A Beautiful Mind

When Nash is first suggested as a candidate for the Nobel Prize in economics, members of the panel are reluctant to include him because of his mental health. Years later, however, they commission a report by Jörgen Weibull. In 1989, Weibull meets Nash and finds him “no more eccentric, irrational, or paranoid than many other academics” (262).

For two voting cycles, panels of judges debate the inclusion of Nash as a contender for the prize. Some panel members are vehemently opposed, especially those who had seen Nash at the height of his illness. Others are passionate supporters, believing that Nash has recovered and deserves to be recognized.

For Nash’s supporters, the very fact that he has lost so much due to mental illness is a strong reason to include him. One later remarked that, while most Nobel winners are already recognized and successful, Nash “had gotten no recognition and was living in real misery” (367), almost forgotten by the academic community.

After a complex, drawn out, and fiercely fought battle which resulted in the economics prize being modified into a more inclusive social sciences prize, in 1994, Nash is told that he will be receiving the prize. 

Around the time Nash is traveling to receive his Nobel prize from the King of Sweden, Al Gore is opening “the greatest auction ever” (374) which will auction off “airwaves that could be used for the new wireless gadgets like telephones, pagers, faxes” (374). The winning bids for this auction come to more than $7 billion.

The auction was designed by economists using systems for “analyzing rivalry and cooperation among a small number of rational players with a mix of conflicting and similar interests” (374), ideas that have their roots in Nash’s work. Following “decades of resistance” (375), game theory is being widely used in economic theory and the Nash equilibrium is central to these applications. As one economist notes, “Nash is the point of departure” (375).

Despite some fears that he would struggle to act appropriately, Nash is absolutely fine at the Nobel award ceremony and at the associated press events. He is doing and feeling “things that [have] lain beyond his grasp for decades” (379).

When Nash’s private audience with the King drags on, people start to worry. However, after ten minutes, Nash emerges “looking relaxed, even amused” (380), reporting that they had had a long, mutual conversation about “the pitfalls of driving fast on the left-hand side of the road” (380).

After the fanfare of the Nobel ceremony, Nash lives “a quiet life” (380). He works at the IAS and his and Alicia’s routines are largely dictated by “the twin needs of earning a living and caring for Johnny” (380). He still produces respected research but is slowing down and “many days he is not able to work” (381). He worries that he may not be a good advert for someone who has recovered from schizophrenia “unless I can do some good work” (382).

More than this, Nash worries about Johnny. While things had looked promising when he was in his twenties, Johnny’s mental health deteriorated and he was forced to return home and no longer work. He is in and out of hospital, getting better and then refusing to take his medicine. Nash “is his caretaker [and] takes it for granted that his son is his responsibility” (384).

Nash remains “stubborn, reserved, self-centered, and jealous of his time” but he is trying to “be more sensitive and accommodating,” recognizing that he has “social faults and […] make[s] Alicia very angry” (385). There “is even some discussion of remarrying” (386) but they consider it impractical and, ultimately, unnecessary as, certificate or not, “they are a real couple again” (386).

Nash tries, with varying success, to be there for Alicia and for both his sons. Sometimes he fails but he continues to try and make amends and improve. Although no one can know if he will relapse again and lose the connections he is struggling to make, “the disjunction of thought and emotion that characterized Nash’s personality, not just when he was ill, but even before are much less evident today” (388). 

When Nash is seventy-three and “after a nearly forty-year gap in their marriage” (389), he and Alicia remarry. They are both doing well, and Nash “feels increasingly certain that he won’t suffer a relapse” (389). He now gives talks about his experiences to try and “reduce the stigma against people with mental illness” (389).

Nash is financially stable again and enjoys working in mathematics, feeling “glad to be able to do serious work and make a contribution” (390). He is reconnecting with old friends and colleagues, sees his sons regularly, and speaks to his sister weekly on the phone. Although he was originally indifferent about a biography being written about him, he now finds that “retrieving some of the past has been something of a solace” (390).