"A graphic investigation into parallel
identity crises"
It is the phrase parallel identity crises
that interests me the most here. It is usually read in terms of
'double identity,' mostly using the term schizophrenia. There
has been quite some misunderstanding about this very term. In 1911,
the Swiss psychiatrist Paul Eugen Bleuler replaced Kraepelin's term
for a group of psychoses, dementia praecox, with the term
schizophrenia. Dementia praecox meant a psychosis of
early onset, which Bleuler wanted to capture with the term
schizophrenia, meaning literally "split mind," since he
thought the splitting of psychic functions to be the structuring
element of these psychoses. Colin Ross, in his study on Dissociative
Identity Disorders, a term including pathologies such as Multiple
Personality Disorder (MPD) and the Borderline Syndrome, states that,
"dementia praecox is actually a better name for this
group of disorders [described by Kraeplin] than
schizophrenia, while schizophrenia is a better name
for [Dissociative Identity Disorder] than multiple persona
disorder." (31) Hence the
popular notion of schizophrenia as "split personality," a
misconception that does not account for the fact that schizophrenia
is an organic disorder of the brain, and not actually a personality
disorder.
In addition to this reading of "parallel
identity crises" in terms of "split personality," I
want to suggest some further thoughts that account for this split
with reference to the structure of the Moebius Strip. Thus, it is
not that simple that Pete's story is only the reverse of Fred's
story (remember, a Moebius Strip has no such thing as a reverse side
- it is one-sided!). Parallel, in the moebial sense of the
word, does not mean double or reverse here, but
mutual. Pete's story is not only the reverse side of Fred's
story, simultaneously Fred's story has to be the reverse side of
Pete's story ... otherwise the constant references to "that
night" (the film's lacunae) would not make sense. True to the
logic of the Moebius Strip, what on a very local level seem
to be two sides of the story is actually one. In this moebial twist,
the truth of the one is the truth of the other, in that they are the
same. On the level of the images of the movie, this complicity can
be shown by a comparison of two scenes that occur more than once in
Lost Highway. These two scenes of Fred in the dark hallway
(Renee calling "Fred!") and Pete in front of his parents'
house (Sheila calling "Pete!"), viewed in parallel,
function like a kind of worm-hole which traverses the different
event-levels of the movie - I would even argue that if you
mirrored those two scenes onto two screens put next to each other,
it would have the effect of the one character changing over to the
realm/screen of the other. Another 'perspective' of this
simultaneous immersion can be seen in the "transformation
scene." Here again, the moebial twist of inside and outside,
one and other, is brought to the fore, this time effected by shots
intruding the inside of the body.