A Beautiful Mind
by Slyvia Nasar

Not many mathematicians become famous and even fewer get made into a movie. But this happened to John F. Nash, Jr., whose life got made into the movie, A Beautiful Mind, and is based on this interesting book by Slyvia Naser. But remember that the movie takes various highlights of Nash's life from this book and many of the events shown in the movie are dramatisations and not featured directly in the book. Read the book for what it is and you will be rewarded with a much more wonderful view into the mind of a very unusual person who rises to the top of his field, is suddenly brought down by a awful disease, recovers and then wins a share in the Bank of Sweden Prize in Economics in 1994, commonly referred to as the Nobel Prize in Economics.

The book is divided into three sections. The first part follows Nash's childhood, education and graduate work where he produces significant work in mathematics, including his Prize winning thesis on non-cooperative game theory. His strange behaviour was apparent since childhood and slowly became stranger after his studies as he struggles to make it in academic life. He has a mistress (and child) before his marriage, is arrested for 'indecent behaviour' and announces that he wants to work on one of mathematics' most difficult unsolved problem (the Rienmann Hyphotesis). All these, in combination, may have been the trigger that sets off his acute schizophrenia.

The next section deals with Nash's schizophrenic years. He starts to believe that aliens are sending messages to him through the newspapers. He goes to Europe and attempts to renounce his American citizenship as a prelude to becoming a 'world citizen'. He becomes abusive and depressed. All this eventually cause his wife and mother to send him for treatment in various private and public hospitals. Although he recovers somewhat after each treated, it only lasts for a few years before he descents back into schizophrenia which require further treatment.

The final section of the book covers Nash's apparent miraculous recovery from schizophrenia in the 1990s. Whether it is because of the various treatments he received, the support of his wife, or a spontaneous remission is not clear. But there is now a battle brewing in Sweden where a committee argues over whether Nash should be given a Prize for his work despite his sickness. In the end, he is given the Prize and now leads a near-normal life, aware of his schizophrenia but able to supress the more irrational modes of behaviour.

But the story does not end there. His son also suffers from schizophrenia and he now spends his time between his research and helping to care for his son. He has also renewed ties with his relations and fellow researchers, long severed during his schizophrenic years.

This is a fascinating book that provides a look into the life not only of a mathematician, but also of a man who suffers from a diseases that leaves him unable to live rationally for much of the time. The book does get into some mathematical detail, with references to hypothesis, differential equations, etc., to give readers a glimpse of the world that Nash lives in and probably can only be appreciated by people who have studied some mathematics. But even if you don't, the book is general enough for you get an appreciation into the life of Nash.

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A Beautiful Mind by Slyvia Nasar

A Beautiful Mind
by Slyvia Nasar