John nash schizophrenia biography templates

It is a commonplace that John Nash, the Nobel-Prize winning mathematician and economist who recently died, had “schizophrenia.” All his obituaries repeat the formula, and the assumption of the book about his life and the subsequent movie, A Beautiful Mind, leave this assumption unchallenged.

But did he really have schizophrenia?

Core schizophrenia begins in adolescence or early adulthood, may involve a psychotic break, certainly involves diminished executive function, affective blunting and a thought disorder.

Examples of hallucinations in a beautiful mind

(On this see Edward Shorter, What Psychiatry Left OutRoutledge.) The concept of “thought disorder” means inability to think clearly, or in a consecutive manner. It does not necessarily mean the hallucinations and delusions of psychosis.

Now, what symptoms did Nash seem to have? His illness began in 1959 at age 30, a bit past the typical window.

He had already fashioned his brilliant doctoral dissertation.

But 1959 was probably the very worst time in the history of Amer