Fight Club and Psychology

(Spoiler Alert) Fight Club, featuring Edward Norton and Brad Pitt, is a popular movie made in 1999 off the book Fight Club, written by Chuck Palahniuk. While most see this film as a nihilistic fantasy about a psychologically troubled man, some themes of the film actually portray events in the world captured by the Cognitive Science and Psychological communities.

One main theme in the film is the destruction of the materialist mentality brought on by corporate capitalism. Materialism is a tendency to consider material possessions and physical comfort as more important than spiritual values. While I'm not going to talk about materialism in its simplest form, a branch that comes from the tree of materialism is materialistic choices.

At the beginning of the film Edward Norton is obsessed with his material possessions. He thinks all day about the next piece of furniture he's going to buy and flips through pages and pages of furniture catalogs. While the film may exaggerate the lengths at which Edward Norton's character obsesses about his furniture shopping, it's actually a commonality in materialist western industrial culture. But, does this behavior actually contribute to our happiness, and is it healthy for us?

In research conducted by psychologist Barry Schwartz, supplied by his book The Paradox of Choice: Why More is Less, he finds that having too many choices increases anxiety that may contribute to symptoms of depression. With all of the choices we have in society we often become paralyzed in decision making. If you are not completely satisfied with a choice you made, having choices makes it easy to imagine that you could've made a different choice that would've been better. This causes you to regret the decision you made which takes away from the satisfaction of the choice you made. This is only a taste of what Dr. Schwartz has to say, for a larger insight into the phenomenon check out his TED Talk. Philosopher Renata Salecl also has some good points about the topic in her TED Talk.

Another main theme in the film is the deindividuation of Edward Norton's character(he isn't given a name). In social psychology, deindividuation is the loss of self awareness among groups. It can also be seen as the adoption of the groups wellbeing above your own. For Edward Norton's character, he loses all his personal possessions and adopts the social entity that is the drive for the movie, the fight club. And, as you watch the film, you begin to see Edward Norton's character enjoying his role in the society, even claiming he was happier than before it started.

In psychologist Martin Seligman's book, Learned Helplessness: How to Change Your Mind and Life, he is fascinated with the rise in depression cases over the last couple decades. From 1991 through 2002, major depression rates for American adults have gone from 3.33 to 7.06 percent. Dr. Seligman's studies of depression has led him to come up with solutions that an individual can perform to combat feelings of depression or to promote feelings of happiness. One reason he sees that contributes to these high rates of depression is the individual western culture we live in. "THE SOCIETY we live in exalts the self. It takes the pleasures and pains, the successes and failures of the individual with unprecedented seriousness." (p. 282)

A solution to this problem is being a part of groups that contributes to the overall wellbeing of the society. "When learned optimism is coupled with a renewed commitment to the commons, our epidemic of depression and meaninglessness may end."(p.291) This is only one component to combating depression, much of Seligman's book talks about how the self can obtain the skills to inhibit onset depression and to promote happiness.

Seligman, Martin E. (2011-08-10). Learned Optimism: How to Change Your Mind and Your Life (Vintage). Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group.

Schwartz, Barry. The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less. New York: Ecco, 2004. Print. 


Eli