ID,SuperEgo, and the Ego within film.

ID,SuperEgo, and the Ego within film.



This is a shot from david finchers 1999 film Fight Clubl, in which an individual wrestles with his alter ego for control over his physical identity.

This short synopsis does nothing to elaborate how crucial the Id, Super Ego and Ego theory is to this film. for the sake of connivance i will explain who the characters are and how they relate to the theory.

Marla singer (The Woman) is representative if the Super Ego,
Tyler Durden (The Man in the basement) Is representative of the ID
and, The narrator (The Man in the suit) Is representative of the Ego

Marla Singer is easily a representative of the super ego, the aspect of the mind that controls and shuns individual thought, in this scene she is essentially begging the narrator for an explanation for the mark on his hand, she isn't compassionate, she isn't emotional, she simply wants the empirical, objective answer to the question. She is not concerned with the subjective, emotional answer (essentially provided by the ID), she wants the facts, the truth.

Tyler Durden is quite obviously the ID, not only is he physically situated within the basement of the setting, (not dissimilarly to the deep, repressed recesses of the mind and the ID) but he is also not apart of the conversation between the Ego and the SuperEgo. As i mentioned in my previous post (Freud Theroy) the id does not concern itself with the social restraints of the Ego and the Super ego, he is quite literally and physically on a completley separate plain of existence to the other aspects of the conscious. Deep from within the shadows, he expresses his primal and physical desires, rather than discuss and contemplate his feelings on a physical and intellectual level, just as the SuperEgo and the Ego do.

The Man in the suit (by purpose of elimination, the man in the suit) is the Ego, the portion of the mind that moderates between the Id and the SuperEgo. In this particular scene the Ego essentially follows the Id, the primal urge of avoiding confrontation by essentially shutting the Super ego out. the fact that he resides in the basement of the house could possibly be a representation of how the Id dwells within the deep recesses of us all, lurking deep within us, covertly watching, listening, and influencing the Ego. we can conform this by the fact that Marla (The Super Ego) never listens to Tyler Durden, she is fixated on the Ego (the narrator) .