In the movie "A Beautiful Mind," the main character, John Nash, has schizophrenia. In the movie, which was based on a true story, John Nash experienced extremely lucid hallucinations of people and situations that did not exist. The book says this is very rare, and that people with schizophrenia experience mostly auditory hallucinations. Usually, people with this disease have an impaired ability to think and reason. However, in the movie, John Nash was able to distinguish his hallucinations from the real world over time. He went on to lead a productive life as a professor and won the Nobel Prize for his work in Economics, specifically in Game Theory (all while ignoring his persisting delusions). In his own words, he wrote, "Then gradually I began to intellectually reject some of the delusionally influenced lines of thinking which had been characteristic of my orientation."
I like your connection of psychological disease and film. The media has a way to turn many psychological disorders into good entertainment. Like John Nash I feel that people with a not so severe case of schizophrenia can survive in the real world and lead a productive life. They just need help blocking out the voices!