Media productions often turn to psychological disorders when they want to infuse drama and tragedy into a character, introduce a plot twist, or show the complex journey of a protagonist. One such landmark work is Fight Club by David Fincher, released in 1999. The story follows the life of Tyler Durden, a middle-aged man with dissociative identity disorder. Fincher does not immediately introduce the viewer to this condition; instead, the protagonist’s feature is a plot twist only revealed at the film’s end (Fincher, 1999).
Thus, an unnamed young male careerist accidentally meets the charming non-conformist and nihilist Tyler (the second Tyler, “unoriginal”), after which their friendship is forged. Second, Tyler’s value beliefs are built on destruction, loss, and crisis, which, according to his ideals, can elevate a man to an ideal. Both men form a fight club, a regular event where men beat each other up and get doses of dopamine and adrenaline for it. Such a fraternity soon embarks on vandalism: the goal is to blow up international trade centers so that all credit and banking information on the citizens is destroyed. At this point, it is revealed that the second Tyler is only part of the personality of the first, and in the confrontation between them, the original Tyler wins.
One of the main symptoms of this pathological condition is hallucinations: the original Tyler sees and feels his second personality part naturally, hears his voice, and feels his touch. This leads to problems with memory loss, as many of the actions that the “original” did are not remembered by Tyler (Spielman et al., 2022). In the film’s opening moments, when both individuals have not yet met, Tyler displays a typical dissociative state: detachment, emotional emptiness, and a sense of personal insignificance (Pruthi, 2022). Spielman et al. (2022) provide no specific treatment for the condition but point to the need for therapy; however, Fincher’s Tyler has not been seen attempting treatment. The portrayal of dissociative identity disorder in Fight Club is thus entirely credible and shows the condition’s disruptive, borderline, and antisocial nature in hyperbolized forms.
References
Fincher, D. (1999). Fight club [Film]. Fox 2000 Pictures.
Pruthi, S. (2022). Dissociative disorders. Mayo Clinic. Web.
Spielman, R. M., Jenkins, W. J., & Lovett, M. D. (2022). Psychology 2e. OpenStax.