This movie is an Oscar contender this year and for good reason. It is a love story with all the ramifications of Intense Drama- Nobel Prize winner, Schizophrenic cured by the love of his life and he dedicates it to wife. It is brilliantly acted by Russell Crowe and Jennifer Connelly and Christopher Plummer does a caring, aristocratic Psychiatrist. It brought tears to my eyes especially the Nobel Speech. It aroused my curiosity to search for the Real John Nash and how close the movie stuck to his life. The web search led me to the Nobel prize site http://www.nobel.se/economics/laureates/1994/index.html  and others that give a biographical sketch http://www-groups.dcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Nash.html  and the book itself http://www.simonsays.com/book/default_book.cfm?isbn=0684853701 and a very good review http://www.jamesbowman.net/review.asp?pubID=901 .

 

The above information puts together quite a different portrayal of John Nash’s life and his struggles. His father was an electrical engineer and his mother took an active interest in teaching him because of his social isolation and awkward manners. He excelled later in college years and produced the brilliant paper on “Game Theory” at the age of 21. However by the age of 29 he had become quite ill. He had an affair earlier with Eleanor Stier and had a son but refused to marry her. He was arrested in a police trap for homosexuals and lost his job with Rand Corporation. He later married Alicia (parents from El Salvador) and decompensated a few months later. He was treated at different mental institutions mostly involuntarily. He was divorced from Alicia (1962) who took him back to Princeton where he roamed the halls for years. They had a son in 1959 who is also mathematically gifted and mentally ill.  Over time he recovered well enough to start teaching again at Princeton. His ex-wife Alicia took him back in but they never married again.

I am used to the Hollywood versions of reality. After all they have a job to do, sell the movie as dramatic and inspiring. Most of us are quite willing to take it and swallow it whole without critical appreciation. Schizophrenic’s life and its tribulations are a daily part of a psychiatrist’s life. The struggle a Schizophrenic has is with emotions and bonds with people. It is the extreme of “Can’t live with them and can’t live without them”. Closeness to people is often avoided by people suffering from this illness because of how easily they are overwhelmed with ambivalence (negative and positive feelings about someone at the same time). That leads to avoidance of people and fascination with subject matter that is not emotional. Mathematics and technical pursuits come a lot easier than drama, literature and history.

                Nash’s attempts to deal with people as though they could be dealt with in mathematical equations. However, he fails to grasp the emotional dialogue. That part is not captured well in the movie. It fails to convey the inner torture of hearing voices (people talking to you that are not there), fearing them and inability to shut them off. He was pursued by “aliens” and not Russians as the movie misstates. His awkwardness is portrayed that is visible to outsiders but little attempt is made to understand the intense fear and rage that alternate with intense longings and fears. It is no different than feeling possessed by demons that control your life. It was inevitable that he would be threat to his wife. Schizophrenics are most likely to kill their mothers or wives.

The treatment he received in the form of Insulin shock therapy (Dramatic piece indeed) and probably misguided Psychoanalytic treatment in the 50’s was not helpful. Those days few medicines were available and not very effective because of their side effects. Talk therapies are not very successful with schizophrenics because of their fear of emotional involvement. Ultimately reality therapy and assistance by a distant supportive figure combined with medications is most effective. His wife made the right choice by getting him back to Princeton and also by divorcing him and staying at some distance from him and not remarrying him. Schizophrenia incidence is the same worldwide about 1%. Schizophrenics do better in less developed countries than developed countres precisely because families may hide their mentally ill in less developed countries but do not abandon them. His wife’s origins in El Salvador may have more to do with it than suggested in the movie. He was more likely cured (became functional) by a combination of medications, time, support and his love of mathematics and not love for his wife. It is also not likely that he made the speech attributed to him at the Nobel Prize ceremony. That is not to say that his wife’s support was not needed, indeed it was essential but not crucial to his recovery.

Does the movie do justice to the cause of Schizophrenia or Psychiatry or John Nash?  It probably scores low on all those accounts. A better portrayal of schizophrenia was by Jeffrey Rush and psychiatrist was portrayed decently by Plummer. The attempt to sell a love story may have compromised indeed the personal hell and torture of Schizophrenics and their families. Most do not have genius to bail them out but neither is their case as bad today as it was 50 years ago. The newer drugs have cut down the private hell to a few weeks instead of years with more effective medications with fewer side effects. However, their world is a lot greyer than colorful.

Let me know if you agree, disagree or just have a comment.