FIGHT CLUB

MOVIE REVIEW

Submitted on 14th Feb 2024 by Maria Shaikh

for the subject of Abnormal Psychology Sem IV
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I am deeply grateful to my
psychology teacher Apurva mam
for coming up with such an
interesting idea for this project
and her unwavering guidance.
Special thanks are due to my
brother Usama for suggesting
this movie for my research and
his help and assistance .
Last but not the least i am
thankful to my mother for
always encouraging my interest
in psychology subject.
 INDEX

PLOT
Plot
1
DSM 5
DSM 5
2
Character analysis
Treatments
CHARACTER ANALYSIS
3
Age of onset,
TREATMENTS
4 Prevalence
AGE OF ONSET,
5 References
PREVALENCE

REFERENCES
6
 PLOT
The film "Fight Club" follows the journey of an unnamed
protagonist, referred to as the Narrator who struggles with
insomnia. He attends various support groups for different
afflictions despite not suffering from them basking into the
emotional support they provide. There he encounters a
woman named Marla, who attends the groups like him,
despite not needing the support.
During a business trip, he encounters Tyler Durden, a
charismatic soap salesman. After landing home the
narrator finds his apartment burning, he calls up Tyler to
ask him for a place to crash. The two men strike up an
unlikely friendship . Tyler offers the Narrator a solution to
his insomnia: they begin to engage in physical altercations
as a form of catharsis, leading to the creation of an
underground fight club.
As the fight club gains popularity and evolves into a cult-
like organization known as Project Mayhem, the Narrator
becomes increasingly involved in Tyler's anarchic
philosophy, which involves rejecting consumerism and
societal norms. However, as Tyler's influence over the
members of Project Mayhem grows, the Narrator begins to
lose control and becomes disturbed by Tyler's increasingly
destructive actions.
 Marla becomes entangled in the Narrator's life as she
becomes romantically involved with both him and Tyler.
Despite her tumultuous relationship with both personas,
she serves as a grounding force for the Narrator,
occasionally questioning his behavior and the nature of his
relationship with Tyler.
As the film grows close to climax the narrator discover
Tyler’s plans and the ultimate goals of ‘Project Mayhem’
are to demolish multiple buildings belonging to credit card
companies. The intention is to erase debt records and, in
Tyler's philosophy, reset society to a more primal and
authentic state.
As the narrator rushes to stop Tyler, after he realizes that
Tyler is gone it is revealed that that Tyler is actually an
alter ego created by his own mind. He realizes that he is
responsible for the destructive acts committed by TylerIn
a desperate attempt to regain control of his life and stop
Tyler's plans, the Narrator confronts Tyler at the building
where the final act of vandalism is set to take place.
However, he struggles to assert his dominance over his
alter ego.
The narrator comes to the conclusion that the only way to
stop his alter ego is to kill himself, hence he shoots
hismself in the face.
 As marla arrives with some of Tyler’s own men and sees
that the narrator is alive despite of the gunshot. The film
end with the narrator standing next to Marla having
seemingly killed Tyler and reconciled with his own
identity. As buildings collapse around them, the Narrator
expresses hope for the future and the possibility of
starting anew.

CAST
Edward Norton as the Narrator.

Brad Pitt as Tyler Durden

Helena Bonham Carter as Marla Singer

Zach Grenier as Richard Chesler, the Narrator's

boss

Peter Iacangelo as Lou

Thom Gossom Jr. as Detective Stern

 DSM 5 CRITERIA FOR
DISSOCIATIVE IDENTITY DISORDER
A. Disruption of identity characterized by two or
more distinct personality states, which may be
described in some cultures as an experience of
possession. The disruption in identity involves
marked discontinuity in sense of self and sense of
agency, accompanied by related alterations in
affect, behavior, con-sciousness, memory,
perception, cognition, and/or sensory-motor
functioning. These signs and symptoms may be
observed by others or reported by the individual.

B. Recurrent gaps in the recall of everyday

events, important personal information, and/ or
traumatic events that are inconsistent with
ordinary forgetting.
 C. The symptoms cause clinically
significant distress or impairment in
social, occupational, or other
important areas of functioning.

D. The disturbance is not a normal part of

a broadly accepted cultural or religious
practice.
Note: In children, the symptoms are not
better explained by imaginary playmates
or other fantasy play.

E. The symptoms are not attributable to

the physiological effects of a substance
(e.g., blackouts or chaotic behavior
during alcohol intoxication) or another
medical condition (e.g., complex partial
seizures).
CHARACTER ANALYSIS

In the movie fight club criteria A of DSM 5 where the narrator

seems to appear as a separate entity from Tyler, illustrating
dissociation is observed in several scenes like the scene on the
plane when the narrator imagines Tyler briefly sitting next to
him on the plane. Their conversation is disjointed, with the
Narrator expressing bewilderment at Tyler's sudden presence.

Additionally, the Narrator's surprise and confusion when

confronted with evidence of Tyler's actions further highlight
the lack of continuity in his identity. For example, when the
Narrator discovers the vandalism carried out by Project
Mayhem, he is genuinely shocked and struggles to reconcile
these actions with his own memory and beliefs
 Another scene illustrating this occurs when the
Narrator watches surveillance footage of himself
planting an explosive device. His horror and
confusion at his own actions indicate a profound
disconnection between his conscious awareness
and Tyler's behaviors.This matches with criteria A

Criteria B of DSM 5 can also be observed

throughout the film in scenes when the narrator
wakes up with random bruises and injuries and is
unable to recall where he got it from .This
highlights that the narrator has recurrent gaps in
the recall of everyday events .
The narrator‘s inability to recall his involvement in
project mayhem also highlights memory gaps. At
the climax of the film the narrator is horrified by
his plans of project mayhem which further
highlights that he was not consciousously aware
of his own actions at the time they occured.
 It is also observed that the narrator experiences
significant distress and impairment in social areas
specifically his struggle to maintain a relationship with
Marla. His emotional breakdown when he confronts
Tyler as his alter ego shows how emotionally distressed
he is. During the film at a point he becomes unable to
control Tyler’s actions and that causes his distress as a
result causing a strain in his relationship with Marla
this highlights how he is unable to function properly in
his social relationships.

The film does not suggest that the symptoms are

attributable to the physiological effects of a
substance, Hence proving criteria E.
 DIAGNOSIS

While character in the film exhibits clear

symptoms of DID it is important to note that the
diagnosis cannot be fully accurate because
diagnosing a character potrayed in the film can be
challenging and might not align with real life
psychiatric conditions.
Having said that, the narrator’s experiences in the
film highlights with several criteria of DSM 5
including disruption of identity, recurrent gaps in
recall of everyday event and significance distress
in personal and professional life. Whereas Tyler
Durden is proved to be his alter ego all along, all
this supports the diagnosis of Dissociative
Identity Disorder.
 TREATMENTS AND
OUTCOMES

The treatment for DID is typically

psychodynamic and insight oriented.
Hypnosis is also often used. The focus is
on uncovering and working through the
trauma and other conflicts that are
thought to have led to the disorder. Little
is known about how to treat
derealization/ depersonalization
disorders. In the case of dissociative
amnesia, removing the person from
what he or she perceives as a
threatening situation sometimes allows
for spontaneous recovery of memory.
 AGE OF ONSET, PREVELANCE
DID usually starts in childhood, although most patients are
in their teens, 20s, or 30s at the time of diagnosis.
Approximately three to nine times more females than
males are diagnosed as having the disorder, and females
tend to have a larger number of alters than do males Some
believe that this pronounced gender discrepancy is due to
the much greater proportion of childhood sexual abuse
among females than among males, but this is a highly
controversial point.
The number of alter identities in DID varies tremendously
and has increased over time One early review of 76 classic
cases reported that two-thirds of these cases had only
two personalities and most of the rest had three
More recent estimates are that about 50 percent now show
over 10 identities with some respondents claiming as many
as a hundred. This historical trend of increasing
multiplicity suggests the operation of social factors,
perhaps through the encouragement of therapists, as we
discuss below .Another recent trend is that many of the
reported cases of DID now include more unusual and even
bizarre identities than in the past (such as being an animal)
and more highly implausible backgrounds (e.g., ritualized
satanic abuse in childhood).
 REFERENCES
Abnormal Psychology Seventeenth edition
Jill M. Hooley • James N. Butcher • Matthew K.
Nock • Susan Mineka

https://youtu.be/gLfKIKdIhqU?
si=a3tM8lP9KlN4LpA8

https://youtu.be/7cGrg2Gh4gg?
si=jPB907apNUXSpwPY

https://youtu.be/py2mxl6xTus?
si=R94TFDMuLBmCr4e1