Mischief, Mayhem, In Tyler We Trust: A Textual Analysis of Personality Disorders as Depicted in the Film Fight Club

2608 Words6 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Fight club themes and analysis

Psychological disorders are widely represented in films, as well as in other media texts such as novels, television shows, etc. One film that portrays more than one example of a psychological disorder is Fight Club, a Twentieth Century Fox movie released with an R rating in 1999. Directed by David Fincher; and produced by Art Linson, Cean Chaffin, and Ross Grayson Bell, the movie mainly introduces Dissociative Identity Disorders (also known as Multiple Personality Disorders), but also hints at insomnia and depression. The movie is adapted from the book Fight Club written by Chuck Palahniuk. Fox marketed the movie using a “myriad of merchandise, including posters, the soundtrack, and even email addresses (yourname@fightclub.com)” (CNN). The movie’s production budget was set at $63,000,000 with the movie grossing $37,030,102 (Daily Box Office). The characters of the movie refer to themselves as the “middle children of history” with the feelings of having no purpose or place in life. They convey that they have no history-making events or real set goals and/or destiny to look forward to. They were brought up by society to believe that one-day they would be rich, famous and loved just as those depicted on television. This is symbolic of society during the surrounding time of the movie’s release. It is prevalent in modern society to strive to become someone/something that one sees in the media. The movie is directed towards Generation-X, but the “…hope was that the film would demonstrate the themes of the story to a larger audience. It would offer more people the idea that they could create their own lives outside the existing blueprint for happiness offered by society” (Palahniuk). This message was one that demanded that its viewers put all that drives them aside, and rethink what they had been taught from childhood. After the film’s release, instead of delivering the message that was intended, it was met with criticism and misunderstanding. This was due partly to the fact that it was scheduled for release shortly after the Columbine shootings. The movie became an easy target for those upset by the blatant violence which surrounded the Columbine incident. Although Fight Club is a film full of violence it is in reality one that promotes anti-violence, and points out to the audience the human impulses that cause violent behavior. Ironically, despite all of the med...

... middle of paper ...

...iative Identity Disorder (DID) Fact Sheet. http://cameronwest.com/did1.html Doak, Robert.
Studies in Popular Culture: Who Am I This Time? Multiple Personality Disorder and Popular Culture. http://pcasacas.org/SPC/spcissues/22.1/doak.html Hamilton, Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital.
Medical Encyclopedia: Sleeping Difficulty. http://www.rwjhamilton.org/Atoz/encyclopedia/article/003210.asp Maisto, Albert A, and Charles G. Morris.
Psychology: an introduction. 12th edition. 2005.
Pearson Education Inc., Upper Saddle River, New Jersey.

Palahniuk, Chuck.
Fight Club DVD booklet.

PsychNet-UK.
Dissociative Identity Disorder: Disorder Information Sheet. http://www.psychnet-uk.com/dsm_iv/dissociative_identity_disorder.htm University of Iowa Health Care.
Multiple Personality Disorder: Health Topics: UI Health Care.
http://www.uihealthcare.com/topics/mentalemotionalhealth/ment3157.html

Show More
Related

  • The Pros And Cons Of The Werewolf Diet

    1071 Words  | 3 Pages

    But not all fad diets are necessarily bad; some fad diets help with portions but are not supposed to be used for long periods of time. Weight Watchers for example, is supposed to help its users lose 10% of their body weight and then after

    Read More

  • Michael Jackson Thriller Essay

    1283 Words  | 3 Pages

    The late singer Michael Jackson, also known as the King of Pop, was an icon beyond imaginable expectations and vision. He catapulted into fame as a child music star with his brothers before becoming the most famous Jackson sibling to move on to have a solo career. Michael Jackson is undisputedly one of the most successful entertainers in all of music history. Not only did he single-handedly transform the face of pop music, he also- made a huge impact in the world of dance with signature moves like the Moon Walk. Jackson, a man of many talents, had thirteen number one singles, won seventeen Grammy Awards, and sold over one billion albums across the globe since he released his first solo

    Read More

  • How Willy Wonka Portrays Schizotypal Personality Disorder

    1665 Words  | 4 Pages

    Every person that has different characteristics that influence how they think, act, and build relationships. While some people are introverted, others are extroverted. Some people are strict and do not take risks, while others are carefree and free spirited. However, there are times where a person’s behavior becomes destructive, problematic, and maladaptive (Widger, 2003). The key to examining a person for a possible personality disorder is not if they have quirks, but if they display severe behavioral, emotional, and social issues. A diagnosis of having a personality disorders involves identifying if their extreme behaviors, emotions, and thoughts that are different than cultural expectations interfere with the ...

    Read More

  • Literary Analysis of Fight Club

    1468 Words  | 3 Pages

    Fight Club is a novel written by Chuck Palahniuk. This is a story about a protagonist who struggles with insomnia. An anonymous character suffering from recurring insomnia due to the stress brought about by his job is introduced to the reader. He visits a doctor who later sends him to visit a support group for testicular cancer victims, and this helps him in alleviating his insomnia. However, his insomnia returns after he meets Marla Singer. Later on, the narrator meets Tyler Durden, and they together establish a fight club. They continue fighting until they attract crowds of people interested in the fight club. Fight club is a story that shows the struggles between the upper class and lower class people. The upper class people here undermine the working class people by considering them as cockroaches. In addition, Palahniuk explores the theme of destruction throughout the book whereby the characters destroy their lives, body, building and the history of their town.

    Read More

  • Fight Club's Criticism of the American Dream

    1139 Words  | 3 Pages

    Dystopia- A futuristic, imagined universe in which oppressive societal control and the illusion of a perfect society are maintained through corporate, bureaucratic, technological, moral, or totalitarian control, Dystopias, through an exaggerated worst-case scenario, make a criticism about, when given the definition of a dystopia famous literary works such as 1984 or A Brave New World seem to flutter the mind, but we don’t think of popular books of today that can make just as big of a dystopian impact. Chuck Palahniuk’s gruesomely truthful novel, Fight Club, gives readers a raw look on just how miserable and monotonous the “American Dream” can become. In the generic definition of dystopia it is stated that a dystopia is a futuristic universe, Fight Club is not a futuristic universe, it is a mirror on how society is today. Dystopian authors usually are writing their novel as a warning on how society is going to become, but Palahniuk didn’t write any predictions, he wrote a novel on how society exactly was when he wrote the novel. The narrator of this aggressive tale is trapped in his own life and trying to find absolutely anything to fill the hole of self petty that he created himself because he chose to follow the “American Dream” which ultimately makes his life even more horrible than it was before. Fight Club is based off of real life events that actually happened to Palahniuk himself. In an interview with DVD talk the question, “How much of this was based on real things?” is asked and Palahniuk answers with the startling answer “Everything except for the clubs themselves.” By making the novel almost 100 percent accurate, Palahniuk is showing readers that this is exactly how society is, the world is actually this bad and it is on...

    Read More

  • One’s True Identity in Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk

    853 Words  | 2 Pages

    One’s identity is established at birth when given a name. Often times, one’s identity can change throughout one’s lifetime. During adolescence, identity can be linked to playing a sport, an instrument, being involved in art, acting, singing, or some other hobby. As adulthood approaches, identity can be described as, but not limited to, the career path someone has chosen, or the family they may or may not have. In the novel Fight Club, written by Chuck Palahniuk, the narrator has a difficult time finding his true identity. In the novel the theme identity is discussed as the narrator discovers the truth about himself and who the real Tyler Durden is.

    Read More

  • Fight Club

    519 Words  | 2 Pages

    The fight club exists because individuals get weighted down by possessions causing them to miss the deep meaning of life. Most of the people in the fight club hold service jobs or lower level management jobs that are meaningless. Society becomes so rationalized that one must push themeself to the extreme in order to feel anything or accomplish anything.

    Read More

  • Marxism In Fight Club

    1322 Words  | 3 Pages

    Fight Club “Its only after we’ve lost everything are we free to do anything”, Tyler Durden as (Brad Pitt) states, among many other lines of contemplation. In Fight Club, a nameless narrator, a typical “everyman,” played as (Edward Norton) is trapped in the world of large corporations, condominium living, and all the money he needs to spend on all the useless stuff he doesn’t need. As Tyler Durden says “The things you own end up owning you.” Fight Club is an edgy film that takes on such topics as consumerism, the feminization of society, manipulation, cultism, Marxist ideology, social norms, dominant culture, and the psychiatric approach of the human id, ego, and super ego. “It is a film that surrealistically describes the status of the American

    Read More

  • rough draft

    1267 Words  | 3 Pages

    One of the main differences between healthy diet and exercise and fad dieting is they can yield very different long term results. When fad dieting, you may be able to drop quite a bit of weight in a short period of time, but rest assured you will most likely see those pounds again. Fad diets focus on losing weight too quickly. The initial weight you lose is water weight, but as soon as you go back to regular food the pounds lost will return. Fad dieting can also wreak havoc on your muscles, and cause your body to go into starvation mode. Fad dieting works off of the idea that since your body needs fat to produce energy, it will burn the access fat that is stored to get that energy. The problem with this theory is that when you deprive your body of the necessary nutrients it needs, it then stores all the fat it can and starts burning energy from your muscles. The loss of your muscles slows down your metabolism, thus making it more difficult to lose weight in the long run. Healthy dieting promotes a lifestyle change, allowing for results...

    Read More

  • Personality Disorders Essay

    1221 Words  | 3 Pages

    A way to think about a personality disorder is to think about someone who is complex because personality disorders are not a simple health concern. There is so much involved with these disorders. A person’s life can revolve around a personality disorder due to the fact that it is a mental issue. (Mayo Clinic, 2014). There is a stigma around the idea of mental disorder. People assume that a person with any type of mental disorder is dangerous or harmful. It will always be this way until the media changes how they portray mental disorders. (Arboleda, and Stuart, 2012) Did you know that in the overall population personality disorders affect more than 10% of people? (Lariviere, Desrosieres, Tousignant, and Boyer, 2010). Because this can happen to anyone, personality disorders need more awareness about what it is.

    Read More

  • Diesel Engine Essay

    800 Words  | 2 Pages

    Diesel engines are an important component of society in how they are used efficiently and effectively. Diesel engines have been around since 1892 when inventor Rudolph Diesel was able to achieve his goal of developing an internal combustion engine that can achieve maximum efficiency as seen in the Carnot Theorem. The Carnot Theorem set the standard for determining the maximum

    Read More

  • The Moonwalker: Michael Jackson

    1001 Words  | 3 Pages

    ... of race in music and also made efforts to “heal” the world. His unique musical sound and style has influenced numerous hip hop, post-disco, contemporary R&B, pop, and rock artists (“Biography”).

    Read More

  • Fad Diets Affects Mental Health

    906 Words  | 2 Pages

    One reason why, is that most people people that get on fad diets lose the weight quickly and gain back even more weight than what they were trying to loss in the first place. “Among those who were followed for fewer than two years, 23% gained back more weight than they had lost, while those who were followed for at least two years, 83% gained back more weight than they had lost.” (Wolpert) Those who go on a fad diet and take it further will Maintain to lose weight or just lose weight and have not gained back any more weight like other people do. “Only 5 percent to 10 percent of dieters maintain weight loss that’s greater than 10 percent of their initial weight.”

    Read More

  • is dieting dangerous?

    1707 Words  | 4 Pages

    Fad diets are such diets which promise consumers quick results regarding weight loss. These diets become popular due to ...

    Read More

  • Fad Diets Essay

    849 Words  | 2 Pages

    Most fad diets do not focus on meeting the nutritional requirements of your body, but on losing weight quickly. This encourages unhealthy eating habits as many people result to restricting their intake of foods that have essential nutrients. In fact, the diet programs are designed to take advantage of the willingness of people to attempt anything to lose weight or feel and look

    Read More

More about Mischief, Mayhem, In Tyler We Trust: A Textual Analysis of Personality Disorders as Depicted in the Film Fight Club

Open Document