Lack of Clarity with Franco Magnani
By: Ibrahim Bazyan
Franco Magnani’s condition, although unknown, is perceived to be “interictal personality disorder” by some. Yet, Dr. Sacks does not fully believe that this disease is the case that is occurring with Franco Magnani. Along with showing symptoms of TLE, temporal lobe epilepsy, Franco shows a deeper connection to his past in Pontito , and therefore isolates himself (164-165). Franco's brother-in-law said, " But when I saw him in '87 he seemed possessed. He constantly had visions of Pontito, and he wouldn't talk about anything else." (161).Alas, Franco's condition now becomes not a sole question of physical change, but a change in Franco’s psychology, specifically his identity. Upon going through the seizures and equivocally through his dreams there is a distinct alteration from who and how he was when he lived in Italy compared to who he was in California. Therefore there is now a question of how Franco’s identity went through a change, or in conjunction with this case, the lack thereof.
Susan Engel published an article entitled, “Then and Now: Creating a Self Through the Past” (1999). Within this article, she describes a key concept which follows clearly with Franco’s case: cognitive dissonance. Cognitive dissonance is the variability of what reality someone wants versus what reality that is actually occurring. With that stated, Franco feels cognitively dissonant. He cannot seem to evolve out of his deemed childhood memory. There is a conflict between self and remembered self, which is inferred through Engel’s work by her statements in The Remembering Self and the Remembered Self. Engel describes more than one line of connection to memory is needed to form an identity (196). These memories form an associative identity of the person's past(196). She later goes on detailing how memories are an essence of identity as simple memories can be pronounced to be larger than solely its simplistic ideal, but rather portray a bigger picture.This can be in joint connection with Franco Magnani’s work as an artist as his paintings consisted of the streets of Pontito.
An articulate image that can be conveyed simply as the streets of Pontito has an increased importance in terms of meaning. These streets were Franco’s childhood and his true identity.