ABSTRACT
The remarkable story of John Nash, Nobel Laureate, has received worldwide publicity through the success of Sylvia Nasar’s biography A Beautiful Mind (Nasar 1998) and the film of the same name derived from it (Howard 2001). In 1958, at the age of 30, already recognized as a mathematician of genius, Nash began to suffer recurring psychotic states from which he recovered 25 years later. This chapter will explore the nature of Nash’s illness from a psychoanalytic perspective, based on the public accounts of his life. Included will be a discussion of both the different factors that may have precipitated his move into psychotic thinking and those experiences which may have enabled Nash to take the steps necessary for his eventual recovery. Certain features of Nash’s life, which are not explored in either the book or the film, have important implications for the treatment of people suffering from severe psychotic illness and these will be reflected upon in this chapter. The aim of this chapter is to illustrate how modern psychoanalytic concepts can contribute in a helpful and practical way to the psychotherapeutic treatment of people suffering from psychosis and other related problems.
