Dissociative Identity Disorder In Chuck Palahniuk's Fight Club

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Fight Club was written by Chuck Palahniuk in 1996. This novel focuses on an unreliable narrator, his relationship with a dark man named Tyler Durden, and their creation of Fight Club, an underground boxing club which evolves into the anarchistic organization, Project Mayhem. Project Mayhem intends to tear down the American social structure, replacing big-headed bureaucrats with testosterone-filled, manly men as the ruling class. Even though many believe that Tyler Durden and the narrator are two different people, there is a sufficient amount of evidence to suggest the narrator suffers from Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID).
It is suggested that Tyler Durden is one of the narrator’s alter personalities. It is important for one to understand …show more content…

He convinces the narrator that he is a martyr for Project Mayhem. He says, “The last thing we have to do is your martyrdom thing. Your big death thing” (Palahniuk 194). They later find themselves on top of the Parker-Morris Building, the tallest building in their fictional town. The narrator tries to back out of the deal, but Tyler threatens that they will kill Marla if necessary (Palahniuk 194). The narrator agrees to continue with his martyrdom. With the gun barrel in his mouth, Tyler says, “We won’t really die” (Palahniuk 194). The narrator eventually pulls the trigger, hoping to kill himself and rid the world of Tyler. However, he is not killed, only seriously injured. The narrator wakes up in the hospital believing that Tyler has recessed into his brain, never to resurface again. The narrator states, “Of course, when I pulled the trigger, I died. Liar. And Tyler died” (Palahniuk 197).
The story of Fight Club is a concrete example that Dissociative Identity Disorder can be a very real problem within our society. Knowing the symptoms, causes, and treatments is an extremely important part of understanding this disorder. After stating the evidence from the story, it is fair to assume that Tyler Durden is in fact one of the “alters” that is inhabiting the narrator’s brain. It is also fair to assume that not only is Tyler one of the “alters,” but he is also a very real part of the narrator’s life and eventually tries to kill them

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