A Beautiful Mind

Nonfiction | Biography | Adult | Published in 1998

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Part 4, Chapters 43-46Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 43 Summary: “Solitude, Boston, 1965-67”

Nash is lonely in Boston, missing Alicia and John Charles. He sees a psychiatrist and is put on medication. He takes this reluctantly, fearing that it will “prevent him from thinking clearly enough to resume mathematical work” (315).

He sees Eleanor and their child, John David, regularly and enjoys having Eleanor cook for him again. There is “a gulf” (315) between Nash and his son, one that he does not help by failing to hide his “dismay over his son’s faulty grammar and indifferent performance at school” (315). None of them are especially happy with their lives and Nash begins to lose interest, still hoping to get back together with Alicia.

Nash begins working on new papers, which remarkably actually “[break] new ground” (318). His “renewed productivity produce[s] a rush of self-confidence” (318). However, in spring, his mental health declines and he becomes incredibly manic and incoherent, unable to stop talking and yet not “able to interact any more” (319).

Deteriorating rapidly, Nash becomes paranoid and delusional again, seeing messages in The New York Times, worrying about international political conspiracies, and deciding that “there [are] magic numbers, dangerous numbers’ (320).

Chapter 44 Summary: “A Man All Alone in a Strange World, Roanoke, 1967-70”

Now forty years old but with the “hollow-cheeked, sunken-eyed, gray-haired” appearance of “an old man” (323), Nash lives in an apartment in Roanoke with his mother. He spends his time “wander[ing] around town whistling” or, more often, “simply pac[ing] round and round the apartment” (323) with a “sleepwalker’s gait and fixed faraway expression” (324).

He remains obsessive about politics and conspiracies, codes and messages but, like many schizophrenics, can still “apprehend certain aspects of everyday reality” (324) and even has the “ironic awareness that his insights [are] essentially private, unique to himself, and bound seem strange or unbelievable to others” (325).

Nash is terrified that his mother or sister will have him committed again. For his mother, living with her delusional son is “a practical nightmare” (330). She dies towards the end of 1969 and Nash is convinced that there is “something sinister about her death” (330).

Unable to tolerate him in her own home, Nash’s sister has him committed again shortly after Christmas, 1969. When he is released again in February, he “break[s] off all communication with her because of her role in his hospitalization” (331) before traveling back to Princeton.

Chapter 45 Summary: “Phantom of Fine Hall, Princeton, 1970s”

New students at Princeton sometimes see the figure known as “the Phantom,” “a very peculiar, thin, silent man walking the halls […] with sunken eyes and a sad immobile face” (332). The Phantom scrawls messages on the blackboards, filled with numbers and codes and allusions to politics, philosophy, and religion.

One time, a student scrubs off a message and, some days later, finds the Phantom “sweating, trembling, and practically crying” (333) as he replaces the text. Other students actually study the messages and find “the remarkable connections, level of detail, and breadth of knowledge … exceptional” (333), even if the reasoning behind the messages is unclear.

Although Nash’s reduction to the “the Phantom” is an indication of the extent of his illness, it also indicates that his “condition [has] stabilized” (335). After all, the sincere attempt to convey ideas that he believes are “important” even if they “might seem crazy to others, implie[s] a willingness to make connections with the community at large” (335).

Nash’s messages are written in “base 26” which “uses twenty-six symbols, the number of letters in the English alphabet […] Thus, if a calculation [comes] out ‘right,’ it produce[s] actual words” (336). While the messages may not be intelligible, they still require “deep abstraction of the sort that real mathematicians perform” and may play “a role in preventing Nash’s mental capabilities from deteriorating” (336).

It is perhaps not surprising that Princeton is the place where Nash becomes more stable and connected. It is “quiet and safe,” “human contact [is] available, but not intrusive,” and Nash is able “to express himself, without fearing that someone would shut him up or fill him up with medication” (335).

In 1978, Nash is awarded the prestigious John Von Neumann Theory Prize, although he is not invited to attend the prize ceremony.

Chapter 46 Summary: “A Quiet Life, Princeton, 1970-90”

In 1970, Alicia, “moved by pity, loyalty, and the realization that no one else on earth [will] take him” (340), offers to let Nash stay with her and Johnny. Although she refers to him as a “boarder” (342), the three spend a reasonable amount of time together.

Nash is still unwell and still wanders the streets absently, “haphazardly dressed, his gray hair long, his expression blank” (342), but he is able to engage on some levels, sometimes even helping Johnny with his homework.

Johnny proves himself “an excellent student” with “a marked interest in and a talent for mathematics” (343). However, one day he disappears and, when he returns, he has “shaved his head and […] become a born-again Christian” (343). Eventually, it becomes clear that “Johnny [is] hearing voices and that he believe[s] that he [is] a great religious figure” (344). Eventually, Alicia has no choice but to have him hospitalized at the Carrier Clinic where he is diagnosed with schizophrenia.

Later, his symptoms largely under control, Johnny studies math at Rutgers University and is awarded a PhD in 1985.

Chapters 43-46 Analysis

In a familiar pattern, on his release from the clinic, Nash initially seems to be doing well, breaking ground with his research and catching up with Eleanor and his estranged son. However, this does not last and he becomes ill yet again.

His extreme obsession over codes, patterns, and messages becomes more prominent as he decides that there are “magic numbers, dangerous numbers” (320). He becomes so manic that he can barely stop talking and yet, highlighting the isolation his illness creates, he is not “able to interact any more” (319) or convey his ideas and insights to others. The fact that Nash maintains an “ironic awareness that his insights [are] essentially private, unique to himself” (325) must make this isolation even more extreme.

Mirroring his earlier working methods, Nash spends much of his time “wander[ing] around town whistling” or “simply pac[ing] round and round the apartment” (323), the severity of his illness again indicated by his physical appearance and his “sleepwalker’s gait and fixed faraway expression” (324).

After Nash is committed and released yet again, his physical appearance as the gaunt “Phantom” is again used to convey his poor mental health and isolation. However, Nash’s time as the Phantom haunting the corridors of Princeton is, in many respects, a positive, stabilizing period. Nash finally gets his autonomy back within the safe world of academia. This allows him to begin attempting to communicate more, leaving messages on blackboards in lecture theatres.

In many respects, the connections between Nash’s “insane” and “sane” working habits appear as a bridge back from total isolation. He returns to his old thinking habits, walking the corridors day and night, and he begins using his obsession with secret codes to try and find additional meaning and convey messages to others. Gradually, he learns to “to express himself, without fearing that someone [will] shut him up or fill him up with medication” (335).

Nash even manages to reestablish some form of relationship with Alicia, moving in with her as a “boarder” (342), and developing a bond with his son Johnny. After some time, however, Johnny begins showing the same symptoms as Nash, and Alicia is forced to have him committed for schizophrenia too. The treatment seems to be successful and, once his symptoms are largely manageable, Johnny studies for and receives his PhD in Mathematics from Rutgers University.