A Beautiful Mind: The Life of Mathematical Genius and Nobel Laureate John Nash
by Sylvia Nasar
List Price:
Our Price: $0.97
You Save: $15.03 (94%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $0.20 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Sylvia NasarEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Published)
Format: Bargain Price
Published: 2001-12-04
ISBN: N/A
Number of pages: 464
Publisher: Touchstone
Book Reviews of A Beautiful Mind: The Life of Mathematical Genius and Nobel Laureate John Nash
Book Review: A Beautiful Mind
Summary: 5 Stars
I love this book. It is perhaps one of my favorite books of all time because it speaks so much of what is happening to so many of us in these times. My sister-in-law became afflicted with a mental difficulty that was problematic enough that she was given the treatments described for John Nash. Unfortunately, she did not live long after that and it has been a traumatic loss for my entire family. I wonder sometimes if in our haste to make sure everything is fixed and is perfect that we go too far into the latest trick remedy and cause much more harm than good rather than relying on what has been the most powerful remedy mankind has ever known since the dawn of time. John Nash was saved and brought back to full health by a little love and acceptance of him for what he was and the patience to see him through his difficulty rather than all the drugs man can come up with and all the mind boggling brain zapping treatments we can dream up that we are experimenting with.
Summary of A Beautiful Mind: The Life of Mathematical Genius and Nobel Laureate John Nash
At the age of 21, a brilliant and highly eccentric graduate student made a major contribution to game theory: John Nash had discovered an influential theory of rational human behaviour. But ten years later, at the peak of a dazzling mathematical career and soon after his marriage to a physicist, Nash suffered a breakdown. Diagnosed a schizophrenic, he was beset by bizarre delusions, unable to work, and repeatedly incarcerated in mental hospitals. He spent most of the next three decades as a silent, ghost-like figure haunting the Princeton campus. Then, when he was 61 and all but forgotten, a dramatic remission of his illness and the Nobel Prize committee's decision to honour his achievements restored the world to him. His story is told in this book by an author who is intimately familiar with the academic world that Nash has occupied. She wrote it with the backing of Princeton and Nash's friends and colleagues.Stories of famously eccentric Princetonians abound--such as that of chemist Hubert Alyea, the model for The Absent-Minded Professor, or Ralph Nader, said to have had his own key to the library as an undergraduate. Or the "Phantom of Fine Hall," a figure many students had seen shuffling around the corridors of the math and physics building wearing purple sneakers and writing numerology treatises on the blackboards. The Phantom was John Nash, one of the most brilliant mathematicians of his generation, who had spiraled into schizophrenia in the 1950s. His most important work had been in game theory, which by the 1980s was underpinning a large part of economics. When the Nobel Prize committee began debating a prize for game theory, Nash's name inevitably came up--only to be dismissed, since the prize clearly could not go to a madman. But in 1994 Nash, in remission from schizophrenia, shared the Nobel Prize in economics for work done some 45 years previously.
Economist and journalist Sylvia Nasar has written a biography of Nash that looks at all sides of his life. She gives an intelligent, understandable exposition of his mathematical ideas and a picture of schizophrenia that is evocative but decidedly unromantic. Her story of the machinations behind Nash's Nobel is fascinating and one of very few such accounts available in print (the CIA could learn a thing or two from the Nobel committees). This highly recommended book is indeed "a story about the mystery of the human mind, in three acts: genius, madness, reawakening." --Mary Ellen Curtin
Schizophrenia Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Schizophrenia Books
The Encyclopedia of Schizophrenia and Other Psychotic Disorders (Facts on File Library of Health & Living)by Richard Noll
Facts on File; Published: 2007-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $40.00
Price in other shops:
Psychotherapy of Schizophreniaby Gaetano Benedetti
New York University Press; Published: 1987-04-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $137.23
How to Live With Schizophreniaby Abram Hoffer
Citadel; Published: 1992-01-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $10.71
Price in other shops:
Symptoms of Schizophrenia (Wiley Series on Personality Processes)Wiley; Published: 1993-10; Paperback; Book
Best price: $221.08
Price in other shops:
Schizophrenia Revealed: From Neurons to Social Interactionsby Michael Foster Green
W. W. Norton & Company; Published: 2003-05-15; Paperback; Book
Best price: $10.00
Price in other shops:
The Psychopharmacology of Schizophrenia (Hodder Arnold Publication)Hodder Arnold Publishers; Published: 2000-03-15; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $85.42
Technicians of the Finite: The Rise and Decline of the Schizophrenic in American Thought, 1840-1960 (Contributions in Medical Studies)by S. P. Fullinwider
Greenwood Press; Published: 1982-06-30; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $78.95
Reconceiving Schizophrenia (International Perspectives in Philosophy & Psychiatry)Oxford University Press, USA; Published: 2007-02-03; Paperback; Book
Best price: $69.13
Price in other shops:
The Dinosaur Man: Tales of Madness and Enchantment from the Back Wardby Susan Baur
Harpercollins; Published: 1991-07; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $4.46
Price in other shops:
Divided Minds: Twin Sisters and Their Journey Through Schizophreniaby Carolyn Spiro, Pamela Spiro Wagner
St. Martin's Griffin; Published: 2006-08-08; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.60
Price in other shops:
Similar Books and other products
The Quiet Room: A Journey Out of the Torment of Madnessby Lori Schiller, Amanda Bennett
Grand Central Publishing; Published: 1996-01-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.99
Price in other shops:
Darkness Visible: A Memoir of Madnessby William Styron
Modern Library; Published: 2007-01-23; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $8.90
Price in other shops:
The Man Who Knew Infinity: A Life of the Genius Ramanujanby Robert Kanigel
Washington Square Press; Published: 1991-04-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.89
Price in other shops:
Game Theory: A Nontechnical Introductionby Morton D. Davis
Dover Publications; Published: 1997-07-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.99
Price in other shops:
Men of Mathematics (Touchstone Books)by E.T. Bell
Touchstone; Published: 1986-10-15; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.97
Price in other shops:
American Experience: A Brilliant MadnessRelease date: 2002-06-25; DVD
Best price: $4.99
Price in other shops:
The Essential John Nashby John Nash
Princeton University Press; Published: 2007-02-26; Paperback; Book
Best price: $19.44
Price in other shops:
John Nash - John Nash: A Beautiful GeniusTrinity; Release date: 2002-06-18; DVD
Best price: $2.84
Price in other shops:
A Beautiful Mind (Widescreen Awards Edition)Universal Studios; DVD
Best price: $3.88
Price in other shops:
A Beautiful MindNBC Universal; Release date: 2006-08-22; DVD
Best price: $5.60
Price in other shops: