Id, Ego, Superego in Fight Club

Throughout David Fincher's 'Fight Club', starring Brad Pitt and Edward Norton, there are frequent references to Freud's theory of the personalty. In the text, the two protagonists clearly portray two of the roles of the theory, with The Narrator being considered as the Ego, and Tyler Durden representing the Id. The Superego, however, is slightly more difficult to label, as throughout the film there are multiple Superegos. Initially, The Narrator is seen to be suffering from insomnia, so he attends multiple self-help groups in order to show himself that there are people much worse off than he is. One of these groups is 'Remaining Men Together', a support group based around men who have suffered with testicular cancer and have had to have their testicles removed. It is here, in the basement of the Trinity Episcopal Church that Jack(aka The Narrator) discovers that through crying he is able to sleep again at night, so it could be argued that these self-help groups act as a Superego to Jack. However, later in the narrative of the text, Marla Singer starts to attend these same classes, and (in the words of Jack) 'Her lie reflected my lie. Suddenly, I felt nothing. I couldn't cry, so once again I couldn't sleep'.

Part of Jack's psyche splits, and he starts to encounter Tyler Durden, meeting him on a business trip, where Jack notices that they have the same briefcase. An event in which Jack's apartment, containing his 'Ikea lifestyle', is blown up causes Jack to call Tyler and they meet up at a bar, where Tyler tells Jack to 'hit me as hard as you can'. After this initial fight, the duo decide to start a weekly 'Fight Club', where men get together and fight in parking lots and basements, having to abide to the ten rules of Fight Club, with the first two rules being 'You do not talk about Fight Club'. These weekly meetings start to replace Jack's desire to cry, as the adrenaline coursing through his veins allows him to feel again, and therefore allows him to sleep. Due to this fact, the Fight Clubs become Jack's Superego, as they ground him to reality and allow him to function as a normal person, as his insomnia becomes less prevalent.

Some people argue that Marla Singer is a superego in the film, as she is part of the reason that Jack discovers that he and Tyler are the same person, and also acts as Jack's only real friend, however I believe that Marla cannot be a Superego, as she is seen to smoke constantly, she steals clothes from laundromats and sells them on, and she is also the reason that Jack is unable to sleep, as she invades his privacy in the self-help groups, all of which are qualities that a Superego would not have. One scene in the narrative clearly conveys Jack as the Ego and Tyler as the Id through the use of mise-en-scene, this scene is when Jack and Tyler initially fight in the parking lot of a bar, and there is a medium-long two shot of Jack and Tyler, with bins behind them. The mise-en-scene in this shot shows Jack as organised, as behind him is a dumpster, whereas Tyler's side contains a large pile of bin bags, therefore Jack can be seen as organised trash, whereas Tyler is shown as chaotic mess. The mise-en-scene also gives us an insight into both of their personas, as in this scene Jack is wearing formal business attire, whereas Tyler wears a leather jacket and an 80's style shirt, much more casual and therefore reinforcing the idea that Tyler is the Id to Jack's Ego.

The editing in the text and placement of characters within the frame is a vital component in understanding the polysemic narrative in Fight Club. Throughout the text, before Jack meets Tyler, we see superimposed images of Tyler frequently, which implies from the offset that Tyler is just a figment of Jack's imagination. Also, in the scene at the air port, when we see Tyler for the first time (outside of the single frame super-imposed images), The Narrator states 'if you can wake up in another time and another place, could you wake up as another person?' just as Tyler goes past him the other way on a conveyor belt, but the low-angle shot makes it appear as if he is coming out of his head, which is essentially what Tyler does in the text. Also, in the aforementioned scene in the car park where they first fight, they are placed on opposite sides of the frame, therefore showing the two halves of The Narrator's psyche.