That would also be an important part of his treatment today. In the movie, it may have helped Nash that his imaginary "controller" wanted him to do things he could not agree with, such has harming his wife "because she knew too much." In the movie, the little girl appears and holds his hand, and then it dawns on him -- the little girl never ages. She can't be real. The controller can't be real. It is hard to know whether these events really happened in this way; his story is presented as a movie, and Nash's perceptions may have altered even the events that help him resist the draw of his hallucinations. John Nash's story demonstrates also that hallucinations serve a purpose for the patient's personality. As a secret code breaker, John was extremely important. Two governments were fighting over him, and the fate of the world rested on his ability to use his intellect. However, although the hallucinations support his ego, Nash was the...

No matter how weak his self-esteem might have been, he did not really need hallucinations to feel like a person of achievement. The major component in Nash's hallucinations seems to be the schizophrenia, and not any psychodynamic needs he may have had.
SOURCES

American Psychiatric Association. "Schizophrenia." Diagnostic and Statistical Manual IV. Accessed via the Internet 6/2/06. http://www.psychnet-uk.com/dsm_iv/schizophrenia_disorder.htm

Bower, Bruce. 1996. "The birth of schizophrenia: a debilitating mental disorder may take root in the fetal brain." Science News, May 29.

Humphrey-Beebe, Lora. 2003. "Theory-based research in Schizophrenia." Perspectives in Psychiatric Care, April.

Thompson, Paul, Ph.D. 2002. "Brain Deficit Patterns May Signal Early-Onset Schizophrenia." Psychiatric Times, August. (Thompson, 2002)