A beautiful mind is the biography of a genius mathematician and Nobelist John Nash - who was at his mathematical best till thirties, then became paranoid with schizophrenia, was hospitalized, suffered shock treatments, pseudo-recovered (forced rationality on himself), was hospitalized again and again, recovered fully with passage of time, and was awarded the Nobel at the age of 58 for his work on game theory that he had done in his late-twenties - and now continues to work in the field of mathematics. Meanwhile, he also had a child, married (at 29), had another child, divorced, and re-married (with the same woman at the age of 60).
What a life. And what a mind. Really beautiful. All geniuses are somewhat insane, but this one beat insanity with a concious effort - and - without medication. (he gave up all psychotic treatment at 42). He himself, with the power of his will alone, very carefully avoided delirius thoughts from coming to his mind. To exert such a control over one's own brain must have required tremendous strength and will power. Hats off. Hats off for his wife as well. Alicia had such great belief in this man's genius, that even after getting divorced, she remained with him.
So the question that obviously comes to our un-genius-not-so-beautiful-minds is that is it really possible to control mental illness with the mind itself while it itself is sick? i think we are in an infinite loop here - control your own mind with your own mind by programming your own mind to function properly using your own mind - when it is going out of control. Guess i'll now stop writing in case my own mind goes out of its premises...
Ur review was good.
ReplyDeleteI ended up here from sujai's blog. Ur comments are nice. I liked the balance and clarity in expressing your opinion.
PAVAN.
Hi Sampada, This being the first time I am reading an article of yours, I should say good work.
ReplyDeleteGive me some time before i can give feedback about your writing skills.
Ya! one doubt why piece of mind.
Shashidhar.
hey..thanks Shashi...well, i think its my birthright to have an opinion about everything in the world, and since its my opinion, so in my opinion, its usually the best/accuratest/succinctest. (it doesnt mean i dont change it anytime :-) you just have to convince me).
ReplyDeleteThats why its Piece of Mind aka Piece of Sampada's fertile (blah!) mind.
Very true, Its really tough to control your mind using your own mind and you know that your mind is already in the condition to be controlled..
ReplyDeleteJhon Nash's fighting with this by his own and that's something he can get a noble price only.. I do not think there is a category like this in noble..