The Brink of Sanity

So often in movies and books we are told about crazy characters, villains that are criminally insane, however it is rare that we are given an in depth look into their condition. One exception of this is Russell Crowe’s character in the movie “A Beautiful Mind.” In this movie, Russell Crowe plays the Nobel Prize winning mathematician, John Nash. John Nash suffers from paranoid schizophrenia, which goes on to affect his life in catastrophic ways. Nash is a brilliant mathematician who’s passion and desires to leave a mark on the world eventually drives him insane.

Salman Rushdie’s book, “East, West” contains the story “The Harmony of the Spheres.” In “The Harmony of the Spheres,” The character Eliot Crane suffers from paranoid schizophrenia, and this ailment eventually leads to his demise. The demons that haunted Eliot’s life eventually got the best of him, and he took his own life by having “sucked on his shotgun and pulled the trigger.” His friend, who also plays the role of narrator in this short story, gives a short outline of his life. Eliot Crane is obsessed with anything involving old black magic. I believe it was this love for the occult that eventually lead Eliot towards insanity. It is shown in the story that Eliot Crane possesses a “…enormous, generously, shared mental storehouse of the varieties of ‘forbidden knowledge’…” Eliot had such an obsession with the occult that he developed a mental sickness from this, and this mental sickness caused him to do many odd and awful things to himself, as well as those close to him.

I believe that it is these unrelenting obsessions that have the power to drive what would be geniuses to the brink of sanity. Both of these characters shown were geniuses in their respected fields, however they became too passionate about their work and this caused their eventual downfall. I think as people, we need to have outlets to express our other emotions besides just our work or obsession. If we do not have this healthy mix of diverse activities and interests it is easy to see how such a beautiful mind can fall of the edge.