Dr Jekyll and Fight Club in a Freudian perspective

A 1999 film directed by David Fincher was made based on Pahlaniuk's novel Fight Club. Edward Norton played the narrator..

The two novels present similar protagonists: two ‘individuals’ (or egos, if you wish) from totally different social contexts and with different personalities who gain awareness of their unconscious wills and guided by them. These attitudes, which don’t let personal or social limitation take place, illustrate the process of individuals freeing their id from their super-egos is shown.

Above, a portrait of Robert Louis Stevenson is shown. The strange case of DrJekyll and Mr Hyde is considered as one of his masterpieces.

Psychoanalysis has emerged when Freud used it as a method of treatment to investigate some behavioral disorders. It works on the unconscious factors having influences upon individual’s random thoughts. In the psychoanalytic jargon, desires, wishes and thoughts that are aggressively pulled down in one’s mind (because of social prejudice, steretypes etc.) constitute the unconscious which, in Stevenson’s and Palahniuk’s novels, aggressively takes over the practical life of the protagonists.

Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) was an austrian neurologist who founded psychoanalysis. Photo by Sigmund Freud Museum Vienna.

Freud divides the mind into three parts: the id, the super-ego and the ego. Id contains instincts and everything that exists naturally. Considered as the ‘lowest’ part it is what we share with other animals. Lust, together with greed, are its main components.

Tyler Durden is the prototype of the normless, extravagant, rebellious individual. He is portrayed as a saboteur and is a reflection of narrator's alter ego.

In Fight Club it is our modern society with its consumerism culture, that are criticized. Apparently, there are two utterly opposite characters in the novel: Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt in Fincher’s movie) and the narrator (Edward Norton in the movie adaptation). Tyler is the paradigm of an individual where the id crawls out of unconsciousness in a very pure state. In contrast, the narrator is any of us: a law abiding citizen with no social issues.

edward norton hitting himself in front of his boss in Fincher's movie.

Ethics and morality are the elements that impose control over actions and are the main constituents of the second part: the Ego. It allows us to balance our instinctual impulses with the outer world. It is why you (generally) don’t have sex in a public place, why we have toilets and so on. In Fight Club, the narrator is the ego. In Stevenson’s novel, Jeckyll’s life prior to his transforming discovery is ruled mainly by the ego as well.

Fight Club final blow up scene before the explosion labeled.

The other freudian mental structure is the super-ego. That’s the one that develops and evolves. It the authorative voice inside each of us that professes the values of the society we live in. Hard-work, dedication to one’s religion (for believers), efficiency are all part of our super-ego. We generally inherit it from our parents (in Freud the paternal figure played a key role). Judgmental outer factors cause restraining acts, developing an auto control system. According to freudians we all pursue our super-ego, we know we will never get there but we try to be as similar as possible to it. Prior to his transformation, Dr jekyll displayed a normal life, conform to social conventions and values. He looked like his super-Ego although it was his ego that was pushing him in that direction. The same can be said of Fight Club. Once the narrator gives birth to Tyler he doesn’t hesitate standing against society or acting against social norms (waiters will masturbate on the soup before serving it).

Fight Club final blow up scene: the demolition.