Thoughts on "A Beautiful mind"

I watched the 2001 movie ‘A Beautiful Mind’ again today. I had watched it almost 6-7 years ago when I was in High School. Revisiting it again now offered many more insights into the life of John F. Nash, the Nobel Prize winning mathematician and economist whose struggles with Schizophrenia are described in the movie. The movie takes liberties with the literal narrative of Nash’s life, mainly in order to facilitate a smooth telling of the battles he had with the illness, to the exclusion of other details of his life which would only have been a distraction to the major theme of the movie. In spite of those departures, Nash’s biographer has said that the movie captures the spirit of his life and Nash himself did not argue about it much. 

 The movie is powerful, compelling and moving precisely because Nash’s life story itself is the same. No life is simple and people may point fingers at aspects of his life they find unpleasant. But a man can only try to live his life well, dealing with his own problems, not a kind of life others would want him to live. Nash was a misfit as a young man, desperate to make his mark in the world of mathematics, to the exclusion of activities one may expect a University student to enjoy. As his character in the movie says,” He never much liked people and people did not like him.” This trait of his would not have helped him make close friends, and that could have made his struggles all the more difficult. His anxiety about finding an original breakthrough at Princeton was eventually alleviated and he was even able to marry someone he loved. But the truly traumatizing experiences of his life were yet to come. 

Losing your grip on reality and watching your mind degenerate to the point where you no longer can think clearly is the worst nightmare that a mentally ill person goes through. A schizophrenic can lose touch with reality so completely that it becomes impossible for him to function in the real world. A depressive can feel as of his soul were stifled and choked; his life may seem to have ended even as ritual banalities of life go on, without him feeling the slightest desire for them. The spirit of man can still make him hold on to the tenuous hope of revival, the faintest echoes of happiness in his past calling to him to keep faith. Nash kept his faith and trusted his mind. It could not have been simple when the thing he trusted was what betrayed him. But the human mind is a mysterious realm; its powers are virtually unlimited when it comes to the personal. What is required from the soul is not to capitulate but to fight back vehemently, using its strengths to overcome adversity. 

Nash used logic and reasoning to defeat his internal demons. The incredible energy it must have consumed can make one wonder how he had any left to live on; but it is possible when the spirit is willing. Without purpose and love, he probably would not have succeeded. The mind, it has been said, is a faithful servant but a terrible master. Once it starts driving us into blind alleys, pain and suffering is not far away. Mental illness is another matter since it may not be under our control every time, though most mentally ill people have traits of character which exacerbate, expedite or even induce the illness. Nash’s story stands testimony to the power of the mind and human spirit to overcome the most debilitating of circumstances, while accepting life’s teachings and moulding one’s character according to those circumstances.