Suffering from Schizophrenia, Yet Won a Nobel Prize

Nash in an economic forum in China in 2005

John F. Nash is an American mathematician who won the 1994 Nobel prize in economics for his contributions to the modern game theory. 

His theories are widely used in economics and business strategies.

Known as Nash equilibrium, his work provided insight into factors that govern chance and decision-making inside complex systems found in everyday life.

Game theory is a branch of applied mathematics that examines the rivalries between competitors with mixed interests.

In 1950, Nash obtained PhD in mathematics from Princeton University at the age of 22. During a recommendation for his PhD studies at Princeton, Nash's adviser and former Carnegie professor Richard Duffin wrote few words about him in the recommendation letter: "He is a mathematical genius."

In 1958 Nash became a professor of mathematics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) where he taught and engaged in research in Partial differential equations. But soon after, in 1959, he slipped into bouts of mental illness.

His illness began like a Paranoia. At the time he seemed to believed that all men who wore red ties were part of a communist conspiracy against him. He was diagnosed of Paranoid Schizophrenia and was admitted to hospital in April 1959. He began hearing voices in 1964, a situation known as auditory hallucination. He spent periods in psychiatric hospitals over the years against his wish. 

However few decades later he learned how to consciously discard his paranoid delusions. He gradually recovered with time and was appointed a Senior Research mathematician at Princeton University in 1995.

He was awarded the 1994 Nobel Prize in economics and the 2015 Abel Prize.

A 2001 award-winning movie known as A Beautiful Mind depicted his long life struggle with mental illness. This movie was drawn from a book, 1998 biography about him, also entitled A Beautiful Mind.

In 2002, a more factual exploration of his struggle with mental illness was made by a powerful television documentary entitled A Brilliant Madness.

Nash and his wiufe Alicia were killed in a car crash on May 23, 2015, inside a taxicab taking them home. They were coming back from the airport after a visit to Norway where he received the 2015 Abel Prize.

Nash died at the age of 86.