The psychology of Fight Club

talt ela MONOPOLY an examination the themes, plot, and motivation the screenplay adapted chuck palahniuk's novel CHANCE CON a long enough timeline, the survival rate for MEET the narrator, an everyone drops office worker plagued by insomnia who is immersed in a materialistic, nihilistic, IKEA-catalogue fueled to zero. Welcome to the world of Fight Club, wbere violence reigns supreme and nothing is quite as it seems. If you're ready to leave it all bebind, proceed to GO... and don't look back. [Tam Jack's wasted life. existence. He is disenchanted with the life he lives, repressing his feelings with frequent purchases and a sweeping cynicism of all he sees. Struggling with depression, the narrator travels to the doctor looking for prescription drugs, saying that he's in pain.The physician tells him that if he wants to see real pain, he should Release! The narrator finds he can sleep after being confronted by the real woes of the other members in the support group. He begins attending multiple sessions with different groups per week. GO go to a support group for men with testicular cancer. Despite the sarcastic nature of the suggestion, the narrator decides to attend. The character is an inversion of the Unfortunately his joy is shortlived. He meets Marla Singer at the weekly group for testicular cancer. He regresses into his insomnia until they come to an arrangement to alternate attendence. 1990's The Graduate' archetype. INCOME ".a guy who does not have a world of possibilities in front of him, he has no possibilites, he literally cannot imagine a way to change his life." depression The film's director In coming in contact with those who are close to death, the David Fincher narrator has a realization. had this to say about Norton's character "This was freedom. Losing all hope was freedom. " He's tried to do everything he "Marla's philosophy of life is that she might| was taught to do, tried to fit into the world by becoming the thing he isn't. He must travel a path of enlightenment where he pushes back the borders of his experiential knowledge." die at any moment. The tragedy, she said, was that she didn't." The narrator sees a bit too much of himself in Marla to be comfortable in her presence, especially in the (faux) emotional setting he creates at the support group gatherings. She is a direct manifestation of all the lies and justifications that bring him to the sessions. Too much mirror, too little opacity. TURNING POINT Pacific, Mountain, Central. Lose an hour, gain an hour. This is your life, and it's ending 1 minute at a time. The narrator meets Tyler on a flight. After discussing nitroglycerine, soap- making and single serving friendships, Tyler gives him his card before moving up to first class seating. The narrator returns to his condo to find that a gas leak has destroyed everything he owns; his IKEA possessions litter the street for all to see. He calls Tyler, and the two meet up at a bar where they have a conversation about materialism. Tyler offers the narrator a place to stay, but he has a request. Community Chest The things you own, they end up owning you. "Iwant you to hit me as hard as you can." welcome to the new therapy... Norton believes that the fighting between the men strips away the fear of pain' and 'the reliance on material signifiers of their self- worth', leaving them to experience something valuable. ..and it turns out it's in high demand. The 'fight club' meets Wednesday night and soon has a huge following. progression The violence of the fight clubs serves not to promote or glorify physical combat, but for the participants to experience feeling in a society where they are other - wise numb. The fights 'tangibly represent resistance to the impulse to be cocooned in society'. After ignoring a suicide call from Marla, the narrator leaves the phone off the hook. Tyler picks it up, saving her life. TURNING POINT Lye - the crucial ingredient. Ancient people found that if they washed their clothes in a certain part of the river, they became cleaner. Why? Because human sacrifices were once made on the hill above. It's soap making time! Tyler and the narrator collect human fat from a liposuction clinic. Don't forget the lye. Water seeped through the wood ashes to become lye. The first soap was made from the ashes of heroes. Without sacrifice, without death, we would have nothing. earlier in the film, Tyler refers to soap as "the benchmark of civilization" Tyler and Marla begin a sexual relationship This is a chemical burn. It will hurt more than you have ever been burned before, and you will have a scar. 8. Tyler manifests a nihilistic attitude of rejecting and destroying institutions and value systems. His impulsive nature, representing the id, conveys an attitude that is seductive to the narrator and the members of Project Mayhem. Enter Project Mayhem. The members of the fight club have been enacting city- wide vandalism at the behest of Tyler, who has left the narrator in the dark. comprehension The Narrator confronts Tyler about Project Mayhem. Tyler steers their car into oncoming traffic, asking the narrator, "If you died right now, how would you feel about your life?" At the last moment he swerves back to the proper lane. 10 The director, David Fincher, says this We just had a near-life experience, boys! "We're designed to be hunters and we're in a society of shopping. There's nothing to kill anymore, there's nothing to fight, nothing to overcome, nothing to explore. In that societal emasculation this everyman [the narrator and the members of project mayhem] is created." TURNING POINT And then Tyler disappears. Using his phone records, the narrator traces his path from city to city. He finds a fight club in every place he visits. "I was living in a constant state of deja vu..." People think that you're me because we happen to share the same body. ..Until one of the members refer to him as Tyler'. Shocked, the narrator rushes to call Marla, who also thinks he's Tyler. And suddenly Tyler's there, standing next to him in the room. The narrator wakes up on the floor to discover he's made a list of calls as Tyler. He calls the numbers trying to warn them about the danger but gets a member of Project Mayhem each time. They tell him everything is under control. 12 reconstitution Terrified now, he tries to turn himself in to the police only to find that the police are a part of Project Mayhem. He flees to a building on the list of O calls and discovers vans packed with nitroglycerin. Tyler's projection appears and subdues him after a struggle. 13 In the face of the Narrator's inability to cope with his environment, he has created the Nietzschean "Ubermensch'. This being will 'act as his own God, giving himself morality and value as he sees fit according to him, and him alone'. The narrator wakes to find himself in a room with floor to ceiling windows, offering an expansive view of the city. He and Tyler dialogue as they each try to convince the other of the veracity of their respective motivations. The narrator realizes that if Tyler is holding the gun, he is holding the gun. Suddenly understanding what must be done, he puts the gun in his mouth and pulls the trigger. He is shot through the cheek; the back of Tyler's head is blown open. The projection disappears. The members of the Project, believing him to be Tyler, bring Marla in and leave them alone as the explosives detonate. Look at me. My eyes are open. By coming to terms with the realities of he and Tyler's relationship, the narrator is able to meld the best parts of both. He must be prepared to die so that he might live, and live fully. The film's screenwriter Jim Uhls describes the fim as a romantic comedy 'It has to do with the characters' attitudes toward a healthy relationship, which is a lot of behavior which seems unhealthy and harsh to each other, but in fact does work for them- because both characters are out on the edge psychologically. brought to you by topcounselingschools.com concept by Merrill Cook design by Dylan Orlady Citations http://videoeta.com/news/287 http://www.academia.edu/193320/Diagnosing_Chuck_Palahniuks_Fight_Club http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fight_Club 12910 yli nummo)