A Beautiful Mind

Nonfiction | Biography | Adult | Published in 1998

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Part 3, Chapters 34-37Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 34 Summary: “The Emperor of Antarctica”

On New Year’s Eve 1958, Nash arrives at a party dressed as a baby, wearing nothing but “a diaper and a sash” and waving “a baby bottle full of milk” (239). Over the next two months, his mental health will deteriorate rapidly, but for this night he is “simply his flamboyant, eccentric, and slightly off-key self, playful and mischievous” (240).

Immediately before this, however, Nash was already starting to seem “a trifle more withdrawn, a little spacier” (240). His humor, always a little strange, was becoming more and more off-key and abstract, and his anecdotes were becoming more drifting and obtuse.

On one occasion, Nash gave a “lengthy monologue” on “threats to world peace and calls for world government” with the suggestion that “he had been asked to play some extraordinary role” (241). Another time, he stood in the common room declaring that “abstract powers from outer space, or perhaps it was foreign governments, were communicating with him through The New York Times” (241) using secret codes that only he could decipher.

For those who knew Nash, “none of this was especially alarming or suggested outright illness, just another stage in the evolution of Nash’s eccentricity” (240). He had always had an unusual approach to conversation, not following social cues and interacting in “normal” ways. With his unusual sense of humor and love of pranks, people dismissed his behavior as him being “pesky” or engaging in “some elaborate private joke” (242).

However, in the first two months of 1959, incidents of strange behavior begin to escalate, and Nash becomes increasingly delusional. He becomes convinced of illogical things: that people in Boston are wearing red ties as a means of communicating secret messages about “a crypto-communist party” (243) or that “his career [is] being ruined by aliens from outer space” (243).

Nash also starts writing nonsensical letters in different colored inks and attempting to send them to various foreign ambassadors, usually without attaching stamps or writing out the addresses. When Nash gives talks to the American Mathematical Society and at Yale, he stops making sense. One attendant later recalled, “One word didn’t fit in with the other [and] the math was just lunacy” (246). Finally, people start to recognize that something is seriously wrong.

Chapter 35 Summary: “In the Eye of the Storm, Spring 1959”

Alicia had been suspecting something was not quite right for some time, noticing that Nash was becoming incoherently suspicious and paranoid, “irritable and hypersensitive one minute, eerily withdrawn the next” (248). Initially, she blames this on stress at work and “the prospect of a baby, with all the new responsibilities that implied” (249).

However, soon Nash displays behavior that she cannot explain. He threatens to clear out his bank accounts and move to Europe and begins staying up all night writing letters in colored ink addressed to the U.N., the FBI, and the pope. She is reluctant to tell anyone at first, fearing for his job and reputation, instead quitting her job so that she can keep an eye on him at all times.

Eventually, Alicia is forced to seek support and gets conflicting advice from two psychiatrists. One seems more intent on psychoanalyzing Alicia and the other recommends shock treatments. At work, Nash’s boss is aware that he is suffering “some sort of ‘nervous breakdown’” (250) so relieves him of his teaching duties but as Nash is still often lucid and in control, does little more at this stage.

Around Easter, Nash drives to Washington to try to deliver letters to various foreign governments. Alicia accompanies him and realizes how unwell he is. Soon after, an undisclosed incident makes her deeply afraid of Nash and, combined with “her psychiatrist’s warning that Nash [will] continue to deteriorate unless he [gets] treatment” (251), convinces her that she must have Nash committed, “at least for observation” (251).

Chapter 36 Summary: “Day Breaks in Bowditch Hall, McLean Hospital, April-May 1959”

Two police officers arrive at Nash’s home to escort him to McLean psychiatric hospital. Nash refuses but they overpower him, taking him to the institution. The staff attempts to convince him to voluntarily enter the hospital, but he again refuses, claiming that there is “a great movement for world peace” and he, under the name “the prince of peace” (255), is its leader.

After a brief diagnosis and an application to a judge, Nash is committed. His mother comes to visit and is devastated, crying that she cannot “bear to see Johnny in this situation” (255). Alicia had hoped for financial and emotional support from her, but it is “obvious that Virginia need[s] even more help than she [does]” (255).

The hospital is accommodating and respectful. Nash is given a private room and is well fed and well looked after by staff who ask, “about his interests, hobbies, and friends, and [call] him professor” (256). He enjoys the company of the other residents, including the famous poet Robert Lowell and numerous “young Harvard ‘Cock[s] of the walk’ slowed down by massive injections of Thorazine” (256).

When people visit Nash, he is generally coherent and lucid, even joking about the experience. He remains furious with Alicia for having him committed. Beneath the seeming normality, however, Nash is still delusional, and the psychiatrists quickly diagnose him with paranoid schizophrenia. He is treated with medication and “intensive, five-day-a-week psychoanalysis” (259).

After only a few weeks, Nash’s symptoms abate and he starts to behave “like a model patient–quietly, politely, tolerantly” (260), no longer talking about world governments, peace movements, or moving to Europe. Privately, some psychiatrists believe that Nash has “simply figured out the rules of the game” (260) and is pretending to be better in order to leave the hospital. When Nash hires a lawyer and Alicia refuses to sign for another commitment, the hospital has to release him.

Chapter 37 Summary: “Mad Hatter’s Tea, May-June 1959”

With Nash in the hospital, Alicia does not wish to stay in their home alone so she moves in with her friend, Emma. Despite her predicament—heavily pregnant with her husband committed to an asylum and threatening to divorce her for putting him there—she maintains “a remarkable calm” (262).

She “defend[s] herself against criticism of her decision to commit Nash” (262), remaining focused on preserving Nash’s “mind and career” (262). Despite her own predicament, “all her attention [is] focused on a single task–not the task of giving birth, but that of saving John Nash” (262). She does nothing to prepare for the child being solely concerned with her husband.

Of course, the baby arrives regardless. On May 20, she gives birth to a son. She decides to wait for Nash to be present before naming the child who, in fact, will remain unnamed for almost a year. When Nash is allowed out to visit Alicia and the child in hospital, he is furious with her still.

After he is released, Nash is “determined to leave for Europe as soon as possible” (264), insisting on resigning from MIT and withdrawing all his pension money. Alicia tries to persuade him not to go but, when he remains committed to the idea, she decides to go as well, to keep an eye on him. They leave the unnamed child with Alicia’s mother who agrees to “join them in Paris with the baby as soon as they [are] settled” (266).

Chapters 34-37 Analysis

Nash’s character has always been eccentric. His distracted air, odd sense of humor, and limited social skills often alienate him from others. In 1959, this alienation increases dramatically. He begins recognizing patterns and messages in the most unlikely places and seeing conspiracies and secrets everywhere he goes.

However, people do not immediately realize that something is wrong. The behavior Nash exhibits seems like a more extreme version of his usual behavior—his obsession with codes and patterns, his bizarre idea of a joke, his obscure references, rambling discussions, and impenetrable theories. It is not until he literally stops making any sense at two high-profile talks that people start to realize something is truly wrong.

Alicia is amongst those who know that something is happening to Nash. However, she is initially reluctant to talk to others about it, fearing that Nash’s reputation will be damaged, and they will both lose status. When he begins to frighten her, and her psychiatrist warns that he will only get worse without treatment, she reluctantly has him committed for the first time.

Once committed, Nash is initially still highly delusional. However, within only a few weeks, his symptoms appear to be far less severe. It is likely that Nash is only masking his symptoms and has learnt not to talk about things that seem obviously delusional, but the burden of proof lies with the hospital and they, ultimately, have to comply with his wishes and release him.

In some respects, this result is a mirror of the issue that had stopped people noticing that Nash was unwell. Highly intelligent and unconventional, it is not difficult for Nash to realize that he simply needs to stop directly discussing his more obvious delusions to become his “usual” eccentric self.

Throughout his time in hospital and after his release, Nash is furious with Alicia for having him committed. Alicia, however, remains entirely dedicated to helping him. The decision to have him involuntarily hospitalized was difficult to make but she can defend it to anyone who criticizes her choice. Her focus after he is taken in is solely on ensuring that he gets better and does not lose his reputation.

Despite her pregnancy, Alicia’s love for the man she had spent so long courting, and perhaps, too, her enjoyment of her position and the status her marriage affords her, makes preserving Nash’s “mind and career” (262) her highest priority. Even after the child is born, remaining unnamed by his distracted parents, Nash still takes priority, with Alicia joining him on his obsessive quest to Europe and leaving the child with her mother.

This reflects both the love Alicia feels for Nash and the total dedication and determination she has displayed since her concerted efforts to catch his eye in the music library several years earlier. It also displays the fact that Nash is so distracted by his delusions that he seems to care little for those around him, another extension of the self-involvement and obsessive thinking that marked his character before his breakdown.