The Real Story Behind “A Beautiful Mind”

Involuntary Hospitalization

The idea of mental illness still hadn’t been widely discussed. It wasn’t until a friend, Norbert Wiener, recognized the symptoms that Alicia had John committed to a private psychiatric hospital in April 1959. It was here that he was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, but his condition is never directly named in the film. At the time of his stay in the hospitals, shock treatment was still actively used for mental illnesses. John was put on a regimen that included a variety of therapy and medication. You can see him begrudgingly take his pills in the movie as his loving wife ensures that he does. This was another Hollywood twist.