Fight Club: The Id, the Ego, and the Super-Ego Essay

Fight Club is a complex movie in that the two main characters are just two sides of the same person. Edward Norton’s character is the prototypical conformist consumer working a morally questionable office job to feed his obsession with material possessions. He works as a recall coordinator for a “major car company” and applies a formula based on profitability, rather than safety, to determine the necessity of a recall. Though never explicitly stated, he seems to be in his late twenties or early thirties and throughout the movie has a constantly haggard appearance because of his insomnia and fighting. Brad Pitt’s character is a carefree nonconformist and the manifestation of Edward Norton’s

Fight club would not exist as a story without DID. Tyler Durden emerges from the depths of the narrator’s lack of internal selfobject identification with his father, his lack of an “idealized parent imago” (Kohut, 1990, p. 455). Tyler represents everything that the narrator finds lacking in himself. Tyler represents a figure capable of control, independence and a figure others look up to because he inspires them to believe he can make a change in the way the world works. Tyler is not bound by the rules and limitations of a corporate job and a lifestyle of monotony. Tyler sets the rules for fight club and for Project Mayhem. The rules set by Tyler include: rigorous honesty, devotion, fairness, and fierce loyalty

Fight club was a story about a man/the narrator struggling with a mental disease, he creates an imaginary friend so that he can feel that his emotions are not invalid. I discovered something captivating about his making of Tyler Durden and how it permitted him to change into who he wanted to be. Aside from the vicious and unlawful nature of the change, I thought it was really commendable. I cherished the fact that he could improve his situation and have an impact on others essentially by changing his mindset. This story helped me understand the power of the mind and where my potential could lead if I found my own ‘Tyler Durden’. The Metamorphosis was a story about a man who put his family’s needs over his. After his transition into a bug, he soon realizes he was only a burden on them. The way Gregor was treated before and after his transition was very cold and heartless. The story aimed to reflect a money-driven society, people’s mercenary and their cold shoulders toward human nature. It also reflected the distorted social realities under the influence of the society and teaches us not to take people in our lives for

The Novel The Outsiders reveals that it is the “real” and “raw” moments the define an individual as human. In these moments of authentic and selfless love the attributes of individual become more definitive then social class, or reputation. Through examining Dallas Winston and his love for Johnny and Randy’s emotional encounter with Pony boy Hinton’s most haunting and enduring argument become evident, that self discovery imposed by love and loss has no sides but the outside.

Ana is a girl who followed trends and participated in activities the “cool kids” attended in high school. At first, she follows trends because an abundant amount of students claim it seems entertaining. However, that was not the case for her. Ana came to the conclusion that the activities were not amusing; she only followed trends because she thought it would create a popular reputation for herself. She decided to be unique and became determined to achieve what was best for herself. Such a follow-the-leader type situation is not uncommon in high school as it inhabits people to follow others’ actions to fit in. Fortunately, a person like Ana will always strive to be an individual and live the way he or she assumes is best. Unfortunately, a willingness to practice nonconformity such as Ana’s takes time to develop, and other individuals in society frequently then overlook their freedoms and are commonly unaware of living in censored communities. In this type of restrained community, people follow laws blindly and shield themselves from reality. Ray Bradbury in Fahrenheit 451 to protest such societal censorship depicts Guy Montag as an evolving deviant, rebellious protagonist.

As an audience, throughout the film it is evident that there is a significant contrast between the narrator and Tyler as they view many things differently. Just like the Fight Club and the IKEA furniture, the narrator becomes obsessed with Tyler and the life he leads. When Tyler is first introduced as a passenger on the airplane, the narrator is immediately drawn to him in a way that is different than any other person he has met. He feels a connection with him that he has not felt before, which is why he calls him when his apartment burns and he loses all of his important IKEA furniture. Tyler tells him it’s “just stuff” (Fight Club) and “the things you own end up owning you” (Fight Club), which completely contradicts everything the narrator had previously believed about his home and the furniture. Through Tyler, the narrator starts to lose his need for material objects when Tyler tells him “Fuck off with your sofa units and strine green stripe patterns, I say never be complete, I say stop being perfect, I say let... let’s evolve, let the chips fall where they may” (Fight Club), instead he focuses on the fighting and his friendship with Tyler since he has finally found something that fills the void in his life and gives it meaning. Though it may seem abstract that Tyler would fit into this argument, it all comes together at the end of the film when the audience finds

In the movie Fight Club we are introduced to an average, white-collared, middle aged man who is seemingly normal at first glance. However, it is clear that the narrator suffers from insomnia, anxiety, and depression very early in the film. The narrator attempts to combat these symptoms in a number of ways, however, the only way that he has found to be effective is by attending support groups on a nightly basis.

J.D. Salinger’s world-renowned book The Catcher in the Rye and director Sean Penn’s dramatic feature film Into the Wild both give us a unique perspective of society through a collection of descriptive imagery and riveting plot development. Both materials present us with protagonists Holden Caulfield and Chris McCandless, whom are deeply encompassed by self-introspection and who seem to be on a quest to find true happiness and meaning to their bland, corrupt lives. A recurring theme in both works is the process of discovering one’s true identity, which can only be achieved through a journey of spiritual self-discovery.

Instead of promoting the usual conformed replicated lifestyle they promoted individualism. Advertisers reassured consumers that they would surely find the self-expression they were in search of within their products. This is evident within the “Forever Young” Pepsi commercial where present advertisers are promoting individualism through the image of rock n roll legend, Bob Dylan. In his essay, Frank states, “We consume not to fit in, but to prove, on the surface at least, that we are rock ‘n’ roll rebels, each one of us as rule-breaking and hierarchy-defying as our heroes of the 60’s, who now pitch cars, shoes, and beer” (Frank 153). During the 1960’s Bob Dylan revolutionized what it meant to be an individual. Through his music many people started to express what they were feeling and how it was affecting them and rebelled against the pressures of society. Pepsi using Bob Dylan as the protagonist of the commercial symbolizes the desire for people to explore what it means to be a carefree rock ‘n’ roll legend that lives life on a spectrum outside of the guidelines that society already has set in place. Bob Dylan’s purpose in the Pepsi commercial is to directly represent rebellion and individualism. This advertisement pushes the concept that consumers too have the potential to be as inspiring as said legend if they continue to take apart in whatever is being sold. Pepsi’s commercial expresses that conformity is no longer

Chuck Palahniuk’s Fight Club is the story of a man struggling to find himself. The main character, a nameless narrator, is clearly unhappy with his life. He obsessively fakes diseases and attends support group sessions as a way to deal with his hopelessness. Obsessive behaviors often lead to unfavorable events if they are interrupted (Lizardo). Just as it seems the support groups have brought him to a form of equilibrium, they are interrupted by a fellow faker. His inability to treat his restlessness by attending these support groups drives the narrator to shocking extremes.

The psychological disorder which was illustrated in Fight Club was Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) or Multiple Personality disorder, meaning that their consciousness is disrupted as well as their memory and identity (Schacter, Gilbert, Wegner, & Nock, 2014). The narrator, who halfway through the movie we discover his name is Jack, is the one suffering from this psychological illness. The narrator was quite abnormal as his behavior changed drastically as he first struggles with insomnia, which could be considered a small issue, and then later ends up partaking in a criminal offense group and even murders a man. Another odd scene was when the viewers began realizing that he is actually suffering from an illness which occurred when he began hitting himself and acting as if someone (Tyler) was punching him.

3. Social identity (10 points): What role(s) does social identity play in the movie? Discuss SID in relationship of the jury to the accused. (Define your terms and give two examples of how they apply).

Fight Club is a psychoanalytical film that addresses the themes of identification, freedom and violence. It acknowledges Freud’s principle which stresses that human behavior is the result of psychological conflicting forces and in order to analyze these forces, there needs to be a way of tapping into peoples minds. The narrator tells his personal journey of self-discovery through his alter ego and his schizophrenic experiences. The movie is told through a sequence of events is told through a flashback that starts with insomnia. Jack starts attending support groups for testicular cancer survivors that let him release his emotions and can finally is able to sleep at night. Although he

In her analysis of Fight Club, Renee Lockwood identifies the defining role that consumerism plays in establishing modern identity asserting that “modern consumers able to choose from a vast range of identities through products and labels” (Lockwood, 2008, p. 329.). Explicit examples of society’s dependency on consumerism is constantly portrayed through makeovers, where an individual gains a plethora of confidence and social acceptance through the modification of their sense of dress. Thus, we live in a world defined almost entirely by what we own hence the propensity for people to change their identity from time to time.

The movie Twelve Angry Men is about the twelve jurors that could adjust their influence in a decision-making process for conviction an eighteen years-old boy, whether the boy guilty or not guilty in murdering of his father. It represents a perfect example for applicable of a work group development framework. It also has examples of influence techniques among a group’s members. This paper is looking at those specific examples in the movie and focusing in analysis the reasons why Juror 8 is so much more effective than others in the meeting.