76 pages • 2 hours read

A Beautiful Mind

Nonfiction | Biography | Adult | Published in 1998

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Themes

Original Thinking and the Rejection of Regulation

Original thinking is central to Nash’s genius. He is able to make intuitive leaps and create new ways of working that simply do not occur to other people. It is this, ultimately, that sets him apart from other mathematicians. In some respects, he has always had this. Even at school, he refused to follow prescribed methodologies, proving instead that convoluted solutions could actually “be accomplished in two or three elegant steps” (34). However, this ability truly comes into its own at Princeton, a “mathematical hothouse” (65) that allows him to experiment and develop and which tolerates his unusual working habits, such as wandering around whistling or lying sprawled on tables and desks, “lost in thought” (66).

Nash recognizes the importance of original thinking and works hard to maintain his abilities, often choosing not to read out of a fear that “learning too much secondhand would stifle creativity and originality” (68). He also resists anything that “smack[s] of routine” (139) or regulation. This damages his relationships because he is “jealous of his time” (385) and does not make time and space to support others. It also makes him fearful of anything that will interfere with his idiosyncratic research such as the possibility of being drafted. After his mental health declines, this fear escalates to such a degree that it is part of the reason he wishes to renounce his American citizenship. Given this, his long stay in the highly-regulated, barracks-style conditions of Trenton State Hospital must have been especially distressing for him. Likewise, considered in this context, it is unsurprising that the “quiet and safe” (335) world of Princeton is an ideal place for his slow recovery from schizophrenia.

Connections between Nash’s Thought Processes, His Genius and His Mental Health

Part of what makes Nash a genius is the way he looks at, and operates in, the world. He is obsessively focused on his research, working in a distracted, disconnected manner that alienates him from others around him, making it difficult for him to communicate and interact socially. He is also obsessed with “the rational life” (104), always looking for connections, patterns, and logical, rational reasons why things happen. It is this focus that drives his work on game theory and the mathematical modeling of human behavior as well as several other areas of study.

When Nash becomes ill, these aspects of his thought process become so extreme that he is “reduced to a caricature” (274). His obsession with patterns and rational meaning becomes so exaggerated that he sees patterns and secret messages hidden in everything from newspaper articles to the clothing choices of his colleagues. Similarly, his disconnected view of the world becomes so extreme that he is unable to communicate coherently, and becomes a gaunt figure known to students as “the Phantom” (332), who wanders the corridors of Princeton scrawling incomprehensible, semi-numeric, coded messages on the blackboards. Likewise, Nash’s lack of social ability as well as his arrogant, dismissive demeanor leave him isolated for much of his early life. Although he later starts to build up relationships with men and women to satisfy “his own emotional needs for connectedness” (168), they are often relatively unhappy partnerships as Nash does not meet the “demands for integration” (168) that these relationships bring about and fails to reciprocate support and emotional connection. The isolation this creates reaches a far greater extreme when he becomes ill because, in his worst moments, he loses the ability to connect and communicate altogether, desperately writing letters and making phone calls only to have his jumbled-up messages interpreted as “all nonsense” (286).

Interestingly, when Nash’s symptoms go into remission, he is far more connected than he was before his illness, “the disjunction of thought and emotion” (388) no longer as pronounced or socially debilitating.

Sexuality and Relationships

As a teenager and a young man, Nash struggles to connect with others and develop relationships. Early attempts to make “a pass” (43) at other young men are not reciprocated and, while he is at Carnegie, result in further bullying and alienation. Both his lack of success and his general lack of interest in sexuality and relationships lead many to believe that he is simply happy to “live inside his own head” (167). However, as he gets older, Nash “discover[s] that he [has] some of the same wishes as others” (167) and actually wants to develop more human connections.

One of the places he tries to find this is with Eleanor but he quickly tires of her. His snobbish attitude towards class and intelligence lead to him belittling her, and his need for conversation with people who are at least close to his intellectual level leaves him bored with her company. He finds intellectual stimulation most often in his relationships with other male mathematicians. These relationships often have a sexual dynamic, at least for Nash. Two early “special friendships” (181) are particularly important to Nash’s development as a person. His relationship with Ervin Thomas, although “fleeting […] and very furtive” (170), nonetheless represents Nash’s “first real step out of his extreme emotional isolation” (170), and “the experience of loving and being loved” (181) that he finds in his relationship with Bricker changes his perception of his life and the world at large. Of course, the prevailing homophobia and Cold War paranoia of the period mean that same-sex relationships also cause Nash problems, most notably when he is arrested for indecent exposure in a police sting operation designed to catch homosexuals. Both Nash’s fear from this incident and the way earlier relationships with men helped him to come out of his shell are key parts of his decision to marry Alicia, which proves to be a most significant relationship. Not only does it bring him respectability and the impression of normality, Alicia is also extremely supportive, especially after he becomes ill and she is determined to preserve his “mind and career” (262). Even after she divorces him, Alicia, “moved by pity, loyalty, and the realization that no one else on earth [will] take him” (340), still lets Nash move in with her as a “boarder (342) so that she can take care of him and shelter him. Many years later, they remarry, with Alicia remaining an important source of stability and support and Nash becoming more receptive and supportive in return.