The film A bueatiful Mind

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He talked to his friends about possibly using illegal drugs, which could have caused his hallucinations.

AS and schizophrenia/schizotypal have similar social difficulties. Autistic disorder has greater difficulties in social interaction over those prior.

likedcalico,

That's an interesting question: I assume the schizophrenia diagnosis would absorb the AS, both are mental disorders after all, i.e., the damage done in schizophrenia is probably similar in location and severity as AS in the brain.

This is a quote from one of his students on ratemyprofeessors.com. It made me laugh.

"Two thumbs up to John Nash! He is like a Budweiser Real Man of Genius. He is good at math and he will make you good at math too."

Most researchers seem to agree that the people that end up diagnosed with schizophrenia usually display unusual behaviour and social impairment while growing up, but also cognitive impairment. I find the last part a bit peculiar though, there have been many people with such a diagnosis that have displayed excellent cognitive abilities before the condition struck, John Nash being one. With his obsession for math and his pronounced social difficulties before schizophrenia hit, which didn't seem to change after it did, I consider him a pretty clear case of AS though.

There are many features of mental functioning and reactions that autism and schizophrenia seems to fully share - they're called the "negative symptoms" of schizophrenia. They can be divided into a schizoid/autistic and a disorganized module. The first is our shared preference for solitary activity and existence, and our internal lack of coordination with other people in our ventures. The second is the process of studying the details of objects first and getting started on details in projects right away, often leading to a reduced ability to manage matters in a flexible way. When it comes to actual symptoms within these spheres, people with ASD's and "schizo" conditions seem to share all of them. I've read accounts of many people diagnosed with schizophrenia having the same issues as we have.

The diagnosis of "simple schizophrenia" is almost identical to AS except for our obsessions which they don't have, they really have to look at a person's background to tell individuals apart, not simply life here and now. "Disorganized schizophrenia" isn't too far away either, what was earlier called hebephrenia. People with this diagnosis are known for their mannerisms and grinning unexpectedly, often talking to themselves but not having much in the way of psychoses, the ones occuring not being systematic at all.

Until the AS diagnosis broke through, the ones of our kind that were brought to the attention of psychiatry recieved labels of schizophrenia as I understand it. With the various different conditions under the umbrella of the schizophrenia label(many researchers today argue that the label should be dropped completely), AS could have been included as well since it's quite similar except for the psychotic episodes you're supposed to have. Some diagnoses of schizophrenia don't require these episodes though, like for example the "simple" and "disorganized" labels I mentioned.

I read the book, though it was a few years ago. I can't remember all the details, but it was a little different then the movie. The book went more into detail about his delusions. I think it was the Austrian government that he harassed the most. He sent so many letters, and bothered them constantly. He was no longer allowed in the country. He had some pretty big conspiracy theories that he wholeheartedly believed at the time. He did however, have some pretty big social skill problems. He did have a mistress that he bore a son with. He refused to have much to do with either of them as he thought her to be inferior to him, because of her lack of education. He was also very, very hard on his son. He had certain standards he expected his son to meet, and let him know it. To put it bluntly, he is not a very nice person in general. It also stated in the book that his wife took care of him more like a child then a partner. I can see where he could have AS, or schizophrenia. Now I have the urge to check the book back out at the library.

I read the book (checked it out at the library) before I saw the movie on TV. It's one of the great stories of the 20th century.