A beautiful mind is a wonderful reading. I read the book after seeing the
movie and there is no doubt that the movie is a wonderful remake of the books
content. It is an amazing story of a genius, as has been commented in so many
of its reviews. The genius in Prof Nash remains exceptional and at the same
time seen a common form among many other men and women of the same order esp
among mathematicians. My attention however was drawn to another aspect of the
story line. It is the story of the understanding and changing attitude towards
the illness which we today s easily recognize as schizophrenia. This is an
amazing illness both due to its intellectual association and its shadowy
presence throughout human civilization and its evolution. It will not be wrong
to say that society has cultivated this kind of mind related illness and
started preserving them among us, and not for reasons of mere succor but also
due to the unparallel contributions they have made. Is this then a cultural
strength or the outcome of liberal views?
Men and women lived during the ages of darkness, had children, cultivated
lands had their meals and died at a certain age. We still do the same with yet
immense light beyond the darkness, we have lit. We still have the same
adversities and the same distance, the same lack of essentials in spite of the
amazing scientific progress we have made in the century gone by. And yet we all
agree that we are in the right direction of progress. Where then do we place
Nash and Ramanujan? This is the investment that we do in our society waiting
for spurts of progress. Don’t we also
risk the possibility of increasing such personalities traits in the community?
A rather objectionable thought! I thence
come to my greater enduring point. The role of science in the understanding of
this and similar illness. Today we have been able to understand the psychopathology
of this illness with fair certainty and yet more will be known in years to come. We are able to intervene early in
organized societies and thereby allow their strengths to be recruited. During
my last 15 years into clinical practice I have seen a remarkable change in the
approach to such patients and their betterment. I have experienced depression
and anxiety beyond limits myself. I have experienced the benefits of insight
development. I have come in close correspondence with existentialism and a
lingering tag of , if not schizophrenia, something close to it.
And some day
in my dream
I see
myself surrounded in me
Cluttered by
resounding staplers
I protest in
the wake of freedom
We exist and
they fail to agree
Who but
our own reflections
Simmering
beneath a running stream
Pratyush
