I had seen the movie adaptation of "A Beautiful Mind" a number of years ago, which would have been my first experience with the John Nash story.
The book simultaneously goes into more and less depth than the movie. The movie made is very unclear when John Nash was hallucinating, which made the story complex and a great movie. The book dealt much more completely with what was lost when John Nash was suffering from paranoid schizophrenia - his relationships, his fortune, his possessions...
I don't accurately remember the movie ending, but the book ends on a pretty positive note, with recovery (to a large degree), awarding of a Nobel in Economics to Nash and others for game theory work in the 1950s.
The difficulty that Nash's family had, given his genius, determining a course of action was well documented - should they consider shock treatment, at the risk of losing whatever it was that made him a genius? One course of treatment I was unaware of was insulin therapy, where a patient was put into an insulin coma every day for several months - an injection of insulin in the morning, induced coma, then IV or gastric-introduced glucose to recover from the coma. Sounds hellish, but considered more humane than electro-shock. The judgement from Nash's peers was mixed, with many blaming John Nash's wife for hospitalization, and considering the entire episode a misunderstanding of his genius.
It took time for John Nash to recover, which was gradual over decades. It was astounding to those who ran into Nash on campus, where he was a legendary figure "haunting" the library and computer labs, that he was considered unfit - many saw him as "fit/unfit" as other mathematicians, particularly as his balance and stability became more apparent.
I think this is a good read for anyone in academics, as my experience has been that there are many straddling the line between "eccentric" and "needing assistance" - the extremes of Nash's life illustrate both. At his "healthiest", he was egotistical and occasionally mean/cruel, with social difficulties, particularly related to close relationships with other men, and odd/abusive behaviour towards his significant females (girlfriends, wife, "common-law wife"). At his lowest points, he was unable to carry on non-paranoid conversations - though his fantasies did have a large degree of cohesiveness, indicating that some aspects of his underlying intelligence were working to make as much sense as possible out the bizzare visions.
The other primary audience should be those dealing with mental illness, either their own, or in the family or with close friends (this means pretty much everyone). Understanding how difficult the decisions to medicate, hospitalize and even decide whether treatment is necessary are well laid out, and show a true anxiety about each level of decision. The general misunderstanding of mental illness in society has not changed that much - there might be better treatments, but there is still a basic misunderstanding of where and if the line is between eccentricity, unique personality and illness, and there is no shortage of those who will judge the actions and inactions of those dealing with the issue, regardless of the road taken. "Beautiful Mind" expresses these conundrums well - particularly as the patient and the co-workers were the most educated folks around, and presumably in the best position to understand.
As an aside, I found the discussions regarding the Nobel Prize interesting. Economics was not an initial Nobel, and was funded separately, though administered in conjunction with the Nobel committee. There are some who don't consider this prize a "real" Nobel Prize, as it wasn't identified by Alfred Nobel, and isn't funded by his trust (and it came about much later). The reporting on the debates and processes of deciding and awarding the Nobel were worth reading (particularly the position that John Nash isn't really the "Same guy" who did the Nobel-work in an earlier decade), and worries that there might be embarrassment should he be granted an award.
No comments:
Post a Comment