The fight club film has received both acknowledgment and critics alike since its inception. People opposed to the movie believe that the movie is a total demise of arts and one that uses vague language with no apparent meanings. According to critics, the use of anonymous narrator as the main character in the movie was itself a failure in the process of depicting the mainstream plot of the film which at the end give an irrelevant meaning. The movie is critiqued to catastrophically ravel into a strident and shallow end which have no moral or candid ethical implication to its viewers. On the other hand, acknowledgers of the film argue that the fight club is a gloriously spiteful and well-acted satire that gives perfect imagery of how masculinity has ravaged the already raveled contemporary society. The proponent of the idea that the movie is ideal in the modern society also claims that the themes of the film remind humankind of how discrepancies between social and economic factors have despaired the search for things that makes one happy. Despite the numerous critique and appraisals the movie has received so far, this paper thinks that fight club has relevant themes that are brought out in a bleak and obsolete setting. The film aptly highlights on the evils of modern consumerism but does not provide a relatable context and audience. The narrator who is the protagonist of the movie is used by the author to integrate the theme of psychological irrationality in the piece. Although there are multiple mental disorders portrayed in the film, this paper will discuss how the dissociative identity disorder is used to shape the plot of the movie and most importantly, how the main character in the film exhibits the disease.
The phrase at the beginning of the film, “this is your life and ending one minute at a time” serves two purposes ("Fight Club and Dissociative Identity Disorder", 2018). First, it introduces the audience to the narrative and establishes a cordial relationship between the audience and the cast. Secondly, the line sets the dark mood experienced throughout the film. It predicts the main scenes and actions of the film before they even start. The narrator, the name of the main character, has a decent job in an unnamed company is trapped in his insomnia. The insomnia disorder plagues his being and elevates his depressive feelings to almost incurable levels. He then turns into a bid of self-medication through consumerism. The analogy he uses is that massive acquisition of “things” will help cure his anxiety and depression. He states, “I flipped through catalogs and wondered: what kind of dining sets defines me as a person.” However, the things he acquires does not help, in fact, his condition worsens. The narrator’s predisposition and failure in treating his consumerism causes the lapse in his cognitive abilities.
When he meets Tyler Durden, the narrator then realizes the perfect answer to his long-sought alternative of curing consumerism. The two decides to start a fight club where men can spend time soothing their feeling of entrapment. According to the movie’s director, the brawl the narrator receives from Tyler makes him feel good and immediately understand that fighting is the best way to relieve stress and anxiety. After Tyler flees, the narrator is tossed into a realm of uneasiness and hits the road in pursuit of his companion. Once he finds him, Tyler Durden discloses to the narrator that they are the same person. Delirious from the encounter, the narrator runs away, but he is later captured by Tyler. After he was caught, illusions of his identity pointing a gun to his head engulfs his mind frightening him and out of terror, he breaks the dream only to find out that he was the one holding the gun. He shoots himself in the jaw which kills Tyler and frees him- the narrator from his imaginary identity.
Although the film vitally utilizes dissociative identity disorder as the primary tool in developing its plot, the correlation is inaccurate when it comes to the audience and the real world. To the viewer disadvantage, there is no point at which the narrator underwent childhood trauma which is a reliable indicator that a person has the dissociative identity disorder. Instead, the author uses the anxiety and the sense of entrapment late in the narrator’s life to show signs of the disease. The dissociative disorder evident in the narrator’s condition is triggered by the structure of modern society which makes him feel trapped and depressed.
Ideally, a dissociative disorder is characterized by the patient portraying two or more distinct personalities. The patient is also diagnosed with often loss of memory regarding specific events in a way that is abnormal (Schenk, 2002). From the film, it is clear that the narrator is not aware that he is technically Tyler. The audience also has no idea of such a possibility until Tyler tells the narrator about their collective personality. All along, the narrator had been fighting against himself. As his world starts to crumble under massive societal pressures, the narrator gives a proper clinical rendition of the disorder. He is a perfect description of DID patient. When he meets Tyler Durden, the narrator quickly grows fond of him and find solace in him. It even went to the extent that he went after him when Tyler leaves without saying a word. Studies have proved that the hidden personality does what the first character is not able to do but has always desired to do so. In the movie, the narrator is the first personality, and Tyler is the second personality. Tyler is a direct opposite of the narrator in the perspective of personal characteristics and virtues. Most of the things the narrator fails to do are done by Durden Tyler. For instance, he introduced the narrator into a fighting club where he would relieve his stress. Whereas the narrator is shown as being shy, Tyler was charming and outgoing. Therefore, the comparison of the two tells how the author used DID in developing the story.
Apart from the symptoms mentioned above, that is associated with DID, diagnostic and statistical, manual of mental disorder (DSM-IV) shows that depression and an irritable character are signs of dissociative identity disorder (Craske et al., 2010). At the beginning of the film, the narrator is portrayed to be suffering from insomnia which he seeks medication. After realizing that medicine is not working, he enrolls into support groups with thinking that he will get advice from other people on how to deal well with pain in one’s life. After attending the meetings, the narrator was able to sleep well again shading light on the possibility that he was depressed. Furthermore, the idea of creating an underground fight club was to bring men together and fight as a way of relieving their stress. The narrator himself liked fighting because it made him feel better and possibly less depressed and at the same time, he satisfied his violence desires. The fact that the narrator was only able to have a good sleep after attending support groups shows that he was depressed which is a sign of DID.
The last scene of the movie is very affirmative on the use of DID as a tool of developing the movie’s plot. People with dissociative identity disorder in real life are given hints on how to exist as the first personality without the interference of the second figure. In the movie, the narrator just like anyone in the play was not aware that Durden Tyler was his replica. It is only Tyler who knew that he was technically the same as the narrator and does not tell him until the end of the movie. In the last scene, the narrator engages in a fight with Tyler who is only visible to him. Ironically, spectators could just see the narrator beating and hitting himself. On his part, the narrator believes to be fighting Tyler, his second personality. Ordinarily, the multiple characters of a DID patient can never meet in real life. A DID patient might have an unlimited number of different personalities, but they can never meet. Contrary to this fact, the movie exaggerates the manifestation of the disease for entertainment purposes by deliberately allowing the narrator meet his second personality. When the narrator shoots himself in the head, it is Tyler who dies instead. This scene proves that Tyler was indeed the narrator’s second personality. Additionally, the narrator continually interacted with his second personality which cannot be the case in reality. Nevertheless, the fact that Tyler was not visible during the fight with the narrator and the scene where Tyler dies after the narrator shoots himself shows the significance of DID in the movie.
Conclusion
Fight club is a captivating movie made possible by the use of dissociative identity disorder. The storyline which seems to revolve around the narrator and Tyler entirely relies on DID for its development. The disorder is correctly depicted by the author through the narrator who undergoes typical symptoms of the disease. Thus, DID which is used as hyperbole in the movie played a positive role unlike the negative function associated with it as a disorder. The author portrayed the disease as a saving grace in the sense that it provided answers about consumerism to the narrator. Tyler helps his reflection the narrator to tackle life challenges, and after succeeding in his endeavors, the narrator dissociates from his second personality by killing Tyler.
References
Craske, M., Kircanski, K., Epstein, A., Wittchen, H., Pine, D., Lewis-Fernández, R., " Hinton, D. (2010). Panic disorder: a review of DSM-IV panic disorder and proposals for DSM-V. Depression and Anxiety, 27(2), 93-112. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/da.20654
Fight Club and Dissociative Identity Disorder. (2018). Psychology2's Blog. Retrieved 4 February 2018, from https://psychology2.wordpress.com/2010/04/30/fight-club-and-dissociative-identity-disorder/
Schenk, P. (2002). Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) masked by ADHD Symptoms. The ADHD Report, 10(5), 1-5. http://dx.doi.org/10.1521/adhd.10.5.1.20557
