What We Learned From An “exceptional Man “
John Nash, the genius of life and mathematics who inspired the fantastic film “an exceptional man”, has passed away.
Based on the new namesake by Sylvia Nasar, the feature film produced in 2001 was a real success and won 4 Oscars and many fans.
Led by Russell Crowe in the lead role, the film offers us in a simple way a big message which invites us to look for the way to go beyond our limits, whatever they are.
To those who do not know the story of John Nash
John Nash was 30 years old when he was diagnosed with paranoid schyzophrenia. On the healthy ambition of his extraordinary mind, the shock of a terrible disease that grieved him was imposed.
He was a brilliant mind, extraordinary and promising. Nothing could stop him and prevent him from pursuing his dreams. After years of harsh treatment that tried to help him overcome mental illness, John Nash was able to control his symptoms.
He learned to live with voices with hallucinations. He heard voices, he saw things, but he knew how to deal with them.
Her inner work was immense until the end of her days. Logically, living without being able to discern what’s real from what isn’t is very complicated, but Nash’s brilliant mind did.
Nash won the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1994 for his game theory, which is still valid today and useful in the field of strategy.
John has struggled with schizophrenia his entire life, and he’s managed to lead a life that’s completely different from what the illness had in store for him.
His death, like his life, was not what we hoped for. On May 23, 2015, Nash passed away with his wife, victims of a traffic accident.
An example of overcoming and of hope
We owe a lot to this man, not only for his contribution to science but also for telling us his story and showing us that by working within ourselves, all spirits can be wonderful.
John got attached to his intelligence and knew how to live with the voices that occupied his mind, although they drove him crazy. His struggle was not easy. However, he understood that the path of his life was in acceptance and he showed it to us.
This is how he was inspired. He succeeded in creating a stable world in a constantly changing environment. And what started out as a fight ended up being a hotbed where he could develop.
Despite his limitations, Nash managed to secure a place as a professor at MIT, while he reclaimed the genius that his mental problem had eroded.
John Forbes Nash has learned to live with schizophrenia throughout his life, applying a rule that “every problem has a solution”.
A rule which, even if it is not valid for all the mentally ill, can be applied in our life.
Without a doubt, John gave us the key to enjoying life: to accept, to let go and to act.
Is schyzophrenia treatable?
Sometimes what a person needs is not for a bright mind to speak to them, but for a patient person to listen.
Investigative journalist Robert Whitaker tells us that for a long time, Western Lapland (Finland) had the highest rates of schizophrenia among its population.
Of the 70,000 people who lived there in the 1970s through the early 1980s, around 25 cases were diagnosed each year – double or triple that in the rest of Finland and Europe.
But in 1969, Yrjö Alanen arrived at the psychiatric hospital in Turku (Finland). At that time, few psychiatrists believed in the possibility of psychotherapy as a treatment for psychosis.
However, Alanen believed that the hallucinations and paranoid delusions of schizophrenic patients, when closely analyzed, showed meaningful stories.
This is how they began the long work of listening to patients and their families.
They have created a new treatment modality called “patient-specific therapy”. However, they did not forget that each person is a world in itself, and therefore they developed in parallel, the creation and the adequacy of a specific treatment for each case.
Some patients will need to be hospitalized, but others will not. On the other hand, some of them will benefit from low doses of psychiatric drugs (anxiolytics or antipsychotics) and others not.
As we can see, each case is meticulously worked and personalized, being aware of the needs of each person and each family.
Obviously, decisions about treatment were taken jointly, valuing each opinion.
The therapy sessions did not focus on alleviating psychotic symptoms, but on the patient’s past successes, thus aiming to strengthen control over his own life.
In this way, the patient does not lose the hope of being like the others, of maintaining normality and of seeing further instead of withdrawing into himself.
In recent years, Open Dialogue Therapy has transformed “the framework of the psychotic population” in Western Lapland.
The cost of psychiatric services in the region has fallen dramatically and to date it is the sector with the lowest mental health spending in all of Finland.
The 25 new cases of schyzophrenia per year have been reduced to 2 or 3.
There are other types of treatment for people with schizophrenia or those suffering from other types of psychosis that guarantee them a different life from the one we are used to.
We put them through aggressive drug therapy, electroshock and compassion, a lot of compassion. Let us not forget the pain, the fear and the rejection in our eyes towards them. If we add that, we can put our hands to the fire that it will be a sure failure.
This is why it is important to remember that there are always better ways to act. But if our society feels sick, we won’t be able to see that there is a light at the end of the tunnel for everyone.
