A Beautiful Mind

Nasar uses descriptions of physical appearance, especially clothing choice, to reflect Nash’s eccentricity and mental health. Nash’s father is “concerned with appearances,” with a strong wish for “everything to be very proper” (27) and he tries to instill this in Nash from a young age. In some respects, Nash does hold this view, attempting to fit in in order to “be in the club” (44). However, in other respects, he rebels. Many of the other mathematicians in the book, thinking of “eccentricity and being good in math as going together” (142), place “a certain premium on eccentricity and outrageousness” (142), reflecting this in their unusual clothing. Nash does this, too, “adopt[ing] a touch of flamboyance about his dress” (143), intentionally marking himself as “a self-declared free thinker” (67). However, once his mental health declines, his physical appearance becomes stranger and unintentionally marks him as an outsider. At the height of his illness, Nash has a “sleepwalker’s gait and fixed faraway expression” (324), wears his hair “grown long,” sports “a full beard” (282), and spends much of his time wearing “a smock-like Russian peasant garment” (285). At this stage, even his own sister is “frightened by his appearance” (282) and she is not alone in this; by the time Nash becomes “the Phantom” (332), his gaunt, disheveled appearance is truly alienating and disturbing, both reflecting and reinforcing his outsider status. 

As a child, Nash enjoys playing pranks, “occasionally ones with a nasty edge” (37). This continues into his adult life, where he continues to enjoy playing tricks on students and colleagues. These pranks represent several things at different points in the book. On one level, they reflect Nash’s immaturity. A particularly striking example of this can be found in Nash’s habit of playing “all kinds of pranks” (101) on Shapley because his has crush on the older man that he cannot express or communicate in a mature manner. His pranks on Shapley’s friends—which sometimes get “totally out of hand” (101)—also represent Nash’s jealousy and possessiveness, again in an immature way. Because they are perceived by many as “absurdly childish” (114), pranks also highlight the difficulties Nash faces in integrating into “normal” society, representing his off-key humor and lack of social function. Finally, they also represent Nash’s disregard for others, an aspect of his self-involvement and “cold considerations of self-interest” (99). In this regard, the pranks, and especially the ones “with a nasty edge” (37) or the ones that get “totally out of hand” (101), function as small, petty acts of vengeance designed to amuse Nash while lashing out at the “normal” world that excludes him.

Games serve to reflect Nash’s self-interested individualism. The fact that playing games brings out Nash’s “natural competitiveness and one-upmanship” (76) highlights his aggressive self-centeredness. Likewise, the first game he invents, “Nash,” in which “there’s no luck, just pure strategy” (77) and for which one player must always win even if he or she tries to lose, reflects his focus on competition and self-interest. This is even more evident in the second game Nash invents, “Fuck Your Buddy” (102), which requires players to betray their allies in order to win the game. Nash’s work on game theory also functions as an extension of this. While von Neuman’s work reflects his background in collaborative work, Nash’s approach reflects his isolated individualism, his theory being profoundly shaped by his understanding of humans as disconnected and self-serving individuals.