Sherman 1

Rob Sherman
D. Schaefer
PSY151
12/9/2010

Do you know Tyler Durden?

Dissociative Identity Disorder analysis of the movie Fight Club

When compared with the DSM-IV-TR’s description of Dissociative

Identity Disorder (DID) the movie Fight Club correlates quite well. The DSM-

IV-TR puts forth these four criterion for a DID diagnosis.

1. The presence of two or more distinct identities or

personality states.

2. At least two of these identities or personality

states recurrently take control of the person's
behavior.

3. Inability to recall important personal information

that is too extensive to be explained by ordinary
forgetfulness.

4. The disturbance is not due to the direct

physiological effects of a substance or a general
medical condition (American Psychiatric Association,
2000, p. 529).

The Narrator’s personality is passive, dependent and depressed while

Tyler’s is flamboyant, controlling, and mischievous. The difference between

how the characters act is obvious. The Narrator initially has a head down,

arms close walk while Tyler’s is more open and observant. This changes as

the Narrator’s exposure to Tyler continues. While the Narrator becomes

more like Tyler was initially, the personality of Tyler continues to develop
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along an anti-social and destructive route. He drops the suave hair cut and

clothes for a shaved head, colored faux-fur lined parka and increasingly

violent commentary. Without knowing the ending in advance, a new viewer

would be hard pressed to detect the characters are splinters of the same

person.

The Narrator’s frantic attempts to locate Tyler halfway through the film

exemplify the DSM’s description of memory gaps and meet the criterion for

different personalities taking reoccurring control. Since the Narrator is the

passive personality of the two it would follow that he would not know what

Tyler was doing according to the DSM. The insomnia and perceived

narcolepsy become the method that Narrator’s personality employs to try

and create order during a lack of control. This is also true of the visual

hallucinations the Narrator has of “watching” Tyler lead meetings and is also

an example of a dormant personality intruding upon an active one. As the

Narrator’s personality becomes more aggressive, memory leaks are

depicted. The first being of Tyler’s first night with Marla. The rest of the

memories come with his suspicion and final acceptance that he is in fact

both personalities.

Tyler claims to have been created by the Narrator in direct response to

the Narrator’s angst over becoming so materialistic. This materialistic

tendency could be a direct result of the Narrator’s father leaving when he

has six. The sense of abandonment would then be complicated by pangs of

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inadequacy caused by feeling replaced by each of his father’s subsequent

families. With no mention of the Narrator’s mother, it can only be inferred

that she was there physically but not emotionally. The Narrator’s affirmation

that he is a thirty year old boy indicates a feeling of being unprepared for

responsibility and is unable to see beyond his needs. The materialistic

tendencies shown by the Narrator might have developed as a result of all of

this. If they own an inanimate object, it cannot leave them. The higher the

desirability of the object, the better a person its owner appears to be. Tyler

is also an example of what the Narrator considers a male role model. The

Narrator does not exhibit any substance dependencies, or physical issues

that DID could be attributed to.

The DSM also mentions potential specific actions and possible traits of

those with DID. The chemical burn scar inflicted upon the Narrator is an

example of self mutilation along with the cuts and bruises that followed a

fight. The dysfunctional relationship that Tyler creates with Marla is another.

He is drawn to her because of the Narrator’s subconscious realization that

they are similar, but he rejects her as he cannot, or does not want to,

emotionally connect. Tyler’s reoccurring sex with Marla could be a ploy to

force the Narrator to interact with her as Tyler may realize the Narrator’s

need for connection. Or he could just enjoy making him squirm. At the close

of the movie, the Narrator shoots himself through his cheek, an action that

normally would reduce a person to a deaf, sobbing mess. The Narrator’s

ability to almost entirely ignore the pain is also documented within the DSM.
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The movie hints that Tyler has been with the Narrator for a long time.

Single frame “blips” of Tyler throughout the movie, possibly equating Tyler

to the porn he was splicing into movie reels. The scene where Tyler himself

says he will take care of things as he always had blatantly proclaims it.

Combine these with the closing of the movie depicting a film change over

with a splice of a penis onscreen, and the impression is that Tyler is still

around. Tyler’s professed reason for existence was to make the Narrator

come to terms with death and be able to accept it. Once that purpose had

been met, his direct intervention was no longer needed.

Fight Club does not conform to the average description of DID within

the DSM-IV-TR in a few areas. The most important being is that the Narrator

does not mention any childhood sexual or physical abuse. Traumatic abuse

is believed to be required for a person to develop DID. The Narrator has one

alternate personality while the average for men is eight. The movie does not

address the increasing prevalence of DID diagnosis, or the fact that it

crosses cultural boundaries.

Treatment for Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) would initially

involve a combination of a projective personality test with followed by

structured interview. A Rorschach inkblot test would be able to provide

initial guidance by scoring the subject’s emotional or perceptual responses to

the inkblots. Since each psychological disorder has been shown to fall within

a calculable range, by using the Labott Signs those with DID could be filtered
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out from those with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder or Bi-polar disorder. The

Labott Signs postulates that the Dissociative aspects could manifest in three

areas corresponding to descriptions containing the adjectives, blurry, far

away or extremely distant, or unstable. The second aspect the Labott Signs

postulate is the usage of fragmenting, or splitting apart descriptors when

describing inkblots (Exner Jr. & Erdberg, 2005, p. 126). The Rorschach test

has also has a high probability of detecting people attempting to fake DID.

The Rorschach could also offer up insight into the nature of the trauma

experienced.

A woman who had DID who reported a history of

severe early sexual abuse saw "a bloody vagina" on
card 2, which made her extremely anxious.
Immediately afterwards, she reported a dissociative-
sounding percept of a "far away castle, surrounded
by clouds." She disconnected from the discomfort
aroused by a traumatic intrusion by immediately
switching to a pleasant, fanciful image of a place of
refuge, which is a classic example of the defensive
role of dissociation (Brand, Armstrong, & Loewnstein,
2006, p. 159).

The Structured Clinical Interview for DSM Dissociative Disorders-

Revised (SCID-D-R ) would then be used to measure the patient’s degree of

dissociation within five areas. “The SCID-D-R is a clinician-administered

interview that evaluates the severity of core dissociative symptoms, and

diagnoses the dissociative disorders based on DSM-IV criteria” (Steinberg,

Hall, Lareau, & Domenic, 2001). Amnesia is the first symptom assessed by

the SCID-D-R and can be defined as the inability to recall large blocks of

time, and/or the inability to recall important personal information. The

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second area evaluated is depersonalization. It involves the experience of

detachment from one's body or self. Possibly feeling that their body is

strange or unreal, or feeling that they are "going through the motions of life"

like a robot. The third area involves the sense that one's physical

environment has lost its sense of familiarity or reality and is called

derealization. Identity confusion is the fourth area assessed by the SCID-D-

R. It is defined as a sense of uncertainty, puzzlement, or conflict regarding

personal identity. The last area evaluated is identity alteration. It involves

observable behavior indicating the assumption of different identities as

reported by the patient, family or by the usage of different names, finding

possessions that one cannot remember acquiring, and possessing a skill that

one cannot remember having learned.

Once the breadth and scope of the DID has been approximated, the

process of teaching each personality to cooperate and get along would

begin. This would facilitate the sharing of unique skills and memories

between identities. The reason cooperation is pursued before reintegration

is to lessen the possibility of conflict erupting from the fear an identity might

have over being subjectively killed. Along with cooperation, each personality

would be taught coping mechanisms. These coping mechanisms would allow

the therapist to ask probing questions concerning issues indicated within the

Rorschach results without triggering an identity swap. Hopefully as each

identity is treated, they will begin to fold into each other with the resultant

personality being a fusion of memories, abilities and personality. Twenty-

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Seven months after final fusion results in a single identity with no observable

incidents of alternate personalities, the patient would be given the “stable”

designation (International Society for Study of Dissociation, 2005).

While enjoyable in a voyeuristically deviant way Fight Club does

nothing but sensationalize DID. I could relate to the “everyman” persona of

the Narrator but not to Tyler. The Narrator’s search for purpose and identity

resonated with many of my memories. While I could not understand the

concept of what piece of furniture defines me, I could understand his need

for identity. After sitting in on an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, seeing the

Narrator using other support programs was just plain awkward. I alternated

between revulsion and pity over his duplicitous actions. I simply could not

relate to him. After he met Tyler, I did begin to live vicariously through the

Narrator as he explored his new found aggressive and assertive nature. I

abruptly stopped empathizing with him when he began to act openly

disrespectfully towards his coworkers and boss. I have worked with, and

have had to pick up after, many people that acted similarly. As a result the

scene in which the Narrator’s boss confronts him about copying the Fight

Club rules actually made me feel disappointed in his actions. His subsequent

framing of his boss for physically abusing him deepened my disappointment.

From that point up until the death of Bob, the Narrator and Tyler were

essentially identical to me. After the Narrator has his epiphany and goes in

frantic search for Tyler, I begin to empathize with him again.

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Tyler initially reminded me of a manipulative car salesman.

Works Cited
American Psychiatric Association. (2000). Diagnostic And Statistical Manual of
Mental Disorders (Fourth ed.). Washington: American Psychiatric Association.

Brand, B. L., Armstrong, J. G., & Loewnstein, R. J. (2006). Psychological Assessment

of Patients with Dissociative Identity Disorder. Psychiatric Clinics of North America ,
145-168.

Exner Jr., J. E., & Erdberg, P. (2005). The Rorschach: Advanced Interpretation.
Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

International Society for Study of Dissociation. (2005). Guidelines for Treating

Dissociative. Journal of Trauma & Dissociation , 69-149.

Steinberg, M., Hall, P., Lareau, C., & Domenic, C. V. (2001). Recognizing the Validity
of Dissociative Symptoms. Southern California Interdisciplinary Law Journal , 225-
242.