Analysis Of Nathaniel Ayers Symptoms Of Schizophrenia

When Nathaniel Ayers was first introduced in The Soloist (2009), one of his symptoms of Schizophrenia was evident: loose association. Loose association is “rapidly shifting from one subject to another, believing that the incoherent statements makes sense” (Comer, 2014, p. 366). Ayers’s subjects in his first conversation with Steve Lopez jumped from treating a violin like a child, to “armies” in Ohio and Los Angeles, to the cello, to Beethoven running Los Angeles, and so on. Another one of Ayers’s symptoms is hallucinations. Ayers also experienced hallucinations. He heard voices that often claimed to protect him from people who were watching him play the cello (The Soloist, 2009). These two symptoms are known as positive symptoms (Comer, 2014,

Ayers only mentioned having friends once, his friends at Julliard. Someone who does not understand the symptoms of Schizophrenia would perhaps be “turned off” by his continuous focus on ideas that cannot be understood by others, music, and cleanliness.
Ayers’s symptoms seemed to intensify throughout the movie, as he got older. According to Comer (2014, p. 369), people who have Schizophrenia experience three stages: the prodromal phase, the active stage, and the residual stage. In The Soloist (2009), the beginnings of Ayers’s symptoms were shown immediately, so his prodromal stage was never portrayed: the active phase was shown first. As a child, Ayers experienced loose association and hallucinations. His loose association first appeared at his cello lesson. Nathaniel went on and on about Beethoven and his love for music, hopping from one subject to the next, merging the separate statements together (The Soloist, 2009). Still a child, Ayers’s first hallucination was seeing a burning car roll passed his window (The Soloist, 2009). He did not yet hear the voices. As Ayers progressed through the active phase hallucinations and delusions became worse. Ayers’s