For this topic, I am intending to study 3 films. The 3 texts I have chosen to study are David Fincher's 1999 film based on the novel by Chuck Palahniuk, 'Fight Club', Starring Edward Norton and Brad Pitt, Dennis Villeneuve's 2014 film 'Enemy' based on the novel 'The Double' by José Saramago which stars Jake Gyllenhaal, and Darren Aronofsky's 2011 film 'Black Swan' and I will by applying Freud's theory of the structures of the personality, the Id, Ego and Superego, to these texts.
In Fincher's 'Fight Club', Edward Norton's character of The Narrator clearly portrays the role of the Ego, as he is shown to embody both the traits of the Id and the Superego, as he enjoys bouts of violence, but later in the film we see him strive for control as Tyler'd plans spiral out of his control. Tyler Durden is clearly the Id in this example, as all he wants is to cause chaos, following his desires for violence, sex, masochism, brutality and ultimately terrorism. Throughout the text, there are multiple Superegos as Jack, or The Narrator, follows Tyler through his path of mayhem. Initially, one could argue that the self-help groups that Jack attends are his Superego, as they allow him to compose himself by crying which allows him to sleep at night. I have heard of people arguing that Marla Singer is a superego within the film, however she does display many qualities of the Id, such as stealing, having sex, smoking and lying, and she is ultimately what causes Jack to no longer feel satisfied by the self help groups, as her lies of having cancer or another terminal illness emanate his own lies. After these groups, Fight Club becomes The Narrator's Superego, as they are what now give him release from his mundane life, and he stops going to the self help classes due to his addiction to fight club and the adrenaline rush he gets from it.
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