The Fight Club Complex by Chuck Palahniuk

The Fight Club Complex

“Fight Club” by Chuck Palahniuk is largely a commentary on today’s society and the stresses and issues associated with living in the modern world. The main character, an unnamed narrator, represents an everyday person or an “average joe”. While the narrator is certainly not psychologically stable, he still is able to convey Palahniuk’s ideology in a coherent manner. Perhaps one of the most obscure ideas that Palahniuk inserts into the book is the idea that the narrator is a prime example of a person suffering from an age old Sigmund Freud theory, the Oedipus Complex. Briefly, the Oedipus Complex is defined by the Merriam--Webster Dictionary as “the positive libidinal feelings of a child toward the parent of the opposite sex and hostile or jealous feelings toward the parent of the same sex that in Freudian psychoanalytic theory may be a source of adult personality disorder when unresolved.” Just as in “Oedipus Rex”, the beginning of the book is a sort of prophecy that predicts a future that cannot be changed. The inclusion of this Freudian psychoanalytic theory into this novel is initially hard to spot but once it is pointed out, extremely obvious examples pop out all over the pages.

According to Sigmund Freud’s work in the area of psychoanalysis, there are 6 stages of psychosexual development. Of all of these stages of development, Freud hypothesized that the Oedipus complex happens during the phallic stage of development. The phallic stage of a boy’s childhood takes place when he is between the ages of three and six. During this stage of psychosexual development, the pleasure zone on the body switches to the genitals and boys develop unconscious sexual desires for their mother. As a result of this desi...

... middle of paper ...

...undertones commenting on society today. The novel not only touches on modern issues, but is deeply seeded in the ideas of Freudian psychosexual development, specifically the Oedipus Complex. Throughout the novel, the narrator follows the exact path of events laid out by Freud as the Oedipus Complex. He develops sexual attraction to his mother which in turn causes negativity towards his father. He then kills his father and sleeps with his mother, making the idea of the Oedipus complex in “Fight Club” come to fruition. Palahniuk’s inclusion of this ideology makes “Fight Club” even more interesting as it explores the unconscious desire of every normal person. “Fight Club” is perhaps most known for its bizarre writing and its social commentary, but the narrator’s battle with his own psychological desire is by far the most intriguing part of Chuck Palahniuk’s creation.