Candy Floss Dreamz

I've finally watched A beautiful mind on DVD. Yes, finally is the word. Im a psychology and economics major, yet i've never watched the show that was the perfect integration of my 2 majors. Slow, ching cheng, you are really really slow.

Slow i am, but at least i did watch it eventually. I was touched.

Nash equilibrium. Anybody who studied economics knows about Nash equilibrium, but i believe everyone is just like me, taking the ingenuity of this elegant idea for granted. I learnt it, i understood it, but i've never appreciated it until i watched the film. Certainly worthy of a Nobel price.

Another famous term that you dont have to be a psychologist to know about, schizophrenia. Schizophrenia is the classic "shen jing bing" or "crazy". John Nash has schizophrenia, or more specifically, paranoid schizophrenia. I read about it in textbooks, but i've never realized how serious and debilitating it is until i watched the movie. I felt much more empathy for the patients and more complete understanding of what im studying now and has a better idea of what im gonna expect should i make up my mind to enter this field some day.

John Nash, he is really remarkable. He formulated the famous Nash equilibrium concept that is the cornerstone of modern economics, especially game theory. And more impressively, he recovered from paranoid schizophrenia, without therapy or medications. Do you know how near impossible is that? Most sufferers of schizophrenia never fully recover, but he did. And i believe support from his family and the princeton community was crucial for his recovery. Patients of schizophrenia, though crazy, are still human after all. They need care and concern, not just therapy, so i think building social support for them is most important, something that psychologist really should be more concerned about.

Oh man, i sounded like a geek. I know, i know.

posted by dreamz @ 8:06 PM