A beautiful time

[muckefuck]

Apparently, I had plans to meet up with my old school chum last night. I didn't realise this until I returned at 12:30 a.m. and found a semi-coherent message from him on my machine. His last e-mail to me had been so confused, I'd assumed my evening was free and proposed dinner to welcomerain. She said we couldn't do Jin ju because spookyfruit was recovering from food poisoning (that he asked me like five times if it was reported on LJ or not).

We went to Nha Trang on the chance that it might not be long for this world. It was okay: They had the meatiest cha gio I've ever had and a tasty lemon chicken, but they pissed me off with their use of iceberg lettuce--in cooked dishes! The only thing iceberg has going for it is crunch (and even that's not enough to make me eat it), so why the hell would you cook it? spookyfruit ordered the beef chop suey, which came without beef. I can't even remember the last time I was someplace with chop suey on the menu; it brought back self-conscious memories of eating Chun King™.

Afterwards, spookyfruit wanted ice cream and was dismayed with the selection at the local stop 'n' rob, so welcomerain convinced him to ride the bus with her to the Wag's--sort of. I mean, he did wait, but under protest. He rightly claims that he never whines, but, Mary's tits, does he complain! When we got there, we found that the wondrous selection welcomerain had promised had been inexplicably reduced. In the checkout line, spookyfruit was offering to buy me sundry items as we passed them until welcomerain could no longer contain her mocking.

We got the same bus driver back down as we did up--a side-effect of living so close to the turnaround point. At the corner, spookyfruit detoured us again, this time into the video store. When he found out neither I nor welcomerain had seen "A Beautiful Mind", he grabbed it. Even though I never see movies any more, it was one that, for personal reasons, I had really meant to catch in the theatres.

It was about what I expected. Even Howard's maudlin directorial choices couldn't detract much from Crowe's stunning performance or the inherent fascination of the story--even in its heavily sanitised and simplified version. I thought many aspects of the disease were well-captured and, thankfully, it didn't imply that not taking medication was a path to recovery as strongly as I heard it did. (The implication is counteracted mainly by a comment Crowe's character makes near the end about how well "some of the newer medications" work.)

But it didn't do anything to contradict on of the most damaging misconceptions about mental illness: That overcoming it is primarily a matter of willpower. Maybe that was the deciding factor in this particular case, but that makes it an anomaly. Before I left, spookyfruit and I had a short but significant conversation about this. Mental disorders are so hard to understand because, to healthy people, it seems that sufferers should be able to recover simply by taking a decision to resist the depression, delusions, and despair. After all, at the end of movie, Nash says the delusions haven't gone away, he's just chosen to disregard them. How simple! Why can't everyone learn that trick?

Because that's not the way it works when your brain is missing certain receptors or not producing enough of certain chemicals. I'm sure motivation helps, but it needs something to build on. The people I know who are functioning well despite schizophrenia or depression or bipolar or whatever benefit from a combination of good medication and a solid support network. The latter is implied in the film (where would he be without his wife's decision to keep him out of the hospital or his old school chum's assistance in reconnecting to the university community?), but takes a definite backseat to the more dramatic theme of one man's struggle to succeed.

Comments

meine Anmerkung:

[(Anonymous)]

Der Film ist ja kein Lehrfilm und der Einzelfall kann vom *Prototyp* abweichen. In jedem Fall gehört er zu den besseren Filmen zum Thema Schizophrenie (in diesem Fall paranoid halluzinatorische Form). *Rain Man* zum Thema Autismus ist aus psychopathologischer Perspektive absoluter Schrott. Im Vergleich dazu ist *A Beautiful Mind* hervorragend. Die akuten psychotischen Zustände waren sehr gut dargestellt, auch die Residuen in den symptomarmen Phasen sind gut gelungen. Aber es gibt unterschiedliche Verläufe. Es gibt auch Verläufe mit lediglich einer psychotischen Episode. Zurück bleibt lediglich ein mildes Residuum. In diesen Fällen kann man tatsächlich die Medikation schrittweise reduzieren und ausschleichen. Der größere Anteil verläuft jedoch in Schüben und die akuten Schübe sind wahrscheinlicher aufgrund mangelnder Compliance bei der Medikamenteneinnahme (das ist aber Teil der Störung, da die Krankheitseinsicht häufig gering, besonders während des Schubs). Für unipolare depressive Störungen (d.h. ohne Manie in der Krankengeschichte) trifft das alles nicht zu. Medikation sollte im Regelfall nicht dauerhaft erfolgen (wenige Ausnahmen). Für depressive Störungen ist Psychotherapie - vorzugsweise kognitive Verhaltenstherapie -mittel- und langfristig wirksamer und erfolgversprechender als antidepressive Medikation.
Zurück zum Film:
Das Beste an diesem Film ist die Darstellung von Russel Crowe. Er war grossartig. Ich war empört, dass es Oscars regnete und Crowe leer ausging. Der Film lebt von seiner genialen Darstellung. Ich liebe Film wegen solcher Schauspielkunst.

Nino

noch mal ich ...

[(Anonymous)]

was ist denn nun mit deinem Schul-Freund? Habt ihr Euch getroffen? Du hast ihn kurz eingeleitet und dann taucht er nicht mehr auf. :)

[bunj.livejournal.com]

I hoped you oohed and aahed over the little baby (actually babies) in A Beautiful Mind. They belong to a friend of -e's and are just as cute in real life.

From what I've read (including the interview in this week's Onion), Spider is a good portrayal of schizophrenia, so that might be worth catching in the theatre.

[rollick.livejournal.com]

So was spookyfruit being charitable, or random, or just pointing out that you don't have nearly enough sundries in your life?

[spookyfruit.livejournal.com]

How would mucke know? Or do you want him to hypothesize, which as you know, makes a hypo out of the size.

-sf-

[rollick.livejournal.com]

I trust him to correctly interpret environmental and social cues, or at least make a lengthy and entertaining story out of his misinterpretations. I'd settle for either scenario.

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

As Monshu likes to say, "There are no unmixed motives." I read it as mafia-donnish generosity (brought on by a satisfying meal that he said he'd paid for and then ended up taking a tenner for) tempered with an acquisitive mindset (welcomerain kept having to talk him out of buying sundries that they already had) and concern for my preparedness in a time of national crisis. Superficially, yes, it resembles randomness.

Now aren't you supposed to be working?

[rollick.livejournal.com]

I'm alllways supposed to be working. But the super-big crunch ended last night when I got home from the screening I could not miss, and before which I absolutely had to turn in a review which involved watching 5 hours of "Tales of the City."