Fighting for Father: Fight Club as Cinematic Psychosis

Abstract

Drawing on the insights of Lacanian psychoanalysis, we argue that the film Fight Club can be understood as a mediation of a larger, cultural psychosis. In general, psychosis represents the failure of a paternal figure to bisect the intimate relation between an infant and its mother. We suggest the so-called masculine violence depicted by Fight Club reflects the protagonist's inability to establish an identity for himself as a result of a failed paternal intervention (“castration”). The consequent psychosis staged by Fight Club, we argue, is expressive of a larger, cultural decline of the father figure.

Keywords:

• Film Theory
• Masculinity
• Name-of-the-Father
• Paternity
• Psychosis
• Violence

The authors would like to thank the blind reviewers and Brian Ott for their thoughtful advice and patience.

Notes

By “figure,” we mean to indicate a non-literal, symbolic logic of substitution—that is, signification as such.

The distinction here is difficult to draw insofar as the diegetic world and the cultural concept of reception interpenetrate in complex ways. Briefly, let us take a different example. Tom Cruise has denied rumors that he is gay for decades and has had many, high profile “straight” relationships. Our argument would suggest that, if we understand Cruise's public persona as “psychotic,” then people are mistaking his narcissism for homosexuality.

Research bears out that self-harm has an addictive quality (see Crowe and Bunclark 48–54; Klonsky and Muehlenkamp 1045–56; Rollins 74–79).

Arguably, at the end of the film the Narrator's psychosis is resolved by choosing Marla as an appropriate object, however, we oppose this reading below.

Unfortunately, space limits any thorough discussion of the mirror stage as it relates to the figure of Marla (Lacan, Écrits 77–81). In a sense, Fight Club represents what leads up to the moment of recognition in the mirror stage—or rather, the failure to recognize one's independence and internalize the paternal metaphor.

We mean “sexual” here in the more mundane sense: sexual intercourse with Marla comes to an end, as a different kind of intimacy develops between the Narrator and Marla in Tyler's absence.

In this light, psychosis can be understood as a continuum with masochistic and sadistic extremes (or perhaps a circle, insofar as Fight Club is demonstrative of both psychotic reactions). In the medical and psychiatric literature, in addition to the prevalence of single-parent and working-parent households, a common link between high school shooting and self-mutilation seems to be bullying and challenges to one's identity. Whether a young person is sadistic (violence toward others) or masochistic (violence toward self) roughly correlates to gender, male and female respectively. It is also worth noting some studies suggest male violence toward others has been linked to homophobic bullying (see Kimmel and Mahler 1439–59; Klein 39–24).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Joshua Gunn

Joshua Gunn is an Assistant Professor of Communication Studies at the University of Austin.

Thomas Frentz

Thomas Frentz is a Professor of Communication at the University of Arkansas.