Re: [MLUG - DISCUSSION] the Rearrangement Inequality

[Mike Miller <EMAIL:PROTECTED>]

On Wed, 2 Aug 2006, Stephen Montgomery-Smith wrote:

> I will briefly say that I thought that "Good Will Hunting" was a really 
> trashy movie.

It was ridiculous.  They had to make the guy unbelievably, ridiculously 
smart, which made it silly.


> "A Beautiful Mind" wasn't too bad - in particular I thought that the 
> first half of the movie did a great job of describing the onset of 
> schizophrenia and how those who care for the person react.  I thought 
> that the second half, where John Nash cures himself by the power of his 
> logical thinking, was bad, and is basically persuading people that they 
> really don't need their meds (and unfortunately they don't need much 
> persuasion - lack of compliance is one of the major reasons why meds 
> don't work for mentally ill people).

Very true.  I didn't get the feeling from the movie that he cured himself, 
but maybe that's because I was not reading into it in the way most people 
would.  He definitely continues to have problems.  People can't really 
cure themselves of schizophrenia any more than they can cure themselves of 
Alzheimer's disease or cancer, but just like in any aspect of life, some 
people will make more of an effort than others.  If Nash improved a lot 
with age it was probably because either (1) he started on a new medication 
or (2) even untreated schizophrenia sometimes remits partially with age 
for unknown reasons.


> I will say that John Nash was a very accomplished and brilliant 
> mathematician.  Sadly, I think his mental illness greatly reduced the 
> impact that he could have had.

There's no question that he was severely impaired for several decades and 
he probably is still somewhat impaired today.

Mike

P.S.  My PhD research and much of my training in psychopathology was all 
on schizophrenia and schizotypal personality.

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