Fight Club: Psychoanalyzed

SPOILER ALERT: If you have not watched Fight Club and plan on watching it, then do not read this blog.

Fight Club is a movie that was released in 1999 starring Edward Norton and Brad Pitt. Even though it's a movie about people who enjoy beating each other up for no good reason, it really is full of psychology. Let's discuss:

 In the movie, Norton has insomnia. He hardly sleeps so he is exhausted all the time. He doesn't really have any friends and he has not found his flow at work. Basically, his life was pretty bad. His self concept and self worth becomes the products he buys for his apartment. All he does is spend his life creating the "perfect apartment." One day, his apartment explodes, and that's when everything goes haywire. He calls up a guy he met on a plane, Tyler. They go to a bar and then go outside and Tyler asks Norton to hit him. He finally agrees and they start fighting. Then, Tyler takes him back to his house but they continue to fight like this every night. People start coming to watch and they want to join in. Tyler ends up creating a Fight Club where people can come and fight recreationally. After a while, Norton realizes that Tyler is out of control and goes to find him. Finally, he realizes that he is Tyler. When he thinks he's asleep, he has been carrying out the role of Tyler. You might think I've been explaining the story line just to talk about multiple personality disorder (which may or might not exist), but that is not where I'm going with this. Actually, the entire story is based off of Freud's theories.

Tyler is Norton's projected id. In the beginning, Norton (the ego) was able to control his id, which focuses on its own satisfaction and nothing else. He was able to fight to keep the id controlled so he could be accepted in society. When his self concept (his consumer goods in his apartment) blows up, he can no longer control his id. His id, Tyler, is the person he wishes he could be. Tyler is meant to be perfection, but completely out of control and with no care for rules or what's right. Not only is this movie all about the id-ego relationship, but it also deals with the psychosexual phases. Norton is fixated in the anal phase. The active part of this phase are linked to sadism (sexual gratification obtained by inflicting pain on others; delight in cruelty/excessive cruelty) and masochism (pleasure being abused or dominated). Tyler takes on the sadistic side while Norton takes the masochistic side. In most of the scenes in the club, you see Tyler beating up some guy or  you see Norton getting beat up by someone. Tyler is constantly inflicting pain on Norton and exerting his dominance over everyone in the Club.

Finally, Norton realizes that he can feel emotions on a new level and can experience life without Tyler. When he realizes he doesn't need Tyler anymore, his ego is able to get rid of his id and start living again.

How interesting, right? It's not just a movie about Brad Pitt and some guys giving each other black eyes for no reason. Who woulda thought?