Chuck Palahniuk s Fight Club serves as a dramatic expression of Freudian theory in

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1 Rabchuk 1 Tym Rabchuk Professor Gregory Winch English April 2015 Duality of nature paradox Chuck Palahniuk s Fight Club serves as a dramatic expression of Freudian theory in Civilization and Its Discontents. James Strachey, Freud s English translator, describes his rendition of reality as the irremediable antagonism between the demands of instinct and the restrictions of civilization (Shapiro). Civilization is a psychological paradox as it serves for society to maximize pleasure, but only with the cost of their fundamental instincts. The paradox that violence is both destructive and creative is Palahniuk s representation of Freudian beliefs. The protagonist struggles with dual consciousness due to his identity being in materialistic objects trying to satisfy the pleasure principle without repressing his instincts. The narrator craves for genuine emotional connection throughout the novel, but his created, alternate personality does not want the attachment to occur since that would give more control to the narrator. The creation of Tyler and continuation of fight club serve as the key elements in narrator s battle over control of his psyche which lead to aggression and imposition of guilt. The protagonist, just like any other human, seeks purpose and satisfaction in his life. He lives the American Dream being young, having a lucrative job, a car, and a house, anything that a reasonable human would want. He seeks to have materialistic objects since they define who he is. You buy furniture. You tell yourself, this is the last sofa I will ever need in my life. Buy the sofa, then for a couple years you're satisfied that no matter what goes wrong, at least you've got your sofa issue handled. Then the right set of dishes. Then the perfect bed. The

2 Rabchuk 2 drapes. The rug. Then you're trapped in your lovely nest, and the things you used to own, now they own you (Palahniuk 36). Humans in modern society are attached to inanimate objects. The consumerist culture creates a false definition of success and happiness. The narrator looks up to the items he owns as a way to have an identity. According to Freud, it is more difficult to be unhappy. Suffering comes from three quarters: from our own body, which is destined to decay and dissolution, and cannot even dispense with anxiety and pain as danger-signals; from the outer world, which can rage against us with the most powerful and pitiless forces of destruction; and finally from our relations with other men (Freud 8). The last one can cause the most pain. It is not surprising that due to all of these possibilities of unhappiness, humans crave to find satisfaction. Freud s pleasure principle is what he believes drives humanity. Even though complete happiness cannot be achieved, humans should instead focus on finding their ultimate pleasure threshold. Culture cannot be escaped, only altered, so these men have labored to satisfy the two primary demands placed on them: they have tried to conquer in a world without frontiers and remain physically powerful while eschewing all violent behavior (Boon). By conforming to the consumerist culture, the narrator avoids facing his fading manhood. Having the qualities of an average man, he is a simple cog in the machine. He tries to conquer himself by transferring his identity to the objects he buys, but that only makes him miserable. While psychologically, the narrator might blame his father, his environment, or even his mental state for his purposelessness in life, the civilization should be the one to blame. it is undeniable that every means by which we try to guard ourselves against menaces from the several sources of human distress is a part of this same culture (Freud 13). Creation of civilization to escape suffering is only an illusion since the creation was done through the duality of nature destruction and creation as a part of one

3 Rabchuk 3 process. Not only does civilization cause the narrator to have no identity, he creates an alternate identity as someone to look up to and be independent from civilization. Tyler Durden, the narrator s alternate personality, is the complete opposite of him. He is free, independent, and has an identity to live up to. Because of the misery in the narrator s life, Freud explains why the alternate personality had to be created. There are perhaps three of these means: powerful diversions of interest, which lead us to care little about our misery; substitutive gratification, which lessen it; and intoxicating substances, which make us insensitive to it. Something of this kind is indispensable (Freud 7). All three are present to some extent in Tyler. The entire persona of Tyler serves as a purpose to distract from psychological pain and disappointment hidden in the narrator. The creation of Tyler is just a way for narrator to personify all the qualities he does not have. In Freudian theory there are three aspects of the psyche: ego, superego, and the id. Each of the characters is an example of one or another. The narrator is the ego, the reality that mediates between the instinctual wants of the id, and the moralistic and cultural influences of the superego. Tyler is the superego who reflects the cultural rules and tries to fight them, while Marla is the id, or the human instinctual drives. This triangle revolves around control and which party controls another. The superego desires control over the ego and often times opposes the id. Similar demonstration is present in Fight Club. Tyler dehumanized Marla, objectifying her to satisfy his sexual desires without forming an emotional connection. Marla wants the narrator because she is able to form an emotional attachment with him, while the narrator himself wants Tyler because he is a father-like figure to the narrator.

4 Rabchuk 4 The absence of genuine emotional attachment is the main reason for the narrator s loss of identity. Human instinctual drives give humans pleasure. Since Marla is the id, her desire for emotional attachment is instinctual. These instinctual drives for genuine emotional attachment are a source of pleasure for the narrator. The narrator started going to support groups because he felt like he was forming genuine attachments since those people were dying or underwent difficulties in life. Tyler tries to suppress the narrator s instinctual drive for emotional attachment through sexual objectification of Marla that in result diminishes the influence of Marla (id) on the narrator (ego). The narrator was able to form an emotional connection with Big Bob. He felt it only when Big Bob died. The death of Robert Paulson changed one of Project Mayhem s ideologies the absence of a name. Only in death will we have our names since only in death are we no longer part of the effort. In death we become heroes (Palahniuk 145). Since fight club was focusing on emotional detachment, Tyler did not like what was happening. The narrator tried to change and end Project Mayhem, but Tyler was not allowing him. The second time the narrator feels he has formed an emotional attachment is on the roof with the gun in his mouth. He finds out that Marla knows the difference between him and Tyler, which makes him realize that he formed a real emotional connection with Marla. Besides absence of genuine emotional connection, there are other reasons for narrator s miserable life. The formation and continuation of fight club eventually leads to identity collapse within the narrator, which makes him choose sides. Freud tells in his essay, Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego, that A primary group is a number of individuals who have put one and the same object in the place of their ego

5 Rabchuk 5 ideal and have consequently identified themselves with one another in their ego (Bernstein 1192). After becoming space monkeys, all of the members have an equal status and look up to their paternal figure, Tyler. As leader, he is able to create purpose for these men in the hollow society consumed by material possessions and pleasures. He wants to find a way to retroactively become a hunter-gatherer society again. Project Mayhem is his answer. Only through violence can one destroy something to rebuild it once more. In describing World War I, Freud says that two things have been laid bare: first, the complete lack of morality exhibited by the state and second, the brutality shown by individuals belonging to the highest human civilization (Sampson 82). Evil cannot be destroyed, nor can it disappear. Human drives are impossible to suppress, even though humans continually try to. Tyler s want to destroy history is a way to show that the past is filled with civilization fallacies, because men before civilization were free and autonomous. In actual fact, primitive man was better off in this respect, for he knew nothing of any restrictions on his instincts. As a set-off against this, his prospects of enjoying his happiness for any length of time were very slight. Civilized man has exchanged some part of his chances of happiness for a measure of security (Freud 26). Interestingly, the modern society views security along with happiness and not as an opportunity-cost. Country s security is closely correlated with its residents beliefs about safety which relates to amount of happiness they feel. Tyler is the perfect representation of how humans have the love for aggression. He acts as the superego because he tries to control the ego (the narrator) and impose a sense of guilt. Freud defines guilt to be ego-aggression since it attacks the ego and the id using defense mechanisms to control it. Since every human possesses instinctual aggressive impulses, once those impulses are

6 Rabchuk 6 repressed from being expressed externally the aggressiveness is introjected, internalized; in fact, it is sent back where it came from, i. e., directed against the ego. It is there taken over by a part of the ego that distinguishes itself from the rest as a super-ego, and now, in the form of conscience, exercises the same propensity to harsh aggressiveness against the ego that the ego would have liked to enjoy against others (Freud 30). Therefore as a consequence, the conscience imposes this sense of guilt on the ego and subverts the aggression internally. The root cause of guilt is the intention to do something bad. Evil is often not at all that which would injure or endanger the ego; on the contrary, it can also be something that it desires, that would give it pleasure (Freud 30). In Fight Club, Tyler often exerts aggression toward the narrator. Tyler forces a need for self-punishment because only when you hit the rock bottom and lose everything, can you do anything (Palahniuk 69). Once stripped of materialistic possessions, anxiety, and thoughts, only then can one be truly free. The aggressive force to control and possess the narrator s body is the ultimate ending Tyler wants. Not only does he cause physical injuries to the narrator, but also starts to control him more as the narrator spends more time sleeping. Freud also states that civilization is the superego. Civilization creates a culture where anxiety and desire are present. Civilization, therefore, obtains the mastery over the dangerous love of aggression in individuals by enfeebling and disarming it and setting up an institution within their minds to keep watch over it, like a garrison in a conquered city (Freud 30). Not only civilization limits physical independence, but also creates a psychological prison to limit human liberty. Since conscience becomes internalized, it starts to oversee thoughts and actions, just like Tyler starts to control the narrator and impose punishment on him. Since both the civilization and Tyler share similar characteristics as the superego, they will always try to mold ego to be the ideal-self using criticisms and punishment using the conscience.

7 Rabchuk 7 Civilization and violence are closely related. Fight Club serves as an extreme example of how the superego tries to force its views into the ego. Similarly, modern society can often impose its views, require punishment, and use aggression toward the people. The narrator s actions suggest that the superego can be controlled but often requires force. The ego has the role in human psyche to mediate between the id and the superego, both to please the id without repressing the superego. Each of these elements has their own control jurisdiction, but the ego decides the ultimate determination about reality. In the case of Fight Club, the narrator kills the over-controlling superego to gratify the id and form a genuine emotional connection to stabilize his mental state.

8 Rabchuk 8 Works Cited Bernstein, Jeanne Wolff. "Film Review Essay: Fight Club." The International journal of psychoanalysis 83.5 (2002): Web. Boon, Kevin Alexander. "Men and Nostalgia for Violence: Culture and Culpability in Chuck Palahniuk's Fight Club." The Journal of Men's Studies 11.3 (2003): ProQuest Social Sciences Premium Collection. Web. Freud, Sigmund. Civilization and Its Discontents. Ed. and Trans. James Strachey. New York: Norton, Palahuinuk, Chuck. Fight Club. New York: W.W. Norton, Sampson, Anthony. "Freud on the State, Violence, and War." Diacritics 35.3 (2005): Web. Shapiro, Barry. "Civilization and its Discontents." Psychoanalytic Inquiry 32.6 (2012): Web.

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