1996 Volume 3 Issue 1 Pages 35-42
Since the book "The Bridge of Madison County" was translated and published in Japan, feelings of sympathy were aroused in many women and then after it was made into a movie many people were touched, giving rise to the moral argument pro and anti adultery. "The Bridge of Madison County" is a moralish fantasy as Michael Ende mentioned, and it gives us, living in today's world, an important suggestion about our lifestyle and the conscience. If it had been just a story about adultery so many women would not have felt sympathetic. The decision Franchesca, the leading character, made is what Michael Ende explains thus : People do not make a decision based on the majority or from social customs, but make a moral decision every time they are faced with some situation, deciding on the basis of their own creativity. That is a moralish Fantasy." On another note, in my daily clinical psychology I have actually seen a Bridge of Madison County type pattern occur dramatically in the hearts of some people, changing the inner self and becoming a means of support from behind the scenes helping in everyday life. So, remembering some scenes from "The Bridge of Madison County" I would like to express the meaning of this occurrence clearly through the visual images that lay in the hearts of two people, a man and a woman, whom I was honored to support psychologically.
