the unconscious can only be manifested in an abnormal form.
The content of the unconscious mainly includes the individual unconscious and the collective unconscious, and the collective unconscious is the deepest level of the mind. It contains many common human experiences. In analyzing the dreams, symptoms, or hallucinations of normal or mentally ill people, we can often touch on the archetype of the collective unconscious. Archetypes are the main content of the collective unconscious. Archetypal models are diverse, including almost all of human psychological experience, but the most important archetypes of the unconscious are mainly heroes (the ideal self in the personality), shadows (the opposite of the personality), Anima or Animus (the image of the opposite sex), the wise old man (the intuition that stimulates wisdom), the self (the integrity of the character), the Holy Child (heralding the new birth) and so on. Archetypes are often expressed through imagery.
(2) Three prototypes
Through the previous analysis of Nas's personality, we know that in Nas's mind, the emotions ignored and rejected by consciousness are in an unconscious state, and those unconscious that conflict with consciousness are concentrated in three aspects of irrational emotions, derived from three archetypes and expressed by three characters. When they invade the world of consciousness of nas, they uncontrolledly fulfill their compensatory functions.
According to the doctor's analysis, Nas may have begun to schizophrenia when he was in graduate school. He had already constructed a roommate Charles in his fantasies by then. Charles's personality is the complete opposite of Nass, concentrating on the characteristics of those students around Nas who are not at odds with Nas. Many aspects of Charles's personality are precisely what Nass has denied. He was the shadow of Nas. Charles first appears in the film as the prodigal son. It was in stark contrast to Nas's restrained expression at the time. When Nas spoke about his obsessive mathematics, Charles said, "Mathematics doesn't bring truth, do you know why?" Because he was so stuffy. When Nas talked about how much he hadn't written his thesis yet, Charles asked him, "How long have you not been dating?" Unlike his classmates, Nas was recognized by Charles, who always considered him a genius and encouraged him. The lonely Nas undoubtedly needs this recognition and encouragement, so Charles is also the embodiment of Nas's need to be recognized in loneliness.
Everyone wants to succeed, and every culture has a sense of heroism, which is our deep psychological need. But for Nas, this deep psychological need is manifested through hallucinations. By the time of the first Parcel hallucinations, Nas had gained some fame and had successfully cracked the code at the Pentagon. But for a person who cannot accept failure, the greater the success, the more afraid of failure. He needs more fulfillment to alleviate his subconscious fear of failure. Pacher makes Nas feel like a hero because their "project" concerns the lives of 150,000 people. The security of the country is at stake. Participating in such a job is the ideal and desire of Nas's deep soul.
The little girl Mathew is innocent and cute and has not grown up. He was the female experience in Nas's heart. A piece of Nas's slapping on the other side for disrespecting women's feelings in the bar shows that Nas lacks female experience and does not give due weight to women's feelings. His female experience is weak and immature. When he began to meet and be deeply attracted to his future wife, Alyssa, he began to fantasize about Matthew, that is, the time he talked to the hallucinatory Charles about Alyssa, with a happy expression on his face. He said: "He was charming, I was overwhelmed. "Should I marry her?"
(3) Split spirits
Those inflated emotions of Nas need are the unconscious invading consciousness and controlling the gaps in consciousness. After these unconsciousities, which had been ignored by Nas, were manifested through fantasy, Nas's personality was gradually split. Those archetypes of the unconscious have formed a self. They are independent of each other and often replace the real world in Nas's mind. For the mentally ill, when these split segregations often conflict with the normal self, the original real self will gradually lose courage and ability, so that the patient is completely controlled by the fantasy world. In the film, when Nas feels dangerous and expresses his reluctance to continue working, he is threatened by Pacher and compromises again and again.
For him, those hallucinations were real. When he was taken to a mental hospital and told he was ill, he did not believe it and thought it was a Soviet conspiracy. And when Alyssa visits him and presents them with the information he has compiled intact, he still cannot accept reality. But inside, he believed in Alyssa. At this time, his fantasy world began to be impacted, and the contradiction between the "real" in his mind and the reality in reality made Nas feel very painful, and he dug out his wrist to find the diode that could radiate numbers. After that, he underwent electric shock treatment. Dr. Rosen said: "Now he is going through the most difficult stage of schizophrenia, the fear of not knowing what is true and what is false...".
The Mystery of Rehabilitation: The Contest Between Rational and Irrational Emotions
(1) True and false
Schizophrenia is often considered a psychosis that is difficult to recover from. But Nas miraculously recovered without insisting on medical treatment, which is the power of love. Alyssa's love is the bridge between Nas's unconscious and conscious, and the bridge between Nas's contact with reality.
To cure a patient who has been unable to distinguish between true and false, the most important thing is to focus his attention on reality. Nass' luck lies in the fact that he has always had the support of Alyssa Love. Nas has always been able to feel Alyssa's love and believe in Alyssa's love. When he was confused between truth and falsehood, at least he knew that Alyssa's love was real. It is this real emotion that allows the real world to re-enter Nas's consciousness, causing Nas to refocus on the real world under the guidance of real emotions.
The climax of the film is when Nas's mental illness relapses and is threatened with Pachel's life. Alyssa called to inform the doctor, and Pachel ordered Nas: "You must stop her." Nas was nervous about his wife's safety and hurriedly said, "Don't involve her", and when Pacher pulled out his gun and pointed it at Alyssa, Nas rushed over and slammed his gun into the ground. When Alyssa rushed out, Nas was under the pressure of several hallucinations at the same time, and Pachel pointed a gun at him and said with an iron face, "Kill her!" Either she dies or you die!". Charles ran down from the upper floor and said, "Oh, John, do as he says." Matthew took his hand and looked at him as if to make a decision. All the voices and images swirled in Nas's head, and finally he sped out to block Alyssa, who was leaving, and said excitedly, "Matthew can't be real, she's never grown up." At that moment, it was precisely because he did not want to hurt Alyssa, and it was precisely because of his love for Alyssa that his intellect overcame the illusion, making his ego strong in that moment and controlling the irrational illusion.
(2) Rational emotions and irrational emotions
When Nas is truly aroused, when he truly feels the power of rational emotions, he is gradually able to get rid of the control of irrational emotions. Because at this time, emotion is no longer a blank space in Nas's consciousness, it can be accepted and understood by consciousness and become the driving force of the self.
There's a touching conversation in the film when Alyssa decides whether to get Nas back to the hospital, and Alyssa trembles and grabs Nas's hand and sticks it to his face, "You know what's true, this, this," and then puts Nas's hand on her heart, "And this, they're all real." Alyssa stared into his eyes, put his hand on his heart, and said sincerely, "Maybe here, I believe that some powerful force is entirely possible." Nas's tears finally flowed down with a whimper.
Alyssa believed that Nas's heart could feel her true love, and she believed that Nas's true feelings had enough power to allow Nas to overcome the illusion and regain her lost self. With this belief, she helped Nas begin the difficult journey of struggling with hallucinations and becoming united with the divided self. Alyssa encourages Nas to return to work on campus, an environment that helps Nas stay in touch with reality and divert his attention to day-to-day affairs. He confronted the hallucinations, and whenever Pachel's hallucinations reappeared, he shouted, "You're not real, you're not real." Although Nas was seen as a freak from time to time, the power of his ego had gradually grown and eventually brought his hallucinations under control.
Decades of struggle with mental illness have given Nas a deeper understanding of life. When he chatted with Thomas King, a member of the Nobel Foundation who came to visit him, he lamented: "Poetic beauty is not human nature. And he said more at the Nobel Prize ceremony: "I hardly believe in data, logic, reason, but have been pursuing, I ask myself what logic is, who defines reason, my questions make me spin in the physical world, I inadvertently have discovered, but the most important thing in my life is that I have a lifetime of love, if there is any reason, it is because of you, my love, you are all my motivation!" 」
The film gives us a profound enlightenment, modern society is a world that attaches importance to technology, rationality, and thinking, and we often ignore emotions. Nas's life experience, on the other hand, shows that it is only the beauty of thought, not the beauty of true human nature. Only beautiful emotions can merge thoughts with hearts, and can we build a unified and beautiful mind. This is worthy of our deep consideration.
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