A wonderful film, Beautiful Mind, is based on the life of John Nash. As in any work of art, the film contains discrepancies with the facts. At the end of the film, Nash receives Nobel Prize and gives an unforgettable speech at the award ceremony in Stockholm. An elderly scientist who comprehended the secrets of mathematics and spent his entire life fighting a terrible disease - schizophrenia, says that he achieved everything in life because of love - his love for his wife Alicia and her love for him.
Nash never made this speech. The procedure for awarding the Nobel Prize in Economics does not involve speeches by the laureates, although the scientist then went to Sweden. In May 2015, Nash traveled to Scandinavia again. This time he was invited to Norway, where King Harald V on Tuesday presented him and his colleague Louis Nirenberg with the Abel Prize for their contribution to the study differential equations. There, in Norway, the organizers helped the Nash spouses fulfill their dream of recent years - to meet and communicate with world chess champion Magnus Carlsen.
On Saturday, Nash and his wife returned to America and took a taxi home from the airport. The driver of the Ford they were traveling in tried to overtake the Chrysler, lost control and crashed into a road barrier. The Nash couple were not wearing seat belts and were thrown from the car and died on the spot. The driver was taken to the hospital, his life is not in danger.
John Nash was born on June 13, 1928 in a small town in West Virginia into an ordinary American family. My father is an electrical engineer, my mother is a teacher who quit her job after getting married and having children. Even as a child, Nash additionally studied mathematics and at the university, after a short-term passion for chemistry, he devoted himself entirely to this science. When he graduated from Carnegie Mellon University in 1948, his mentor recommended that he pursue further education and research. The recommendation consisted of one sentence: “This man is a genius.” The talented young scientist was expected at Harvard, but he chose Princeton to be closer to his family.
It was at Princeton, as a 22-year-old boy (!), that Nash became interested in game theory and described the famous equilibrium, later called the “Nash equilibrium” in his honor. Nash proved that in any non-cooperative game (the so-called games where the exchange of information between participants is prohibited) there is a type of decision in which no participant can increase the payoff by changing his decision unilaterally, when other participants do not change their decisions. For a series of four papers on game theory, Nash received a PhD at the age of 22. History is silent about whether John's breakthrough in understanding game theory actually occurred when he was thinking about how he and his friends could better approach girls in a bar (so shown in the film), but most likely this is fiction. But it is definitely true that the basis of the GTO theory, which is now very fashionable in poker, is precisely the work of Nash, and pushbot situations are professionally analyzed only on the basis of the principles formulated by him.
He achieved great success in other areas of mathematics - his interests ranged from differential equations to singularity theory. In 2011, NSA (Agency National Security) declassified letters Nash wrote in the 50s of the 20th century - even then he foresaw many of the concepts underlying modern cryptography.
However, Nash's brilliant career encountered an unexpected obstacle. First signs mental illness he developed symptoms in 1954, when in the city of Santa Monica (California) for some reason he went to a gathering place for local homosexuals and there, roughly speaking, took off his pants. No charges were brought, but Nash was stripped of his top security clearance. For many years he was haunted by accusations of homosexuality (not confirmed by anything other than this case), the attitude towards which was far from being so loyal in those years. A dark spot on the genius’s biography was his relationship with nurse Elinor Steer - he left her after learning about her pregnancy, and refused to take financial part in the life of their son John David (the film “A Beautiful Mind” was later condemned for not mentioning this fact ). However, Nash soon found his personal happiness - in the university music library, he met a student named Alicia who had moved to the United States from El Salvador and married her in 1957. “He was very smart and very handsome,” Alicia recalled.
Unfortunately, in 1959, while Alicia was pregnant, John Nash's health took a turn for the worse. He developed paranoid fears - for example, all people in red ties seemed to him to be participants in a communist conspiracy. He also had other hallucinations, mostly audio ones; Nash did not actually have the visual hallucinations so vividly shown in the film. At one of the lectures, he began to say something unimaginable, and his colleagues realized that something was wrong with him. Alicia had no choice but to put her husband in the hospital; he was given a terrible diagnosis - paranoid schizophrenia. Nash lost his job and spent much of his time in private and public psychiatric hospitals. Like almost any schizophrenic, he denied his illness; He had to be forcibly admitted to the clinic, which could not but affect the relationship with his wife. Despite Alicia's incredible devotion to her husband (their child was unnamed for a year as she waited for Nash to leave the hospital and say what name he liked), they divorced in 1962.
Nevertheless, Nash's loved ones continued to help, although he could, after being discharged from the clinic, suddenly leave for Europe, leaving them in complete ignorance and only occasionally sending illegible telegrams. The scientist himself tried to help himself - realizing that he was sick (in the film this happens in one of the most powerful scenes - Nash understands that the girl who constantly appears to him is not growing up, and therefore cannot be real), he set himself the goal of rationally analyzing his condition and try to learn to cope with it. Over time, he succeeded - despite completely refusing to take antipsychotics, in the 70s his condition began to improve, and since then he has not been admitted to the hospital. His ex-wife at that time played a big role in improving the professor’s condition - she welcomed him home again and provided him with the opportunity to “live a quiet life,” which in her opinion was a key factor for recovery.
The famous scene "She never gets old"
Nash himself criticized the film based on his life for the fact that it main character- for playing this role, Russell Crowe received BAFTA and Golden Globe awards, and was also nominated for an Oscar - still takes some experimental medications. He blamed this on the screenwriter, who, it seemed to him, was afraid that mentally ill people under the influence of the film would refuse to take their prescribed medications, trying to imitate the hero of A Beautiful Mind. John Nash in his autobiography described his way of dealing with mental disorder: “Gradually I began to intellectually reject some of the illusory lines of thinking that had previously characterized my condition. Most notably, this began with the rejection of politically oriented thinking, since such an approach was a pointless waste of intellectual effort. Nowadays, it seems to me that I think rationally, as scientists tend to do. “I wouldn’t say it gives me the joy that anyone recovering from a physical illness experiences,” Nash continues. “Sound thinking limits man’s ideas about his connection with the cosmos.”
In the late 70s, Nash began to gradually return to work, and in the late 80s, he began to use by email to communicate with working mathematicians. They say that many of them were shocked to receive a letter from “that same Nash.” However, it was young colleagues who confirmed to the Nobel Committee that John Nash’s mental state had returned to normal, and awarding him the prize would not harm its reputation.
The outstanding scientist became known to the general public at the beginning of the 21st century. In 1998, journalist Sylvia Nazar wrote a biography of the scientist, A Beautiful Mind: The Life of Mathematical Genius and Nobel Laureate John Nash; the book was highly praised by critics and nominated for the prestigious Pulitzer Prize. The book came across to producer Brian Grazer, and before he could finish reading it, he contacted the author and acquired the rights to the film adaptation. He involved screenwriter Akiva Goldsman in the creation of the film (it was he who came up with the idea of not explaining to the audience for the time being that part of what the main character sees is just a hallucination) and director Ron Howard. The casting also turned out to be successful - the unexpected choice of Russell Crowe, who had just played in the film Gladiator, for the leading role, brought him a third Oscar nomination for Best Actor in a row; Jennifer Connelly performed brilliantly in the role of Nash's wife, Alicia. Film critic Roger Ebert wrote: “...Jennifer Conelly shines as Alicia. While Crowe has the larger role, it's Connelly's multifaceted performance as a woman torn between love and fear for the same man that elevates the film to new heights."
The film Beautiful Mind was liked not only by critics, but also by ordinary viewers - it grossed more than $300 million at the global box office - and received four Oscar awards, including in the main categories - Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay”, as well as “Best Supporting Actress” for Jennifer Connelly.
Despite the excitement, the Nash couple continued to live an ordinary “quiet” life. In 2001 they got married again. "We thought it was good idea. After all, we’ve been together most of our lives,” said Alicia. They watched their favorite series “Doctor Who” together, John studied science to the best of his ability, continued to travel with lectures and receive awards around the world; Alicia provided for the life of her brilliant husband and their son, John Charles Martin Nash. Unfortunately, the family was not spared a repeated drama - the son turned out to have the same illness as his father - schizophrenia. Last years The Nashes were actively involved in social activities aimed at preserving and developing programs to support people with disabilities. mental illness, which give such patients the opportunity to live outside of clinics. Alicia Nash explained her participation in this work simply: “When I’m gone, will Johnny have to live on the street?”
Alicia Nash was with her husband before last minute his life, confirming the validity of what Sylvia Nazari wrote in the book: “Nash’s genius is that he chose a woman thanks to whom he could survive.” Their son was less fortunate.
John and Alicia Nash are remembered around the world today. “We are shocked and saddened to hear of the untimely passing of John Nash and his wife and great champion, Alicia. John's extraordinary achievements inspired generations of mathematicians, economists and scientists who were influenced by his brilliant work in game theory, and the story of his life with Alicia touched millions of readers and film fans who admired their courage in the face of severe tests" said Princeton President Christopher Eisgruber.
“Rest in peace to the wonderful Nobel laureate John Nash and his wonderful wife Alicia. It was an honor to tell part of their story."
On May 23, 2015, New Jersey police issued a traffic accident report with fatalities.
A taxi driver carrying an elderly couple tried to overtake on the highway, lost control and crashed into a bump stop. The person responsible for the accident received non-life-threatening injuries and was taken to the hospital.
Passengers who were not wearing seat belts were thrown out of the cabin by the impact. Doctors who arrived at the scene of the accident confirmed the death of both.
The dead were 86-year-old.
John Nash, whose name became a legend first in the scientific world and then among the general public, had an amazing life full of dramatic twists, into which his peaceful death in his own bed did not fit in any way. The higher powers obviously took this into account...
From hate to love - one book
John Nash and his wife Alicia. 2002 Photo: Reuters
John Nash was born on June 13, 1928 in Bluefield, West Virginia, into a strict Protestant family. John's father worked as an electrical engineer, his mother, who worked as a teacher before her marriage, changed her career to become a housewife.
Nobody saw signs of a genius in little John - an ordinary boy who prefers street games to lessons.
He was an average student, and especially did not like... mathematics. The teacher seemed to instill in his student an insurmountable disgust for his subject.
But at the age of 14, John came across the book “Creators of Mathematics.” The teenager became interested in reading and, unexpectedly for everyone, discovered incredible abilities.
“After reading this book, I was able to prove Fermat’s little theorem myself, without outside help,” the scientist later wrote in his autobiography.
Surprisingly, when John entered the Carnegie Polytechnic Institute, he did not initially consider mathematics as his vocation. At first he tried to find himself in chemistry, then in international economics, and only then came to the conclusion that mathematics was closest to him.
"This man is a genius"
From the Carnegie Institution in 1947, 19-year-old John Nash graduated with bachelor's and master's degrees and a letter of recommendation from a teacher that said it all: “This man is a genius.”
He attended Princeton University, where he first heard about game theory, which captured his imagination. 20-year-old Nash lays down the foundations scientific method, which will have a huge impact on the global economy.
In 1949, the 21-year-old scientist wrote a thesis on game theory, for which he would receive his main award several decades later.
Nash was completely immersed in his work, releasing one after another of works on game theory.
Colleagues recognized his genius, but at the same time treated him without any sympathy. John seemed to them a gloomy, uncommunicative, withdrawn, arrogant and selfish type.
Nobody guessed that these were not character traits, but signs of an approaching illness.
In 1951, Nash joined the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His new works deserve very high marks, but his colleagues stay away from John himself. It's not just John's sullenness and selfishness - his work mathematically proved the correctness of Karl Marx's theory of surplus value. During the notorious “witch hunt”, such “communist heresy” was fraught with loss of work, or even criminal prosecution.
At this time, Nash had problems in his personal life - his girlfriend, nurse Eleanor Stier, left him. There is no consensus on why this happened - some say that Eleanor could not stand John’s cold and arrogant attitude, others say that the girl was afraid of problems with the authorities because of Nash’s “communist” research. Be that as it may, at the time of the breakup, Eleanor was expecting a child. The scientist did not give his surname to his born son and also did not help his mother financially.
Destructive "voices"
The scientist has a new romance with the beautiful student Alicia Lard. John won the heart of the girl, who was not stopped by the strange behavior of the scientist. In 1957 they got married.
It seemed that John Nash's life had finally improved. Popular science magazines called him “the rising star of American science,” Alicia was expecting a child.
But the strangeness in John’s behavior increased - he heard voices that no one else had heard, he began to talk about some “secret information” and a “conspiracy against America.” It soon became clear that the mathematician was showing all the symptoms of schizophrenia.
What was it like for a 26-year-old woman to experience this in the last months of pregnancy? Alicia desperately tried to help her husband overcome the disease, hiding it from others, but soon this became impossible - John’s behavior spoke for itself.
In 1959, Nash lost his job - the mentally ill genius seemed to employers to be too unreliable an employee.
Family life, work, science - everything went downhill. Nash was forcibly hospitalized in a private psychiatric clinic, where he was given powerful drugs for 50 days. Nothing good came of this - the pharmacological effect only worsened Nash's condition.
"Phantom" from Princeton
The scientist decided to leave for Europe. Alicia, leaving her newborn son with her family, went to pick up her husband. John rushed around Europe, asking for political asylum, but was refused everywhere. On the one hand, Europeans were alarmed by Nash’s condition, on the other hand, pressure was exerted by the US authorities, who did not want the abnormal, but still genius, to leave their sphere of influence.
Nash was eventually arrested in France and deported to the United States. The scientist finally went into the world of illusions - his words and notes looked like incoherent nonsense, yesterday’s colleagues listened to him solely out of compassion.
In January 1961, John's exhausted family again admitted him to a mental hospital, where he was given a harsh course of insulin therapy.
After discharge, Nash goes to Europe again, but without Alicia - unable to bear it, the wife filed for divorce. She will raise their common son alone. The talent of mathematics and schizophrenia will be passed on to the son from his father.
Those colleagues who had the courage not to refuse to support Nash managed to find a psychiatrist for him who managed to stabilize the scientist’s condition.
For several years he returned to a relatively normal life, but then another breakdown followed.
By the early 1970s, what was left of the former “Rising Hope of America” was a strange man in shabby clothes, who sometimes could not find a place to sleep. In this situation, John was saved by his ex-wife, who took him in.
For many years to come, Princeton students called him "the Phantom" - he would suddenly appear in the classroom and write down formulas on the boards that only he could understand.
“Sound mind limits connections with space”
In the 1980s, when everyone began to forget about John Nash as a working scientist, something that no one expected began to happen. The mathematician began to return from the world of illusions and hallucinations, his speeches became more and more meaningful, and the formulas on the boards became not the ravings of a madman, but the thoughts of a brilliant mathematician.
The doctors shrugged their shoulders and shrugged their shoulders. John Nash, incomprehensible to them, managed to win the fight with schizophrenia.
“I think if you want to get rid of mental illness, you must, without relying on anyone, set a serious goal for yourself. Psychiatrists want to stay in business,” the mathematician later wrote.
Nash focused on math and soon returned to his pre-illness level. “Now I think sensibly,” the scientist wrote, “but this does not give me the feeling of happiness that any recovering person should experience. A common mind limits a scientist’s ideas about his connection with the cosmos.”
In 1994, the Nobel Committee awarded John Nash the Economics Prize "for his analysis of equilibrium in the theory of non-cooperative games." Nash's work, created in 1949, was awarded the Nobel Prize.
John Nash was not given the laureate's traditional lecture. Organizers feared that Nash's condition would turn the event into an embarrassment.
Mathematician and superstar
In 1998, American journalist and economics professor at Columbia University Sylvia Nasar wrote a biography of John Nash entitled A Beautiful Mind: The Life of a Mathematical and Nobel laureate John Nash." The book became a bestseller and attracted the attention of Hollywood producers.
In 2001, the film A Beautiful Mind, based on the book, was released, in which John Nash played the role Russell Crowe. The film was a resounding success - with a budget of $58 million, it grossed $313 million at the box office, and was also awarded 4 Oscars and 4 Golden Globes.
The cinematic story of John Nash was very different from the real one, which did not prevent him from becoming a celebrity not only in the scientific world, but also among the broadest sections of the population.
Also in 2001, after 38 years of divorce, John and Alicia Nash got married again.
John Nash immersed himself in his favorite mathematics, continuing his research.
In 2002, the Norwegian government established the Abel Prize in Mathematics. The award, named after the Norwegian mathematician Niels Henrik Abel, was conceived as an analogue of the Nobel Prize, which, as we know, is not awarded to mathematicians.
In 2015, the Abel Prize was awarded to John Nash for his contributions to the theory of nonlinear differential equations.
Thus, John Nash became the first scientist to be awarded both the Nobel and Abel Prizes.
This triumph was a brilliant conclusion to a great scientific career and an amazing life.
It is unlikely that John Nash himself considered this award as the final result. But fate had a different opinion...
The film A Beautiful Mind, which received four Oscars, was based on the biography of John Nash. The film makes you look differently at people suffering from mysterious schizophrenia. This picture is one of the most beautiful and touching stories of madness, recovery, discovery, fame, uselessness, loneliness - everything that makes up the life of a genius. John Nash is one of the most revered and famous mathematicians in the world, working in the fields of game theory and differential geometry. In 1994 he received the Nobel Prize in Economics. Nash's dissertation, where he proved the existence of what was later called the Nash Equilibrium, was only 27 pages long. The mathematician for many years tragically struggled with his own madness, bordering on genius. Our selection includes 12 of his quotes - they will captivate you with their depth and originality.
- Good scientific ideas would not come to me if I thought like normal people.
- At times I thought differently than everyone else and did not follow the norm, but I am sure that there is a connection between creative thinking and abnormality.
- It seems to me that when people are unhappy, they become mentally ill. Nobody goes crazy when they win the lottery. This happens when you don't win it.
- Now I think quite sensibly, like any scientist. I won’t say that this gives me the joy that anyone who recovers from a physical illness experiences. Common thinking limits man's ideas about his connection with the cosmos.
- Something may be considered incredible and unrealistic, but everything is possible.
- I have never seen imaginary people, sometimes I heard them. Most people see imaginary people all their lives, having no idea about real ones.
- My main thing scientific achievement The point is that all my life I have been doing things that really interest me, and I have not spent a day doing any nonsense.
- In mathematics, it is not so much the ability to strain the brain that is important, but the ability to relax it. I think ten out of a hundred can do this, no more. For some reason this works better in youth.
- You can't make money with math, but you can organize your brain in such a way that you can start making money. In general, those who do not know how to count money are able to earn money. Money cannot be counted rationally; its quantity almost never corresponds to your quality; this is where all the conflicts lie.
- At least three people can understand me, yes. We have a systematic language for this communication. And no one can understand another person - for example, you - precisely because you cannot formalize yourself. It is generally impossible to understand people.
- I need contact with those people who can check my results. Otherwise, I think not.
- There are no epiphanies. In my case, the task was solved the moment it was set.
In the “Main Thought” library you can read reviews of books that develop and activate creative, non-trivial thinking. For example, books
Nobel laureate and simply a very strong-willed personality John Nash is a scientist who formulated the foundations of a method that had a significant impact on...
American mathematician John Nash: biography, achievements and Interesting Facts
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11.04.2018 20:01Nobel laureate and simply a very strong-willed personality, John Nash, is a scientist who formulated the foundations of a method that has had a significant impact on the modern world economy. He received his main award for his work on game theory, which he published at age 21. But Nash’s genius coexisted with symptoms of schizophrenia, and a life full of sharp turns, unfortunately, did not include a peaceful death among his family.
The last chapter in the biography
Three years ago, on May 23, 2015, in the city of Monroe (Gloucester County, American state New Jersey) there was a car accident with fatalities. The taxi driver, having driven into the oncoming lane to overtake, lost control and a collision occurred.
The person responsible for the accident was taken to the hospital. He survived with minor injuries. But two passengers who were not wearing seat belts were thrown out of the cabin. Medics who arrived at the scene of the traffic accident pronounced both the man and the woman dead.
The dead were mathematician John Nash and his wife Alicia. The Nobel laureate died at the age of 87, and his wife died at the age of 82. Such was the death of a brilliant scientist, whose life was full of dramatic turns.
From hatred to life's work
John Forbes Nash Jr. was born on June 13, 1928 in Bluefield, West Virginia. His father was an electrical engineer, and his mother, who managed to work for 10 years before marriage school teacher, was now doing housework. Nash's family was strictly Protestant.
Little John was an ordinary child, showing no signs that he would win the Nobel Prize in Economics a couple of decades later. The boy preferred outdoor games to lessons, studied averagely, did not like exact sciences, and especially mathematics. The teacher literally instilled in his student a disgust for the subject being studied.
At the age of 14, John Nash came across the book “The Creators of Mathematics” by Eric T. Bell, a mathematician and author of science fiction books. The teenager became incredibly interested in reading. After reading the book, he was able to prove Fermat's theorem on his own. Nash would later write about this interesting fact in his autobiography.
After school, the young man entered the Polytechnic Institute (now it is a private educational institution- Carnegie Mellon University). There he did not consider mathematics at all as his vocation, but initially studied chemistry and international economics. Only after that John Nash decided to take up mathematics, since it was closest to him.
In 1947, nineteen-year-old Nash Jr. graduated from the university with a bachelor's and master's degrees simultaneously. His supervisor's letter of recommendation spoke for itself. Richard Duffin wrote that "John Nash is a mathematical genius."
"He's a math genius"
After graduating from the Carnegie Institute, the young scientist entered Princeton University. It was there that he first heard information about game theory, which captured his imagination. At the age of twenty, he formulated the foundations of a method that later played an important role in the world economy.
In 1949, Nash published a dissertation on game theory. John Nash has found his life's work. Five years later, it was for this work that he would receive his most important award - the Nobel Prize. Officially, the award was awarded “for fundamental analysis equilibrium in game theory."
During 1950-1953, the scientist published four more works in the field of zero-sum games. They all became revolutionary. He discovered the possibility of a state of equilibrium, with all parties using a strategy that leads to equilibrium. This result was later called the “Nash equilibrium.”
In '51, John Nash began working at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (better known as MIT). At this time, he wrote several works on the theory of varieties and algebraic geometry, which were highly appreciated by his contemporaries. He is the author of The Bidding Problem and Non-Cooperative Games.
Colleagues recognized the uniqueness of John Nash's knowledge, but the team did not like him. The young scientist was a genius, but he seemed to others to be a closed, uncommunicative, gloomy, selfish and arrogant person. But these are not his natural character traits, but signs of an approaching illness.
Another reason for the alienation of his colleagues was that his works proved mathematical methods loyalty to the theory of Karl Marx. Here we're talking about on the theory of surplus value. But these were the times of the “witch hunt,” when such communist sentiments threatened not just loss of work, but also criminal prosecution.
At the same time, John Nash had problems in his personal life, but more on that below.
A little about game theory
Not all readers understand mathematical theories, so a short explanation would be helpful. Game theory is a method for studying optimal strategies in processes that involve two or more parties fighting to realize their interests. This theory allows you to choose the best strategy, that is, the one that will lead to winning.
Methods for studying strategies in games most often find their application in economics, and somewhat less frequently in sociology, ethics, psychology, political science, law and other sciences. Since the seventies, it has been adopted by biologists who have studied animal behavior and the theory of evolution.
John Nash's theory is of exceptional importance for cybernetics, artificial intelligence and modern technologies. During and after World War II, the theory was of interest to the military, who saw it as a way to explore strategic decisions.
Personal life of an outstanding scientist
In 1951, John was abandoned by his girlfriend, nurse Eleanor Stier (according to another version - Stier). It is unknown why this happened. There is an opinion that the girl could not stand the arrogant attitude of her lover (it soon turned out that he was ill), and someone says that Eleanor was afraid of persecution by the authorities for Nash’s “communist” research.
Whatever it is the real reason breakup, all that is known is that Stier was expecting a child at that time. John Nash to son didn't give his last name. In the future, he did not financially support the mother of John David Stier (Styer).
The heroine of the new novel by John Forbes Nash Jr. is student Alicia Lard. The girl was not stopped by the scientist’s oddities, and already in 1957 they officially became spouses. Life has improved. Alicia was expecting her first child, and popular science publications called John Nash Jr. “the rising star of American science.” But the strangeness in the man’s behavior increased.
Voices in the head and “secret information”
The scientist heard voices that no one else heard; he began to mention every now and then some kind of “conspiracy against America” and “secret information.” The mathematician began to show signs of mental illness. Alicia, a 26-year-old woman in the final months of pregnancy, sought to help her husband overcome schizophrenia, but John's behavior was very difficult to control.
In 1959 Researcher was fired. Everything went downhill. Nash was hospitalized in a clinic, where he was injected with powerful drugs for almost two months. But the pharmacological effect only worsened John Nash's condition.
Princeton Phantom
Then Nash decided to go to Europe. Alicia left her son with relatives, going to pick up her husband. John asked for political asylum in several European countries, but was refused everywhere, since the Europeans were concerned about his health condition, and the US authorities also exerted pressure. They did not want the genius to leave their sphere of influence.
Nash was arrested and forcibly sent to America. There's a scientist's state Once again worsened. His notes resembled incoherent nonsense, rather than the study of a mathematical genius. Yesterday's colleagues listened to John's ideas only out of compassion.
In 1961, he was again admitted to a psychiatric clinic. After being discharged from the hospital, Nash went to Europe again, this time Alicia remained at home. The scientist's wife divorced. She began to raise their common son alone. By the way, his talent for mathematics and schizophrenia were passed on to him from his father.
For a while, Nash returned to a (relatively) normal life, but a new deterioration followed. In the early seventies, all that remained of the brilliant scientist was a man in old clothes, who sometimes could not find a place to sleep. His ex-wife saved him. Alicia took John back and helped him, and in 2011 they got married again.
For many years, students at Princeton University called future Nobel laureate John Nash the Phantom. He received this nickname because more than once he suddenly appeared in offices and wrote down formulas on the board, the meaning of which was clear only to him.
Thoughts of a genius mathematician
In the early eighties, they began to forget about John Nash as a scientist who showed great promise, but it was then that something happened that no one expected. His notes and speech again became meaningful, and his formulas became not the delirium of a mentally ill person, but the thoughts of a brilliant mathematician. Doctors couldn't explain it, but Nash won his battle with schizophrenia. He simply began to ignore the voices in his head, and they gradually disappeared.
John Nash quickly returned to the level of science that he had before his illness. In 1994, the scientist was awarded the Nobel Prize. She was awarded the work created in 1949. By the way, Nash was not given the Nobel lecture. This interesting fact was explained by the organizers. They were simply afraid that Nash's health would affect the performance and something would go wrong.
“Beautiful Mind” S. Nazar
Four years after Nash was awarded the Nobel Prize, Sylvia Nazar wrote a biography of the scientist. The work is called "A Beautiful Mind: The Life of Mathematical Genius and Nobel Laureate John Nash." The book sold well and attracted many Hollywood producers.
Film "A Beautiful Mind"
In 2001, a film based on the book by Sylvia Nazar was released. Russell Crowe played John Nash. With a budget of 58 million US dollars, the film grossed 313 million. It was a stunning success. In addition, A Beautiful Mind was awarded four Oscars. Of course, the cinematic story differed from the real one, but this did not prevent Nash from becoming popular not only in scientific circles, but also among the general public. This film is worth watching not only for those who are interested in science and the personality of this scientist, but also for educational purposes.
Nobel and Abel Prizes
Interesting fact: John Nash became the first person in the world of science to simultaneously hold both the Nobel Prize and the Abel Prize. The Abelevskaya was established by the Norwegian government as an analogue of the Prize named after. Nobel for mathematicians. This triumph was an excellent final step in Nash's scientific career.
Some Nash sayings
Biography of John Nash - most interesting story, some of his sayings will help you understand it completely. For example, about the future:
I don't know what future awaits me. Even if I don't have much left. Of course, in general, the future is endless, unless something bad happens or a miracle happens.
About problems and solutions:
The problem is solved the moment it is posed.
Touching words about love, which may have become John’s confession to his wife Alicia:
I'm here today only because of you. You are the only reason for my presence. You are all my reasons.
A short dialogue about science, love and faith:
- Tell me, is the Universe great? - Infinite... - How do you know? - All the data point to this. - But this has not been proven, have you not seen it yourself? Why are you sure? - I’m not sure, I believe. - It’s the same with love...
About mathematics as an art and my attitude towards biologists:
Mathematics is a very specific science, it is a special kind of art, no matter what people around you tell you, especially those who study biology.
About questions and answers, the nature of genius:
Geniuses know the answer before they know the question.
The death of the great mathematician was a tragedy for science. During his long, but still prematurely ended life, he managed to do a lot. Perhaps, if not for illness, Nash would have been able to formulate even more important scientific theories, laws and develop several additional techniques. But there is also a possibility that it was precisely because of such a destructive predisposition to schizophrenia that he became a mathematical genius. It's a fine line. We can only hope that modern history will recognize more than one equally talented scientist, but with a calmer fate.
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The personality of John Nash became known to many people far from the world of science after the release of the film “A Beautiful Mind” starring Russell Crowe on the big screen. leading role. To a certain extent, Hollywood cinema idealizes mathematics, as John himself mentioned after watching the film. Meanwhile, there is a more truthful and almost unknown documentary called Brilliant Madness."
We are in website decided to look at Nash's life from a different angle. The editors read the book A Beautiful Mind, which contains much more biographical facts than the film of the same name.
Youth and university studies
As a child, Nash hated math, and his grades in school were consistent. He himself says in his autobiography that everything changed after the book “Creators of Mathematics.” It was written so excitingly and clearly that after reading it he was able to independently prove one small theorem.
Of course, Nash entered the mathematics department, and before that he managed to gain knowledge in the field of chemical engineering and international economics. Behind outstanding achievements upon graduation, John was given not only a bachelor's degree, but also a master's degree, and he set off to conquer Princeton University. In Nash's pocket was recommendation from a former teacher, which briefly stated: “He is a math genius.”
Former classmates claim that John was obsessed with money and incredibly stingy. One day it got to the point that, following a comic advice, he went to look for a bank that would issue envelopes and stamps for free when servicing a current account. He was unable to find such an institution.
During his years of study, his first serious romance began, which is not particularly known to the general public. The romantic relationship ended in a painful breakup. As a result of this relationship, John had a son, with whom he never interacted.
Despite the love affairs, Nash did not deviate one iota from the set course. He was 21 years old when he wrote his dissertation on game theory at Princeton. 45 years later, it was for this that he would receive the Nobel Prize in Economics.
Marriage and the first signs of illness
After finishing graduate school, John remained to teach at Princeton and worked part-time for private companies. He was 26 years old when police arrested him for indecent exposure. We don’t know the details of that story, but perhaps this incident was the first sign foreshadowing John’s mental problems. Moreover, for this oversight he lost his privileges at work: his security clearance was revoked.
A little later, John married his student Alicia Lard, who was only 4 years younger than him. A year later, Fortune magazine called Nash a “rising star in mathematics,” and his young wife became pregnant. At the same time, he began to show the first signs of schizophrenia.
The disease developed rapidly, and it became increasingly difficult to hide it from the public. The final straw came when Nash turned down the university's offer to become dean of the mathematics department. He stated that he did not intend to waste time on any nonsense and wanted to be the emperor of Antarctica.
John lost his job and was involuntarily committed to a mental hospital. He was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and was forced to take medication for two months. After being discharged, he suddenly decided to go to Europe. Alicia left her newborn son with her parents and followed her husband. Nash tried to find political asylum, but was unable to do so. He was soon arrested and deported to the United States.
Separately, it is necessary to mention visual hallucinations, which play a large role in the film “A Beautiful Mind”. The real Nash never saw them, he only heard the voices. In addition, the mathematician had a lot of unfounded fears, which are also not reflected in the film. For example, when he saw red ties, he inevitably began to think that a participant in a communist conspiracy was standing in front of him.
Contrary to popular belief, John never worked for the Pentagon and did not search for encrypted messages from Russian or Japanese spies. True, he believed that the world was plotting against America, and therefore wrote personal letters to the US government. Without going into details, John convinced the state that it was necessary to use a fundamentally different method of encrypting information, and even proposed one. The amazing thing about the idea is that this is the method that is being used now, in our days. Then, of course, no one answered John’s letters.
Treatment with insulin coma and leaving the family
The disease developed. Aggressive treatment in mental hospitals did not produce any results. John talked about himself in the third person, constantly called former colleagues to talk about the latest crazy conspiracy theory, and was afraid of something.
When the situation finally got out of control, a distraught Nash was again admitted to the clinic. There he underwent a course of insulin comatose therapy - this is the artificial introduction of a person into a coma using insulin. After his discharge, John's former colleagues offered him a job out of pity, but Nash refused and left for Europe again.
This trip became the last straw for Alicia. She divorced John and raised their son on her own. Unfortunately, already in adolescence it became clear that the boy also had schizophrenia. On his own recognition, he believed that the voices he heard belonged to God. The hallucinations were not only auditory, like my father's, but also visual.
Returning from the “trip”, Nash was not without help former colleagues got a job at Princeton University and met a new psychiatrist who prescribed him gentle medications, not the ones he had to take in mental hospitals. The pills suppressed the symptoms of schizophrenia, and Nash began to communicate with ex-wife and son. The idyll did not last long: John was afraid that the medications were affecting the brain and the ability to think, and stopped taking them - the symptoms returned with renewed vigor.
At Princeton, Nash often wandered around the university like a ghost and wrote incomprehensible formulas on chalk boards. Because of this, the students nicknamed him the Phantom.
The fight against schizophrenia and two prestigious awards
Despite the illness becoming worse again, Alicia allowed Nash to move in with them. She believed that she committed betrayal when she divorced John. Perhaps it was this step that saved the brilliant mathematician from vagrancy, since, being divorced, he did not have his own home and often spent the night in hotels or with friends.
The disease only subsided in the 1980s. The doctors shrugged their shoulders in surprise, but the whole secret was that John, by an effort of his mind, forced himself not to pay attention to the symptoms and took up mathematics again. He no longer took medications.
However, there is a fly in the ointment in this story: it is known that in schizophrenics, symptoms become less and less obvious as they get older. Perhaps it was a natural process and no cure occurred.
In 1994, Nash received the Nobel Prize in Economics for a dissertation he wrote at age 21. John was not given the traditional lecture for such cases because they were afraid for his mental state. Instead, a seminar was organized with the participation of scientists in which they discussed John's contributions to game theory.
A few years later, Nash and Alicia remarried. Meanwhile, 38 years have passed since the divorce. And shortly before his death, Nash received the highest award in mathematics - the Abel Prize - and became the first and so far the only person in the world to receive two prizes at once - the Nobel and the Abel.
John and Alicia died on the same day and even in the same moment. In 2015, they were involved in a car accident. He was 86, Alicia was 82. Interestingly, it was all due to an accident: the couple were not wearing seat belts, and the driver of the car (who was wearing a seat belt) escaped with minor injuries. As you can see, the life of even a recognized genius can be ruined by one small mistake.
"A Beautiful Mind" ends on a positive note: an aged John receives the Nobel Prize, Alicia stands by his side, and they have a long and happy life. Share with us in the comments, to what extent do you think the image of Nash created in the film did not coincide with the real personality of the genius?