Friday, January 24, 2020

Fight Club Essay

Explore How Fight Club Uses Visual And Technical Significance to portray Sigmund Freud’s Id, Ego and Super Ego Theory

Throughout this essay I look at how the mise en scene of fight club and the technical significance of this portrays the ideas of Freud’s Id the Ego and the Super Ego theory. I will look at this throughout this text while referencing my research and mentioning how it links with the technical and visual significance of a chosen scene.

During the parking lot scene between Tyler and the Narrator, the characters link to different elements of Freud’s Id, ego and super ego theory. This scene opens up with mid shots of the two characters and incorporates a shot reverse shot to jump between the two while they’re talking, at this time in the scene Tyler is trying to persuade the Narrator to hit him, the Narrator seems adamant to at first but with enough persistence from Tyler’s part he eventually gives in to Tyler’s request.  This interaction between the two characters can link back to Freud’s Id, ego and super ego theory, with Tyler representing the Id through his impulsive and persistent nature throughout the scene, not caring for the consequences of his actions while just seeking out what he wants, this follows the theorized characteristics of the id, “it is the childlike, selfish and hedonistic part of your personality, which focuses on the self ” (Lawton, 2015).  While Tyler represents the Id in this scene, the Narrator represents the ego, being influenced by the Id and not being able to resist the urges it presents to him. This is shown throughout this scene through the Narrator trying to resist Tyler’s request to punch him. Again linking to Freud’s id, ego and super ego theory the Narrator is at first adamant to give in to Tyler’s requests but ends up only delaying Tyler’s wishes as he ends up giving into him much like the Ego is said to always end up giving into the Id, “In many cases, the id's impulses can be satisfied through a process of delayed gratification--the ego will eventually allow the behavior, but only in the appropriate time and place.” (Cherry, 2013). Before giving into Tyler the Narrator is looking around and places his bottle on the floor out of the way, this can visually represent the Ego looking first for ways to reduce the negatives of the Ids desire. Other visual significance in this scene comes from Tyler’s restless nature while being turned down from the Narrator such as jumping on the spot and his sporadic movement, this can signify the Id’s restless nature as it seeks pleasure but is being stopped by the ego in control causing the Id to keep on trying until the ego can not stop it any longer. Although the super ego cannot be portrayed through a character in this scene its presence can still be interpreted through technical elements and mise en scene. At the start of the scene both characters are holding glass bottles, when Tyler comes up with the idea to let the Narrator hit him he puts his bottles down which can be inferred as him leaving the Superego and the traditional ideas of society behind, this can be seen through the mise en scene of the scene as Tyler has his back towards the said bottles I am referring to as the super ego.  This idea is also supported through the Narrator as he at first is holding the bottle while denying Tyler’s requests but before he gives in he puts it to the side of him. This sequence can portray the ego following the super ego an rejecting the Id until eventually he gives in and rejects the ideas of the super ego to the side while he gives in to the Id and its ideas. Finally after all of this Tyler and the Narrator are sat on the grass but only holding one bottle between them rather than the three they started with. This can also represent how after giving into the Id, the super ego is less present as the ego is now giving into the Id and caring less about morality and what society expects of it. This links again to the characters through Tyler and the Narrators friendship growing closer and closer after their fight.

In the Scene where the narrator is describing Tyler’s jobs, Tyler is portrayed as the Id. This scene opens up with the characters describing Tyler’s job at the cinema, in this scene the narrator describes job as boring however Tyler starts splicing the film with pornographic imagery for his own entertainment.  This is characteristic of the Id as although there is a lot of risk in doing this, such as potentially loosing his job, he still does it just to satisfy his need for entertainment, “The id is the oldest and most primitive psychic agency, representing the biological foundations of personality. It is the reservoir of basic instinctual drives, particularly sexual (libidinal) drives, which motivate the organism to seek pleasure.” (Daniel K Lapsley, 2011). This attitude that Tyler has in this scene sets him up as the Id for the majority of the film as he is shown the most clearly here, in not caring for the outcome of his actions and going only for pleasure, this is known as the pleasure principle and is what the Id uses to create desire, “In Freud's psychoanalytic theory of personality, the pleasure principle is the driving force of the id that seeks immediate gratification of all needs, wants and urges. In other words, the pleasure principle strives to fulfill our most basic and primitive urges, including hunger, thirst, anger, and sex. When these needs are not met, the result is a state of anxiety or tension.” (Kendra Cherry, 2019). This portrays Tyler as the Id throughout this film as he is the one urging the narrator on as the Id would do to the Ego.

In another scene the narrator is speaking to his boss, this scene opens up with the Narrator trying to persuade his boss to pay him without working, This soon escalates as the Narrator begins striking himself trying to pass it on as the boss hitting him. The two characters in this scene can represent the ID and the Ego with the narrator representing the animalistic and instinctual Id, not caring about the ramifications of his actions, in this case beating himself up. Whereas the boss represents the Ego with at first resisting the Id’s desire, in this case its wanting to stop working, but is eventually inevitable in stopping him and ends up giving into the Ids desire, which is described in Freud’s theory as the relationship between these two characteristics. "Although people eventually learn to control the id, this part of personality remains the same infantile, primal force all throughout life. It is the development of the ego and the superego that allows people to control the id's basic instincts and act in ways that are both realistic and socially acceptable.(Kendra Cherry, 2019).  Throughout this scene the Narrator shows his Id characteristics through the seemingly uncontrolled nature of his actions, such as punching himself repeatedly. This links to my statement of the Ids characteristics, as he does not care for the ramifications of this even though he is physically hurting himself much like how the id does not care about the consequences the actions would have on the host. The boss in this scene uses thematic ideas such as the script to be portrayed as the ego. The script helps portray this idea through at first the boss turning down the Ids advances, however as the Id starts pressuring and fighting to get what he wants, the ego gives in, this is portrayed in the scene with the Narrator walking away from the scene smirking connoting he has won.  "It’s geared towards problem-solving and reality-testing, enabling the person to maintain self-control. However, just like the id, the ego is interested in seeking pleasure, it just wants to do so in a realistic way. It’s not interested in right and wrong, but in how to maximize pleasure and minimise pain without getting into trouble" (Cynthia Vinney, 2019).

In conclusion Fight Club Uses Visual And Technical Significance to portray Sigmund Freud’s Id, Ego and Super Ego Theory. It does this through its portrayal of its characters in each scene with one character usually representing an element of this theory. This links to the narrative point of this film that Tyler is the Narrator, this goes with the idea of the theory that the Id, the Ego and the Super Ego are all apart of a single personality, “Although each part of the personality comprises unique features, they interact to form a whole, and each part makes a relative contribution to an individual's behaviour.”(Saul McLeod, 2019) Therefore this supports my statement that the film uses technical and visual significance to portray this theory as it uses its thematic narrative to portray the key ideas of this theory, as I have talked about during this essay.





Reference list

Fincher, D., (1999) Fight Club

Lawton, J-M., (2015) AQA A-Level Psychology 2

Cherry, K.,(2013) The Id, Ego and Superego

Cherry, K., (2019) Freud's ID, Ego and Super Ego [Online]
Available from:
https://www.verywellmind.com/the-id-ego-and-superego-2795951

Vinney, C., (2019) Freud: Id, Ego, and Superego Explained [Online]
Available from:
https://www.thoughtco.com/id-ego-and-superego-4582342

McLeod, S., (2019) Id, Ego and Superego [Online]
Available from:

Lapsley, D, Stey P (2011) Encyclopaedia of Human Behaviour. Elsevier.

Cherry, K., (2019) How Freud's Pleasure Principle Works [Online]

Available From:

https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-the-pleasure-principle-2795472

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