Evidence of Dissociative Identity Disorder in Fight Club

Despite what the movies and television shows depict, people with dissociative identity disorder are not violent or dangerous. In fact,

One may view his aggressive actions as the results of a personality disorder, possibly a borderline or an antisocial type. Norman may have even been diagnosed with a bipolar disorder, because of the rapid fluctuations within a person’s mood that he exhibits. Although, after all of his symptoms, cognitions, and behaviors are assessed, it is clear that there are two distinct independent personalities (himself and him as Norma). Therefore a diagnosis of dissociative identity disorder would be the most accurate diagnosis, not one of these other disorders that only provide a partial explanation of his symptoms. These related disorders may cause someone with dissociative identity disorder to only be treated for the comorbid disorders instead of the central diagnosis of DID.

The character that I chose to write about is Kevin Wendell Crumb from the movie “Split”. Kevin suffers from dissociative identity disorder which causes him to experience 23 different personalities within his mind. Dissociative identity disorder used to be called multiple personality disorder and is defined as a person’s identity that is fragmented into two or more distinct personalities. The most common cause for dissociative identity disorder is severe abuse whether it be physical, emotional and sexual or a mix of all three. The personalities are said to live their own life, have their own characteristics and memories, when the personalities switch there is no recollection of the memories that the other personalities had. Gaps of time

In the movie Shutter Island and Fight Club, the protagonists display features of Dissociative Disorders, and more specifically, Dissociative Identity Disorder. According to the American Psychiatric Association, this is a condition where a person goes through an involuntary escape from reality and forms a completely new identity with disconnection between values, thoughts and memory. Symptoms usually start developing preceding a traumatic event as a means to deal with the tragedy.

The movie chosen for this project was Fight Club and it begins with an unnamed character who is unhappy with his life and job as a recall specialist for an automobile company who suffers from insomnia due to all of the traveling. Once he visits the doctor, he is told that if he wanted to see pain then he should go to a support group. The character figured out that going to support groups helped but that is ruined by a new character named Marla that is doing the same thing he is. After arriving home after one of his flights, he finds out that his apartment has been blown to pieces and is forced to call Tyler, a soap salesman, which he met on a previous flight and is the complete opposite of the character. After meeting with Tyler at a bar, Tyler

Film Paper Assignment Fight Club is a 1999 drama film following an unnamed narrator and his encounter with his other, sharper personality, Tyler Durden. The narrator, named Jack in the script, portrays clear signs of dissociative identity disorder, commonly known to have the symptom of having more than one personality. To begin with, people with dissociative identity disorder feel a severe sense of disconnection from themselves and the world around them. This disconnection is seen to come “as a response to a traumatic event, such as abuse or military combat, to keep those memories under control.”, and “often form in children exposed to long-term physical, sexual, or emotional abuse”, according to the National Alliance of Mental Illness (“Dissociative Disorders”, n.d.).

The movie I chose for this paper is titled Frankie & Alice. The main character, played by Halle Berry, was named Frankie. Frankie had a history of traumatic events that took place as she was growing up which resulted in her being diagnosed with dissociative identity disorder. Frankie was unaware that she had any type of disorder until she was picked up by police and chose to receive treatment instead of going to jail. The paper includes a synopsis of the movie, along with an analysis of the symptoms Frankie’s character experienced to lead to her diagnosis. Also included are evidences about dissociative identity disorder and what may lead to its diagnoses in an individual. Prevalence of the diagnoses along with treatment selections for the diagnoses is also discussed.

In the afterword of Fight Club, Palahniuk sheds light on the main reasons behind writing this novel. When the writer involves for the first time in a fight in vacation and returns to work with a long-drawn-out black eye, nobody he works with bother even to ask him what happened. At that moment, he realizes that his exist does not matter to others. In a capitalist world, the human communication loses its meaning, thus out of his rage he has written his novel. At the same time, the bookstores were full of novels that presented a new social model for women, but no one for men. As a result, he has written Fight Club to present a new social model for men

Dissociative Identity Disorder in the Film “Fight Club” In the 1999 film Fight Club, the main character (whose name is unknown throughout the whole film), presents the audience with the signs and symptoms of dissociative identity disorder. The narrator is a white-collared worker agitated by insomnia and the feeling of being trapped. To try to overcome his insomnia and feelings of being trapped, he seeks guidance through local support groups.

People who are said to have dissociative identity disorder may adopt as many as 100 new identities, all simultaneously coexisting, although the average number for most people is closer to 15. In some of the cases the identities are considered complete with each its own behavior, tone of voice, and physical gestures. But in many cases only a few of these characteristics are distinct because these identities are only partially independent, which means that there are not “multiple” complete personalities. The etiology is really examined when finding the cause of DID, but almost every patient with this disorder reports to their mental health professional of being horribly abused as a child. Some observations have

The DSM-5 defines dissociative identity disorder (DID) as the occurrence of a minimum of two different personalities and maybe more than two. It also clarifies that the switching between the distinct personalities can be observed by the individual who is suffering from dissociative identity disorder or witnessed by others. (Barlow, 2014, P. 1). This disorder used to be known as multiple personality disorder, which is more recognized and understood to people without a psychology background. This disorder can be quite intense to including the different identities have different names, backgrounds, and memories. Dissociative identity disorder is fairly common in clinical residents.

Dissociative Identity Disorder (D.I.D.), formally known as Multiple Personality disorder, is one of the most controversial disorder in the psychology field. Some psychologist believe that it is a real disorder, while other psychologist believe it is a made up disorder even though it is present in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (D.S.M.), the “standard classification of mental disorders used by mental health professionals in the United States” (DSM, 2015). Also, could the portrayal of this disorder in show and movies create an even bigger stigmatism? Due to the facts and symptoms about this disorder not being represented correctly.

Dissociative identity disorder is characterized by the presence of two or more distinct identities or personality states that recurrently take control of the individual’s behavior, accompanied by an inability to recall important personal information that is too extensive to be explained by ordinary forgetfulness (Ringrose, 2011). It is a disorder characterized by identity fragmentation, rather than proliferation of separate personalities (Fraser, 2014). Many people equate colloquially dissociative identity disorder and schizophrenia in a wrong way (Priya & Siva, 2013). While in the case of schizophrenia can both be identification with another person within the framework of a megalomaniac in the identity disorder dissociative exist two or more personalities in a person (Priya & Siva, 2013). A person with dissociative identity disorder does not react to the same medications used in the treatment of schizophrenia (Priya & Siva, 2013).

The psychological disorder which was illustrated in Fight Club was Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) or Multiple Personality disorder, meaning that their consciousness is disrupted as well as their memory and identity (Schacter, Gilbert, Wegner, & Nock, 2014). The narrator, who halfway through the movie we discover his name is Jack, is the one suffering from this psychological illness. The narrator was quite abnormal as his behavior changed drastically as he first struggles with insomnia, which could be considered a small issue, and then later ends up partaking in a criminal offense group and even murders a man. Another odd scene was when the viewers began realizing that he is actually suffering from an illness which occurred when he began hitting himself and acting as if someone (Tyler) was punching him.

According to Schacter, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders characterizes Dissociative Identity Disorders as a discontinuity or disruptions that allow for the loss of consciousness (Schacter, Gilbert, Wegner, & Nook, 2014). The film follows the life of a man at first identified as the narrator. Played by Edward Norton, audiences observe a man who possesses serious internal struggles. Diagnosed with insomnia, the narrator struggles to sleep and becomes so uncomfortable he seeks medical help. Because there is no prescription that could aid the narrator, the doctor suggests he go to a support group for people who struggle as well. By going to a testicular cancer support group, the narrator finds comfort to help him sleep. Viewers recognize that the narrator has a miserable life. He works in a job in which he feels unhappy and looks