The Real Story Behind “A Beautiful Mind”

He Went to Hospital Several Times

One of the biggest untruths in the award-winning picture is that John and Alicia are able to overcome his illness together, with pure love and dedication. This wasn’t the case. The pair did settle in Princeton after John’s Europe adventure. John worked as a research professor, his illness still torturing him. He referred to himself as Johann von Nassau and often called former colleagues and babbled nonsensically. Two years after his initial treatment, Alicia, John’s mother, and his sister Martha committed him to another facility. It would begin a long pattern of recovery and relapse that would plague him for over a decade.