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Personality Analysis of Tyler Durden from Fight Club

Anoshito Banerjee

1 CEP-B

Department of Psychology, CHRIST (Deemed to be University)

CIA – 3

PSY 131 – Basic Psychological Processes

Under the Guidance of Professor Sreenath K.

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Tyler Durden
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The aim of this paper is to establish the nature of the relationship between the narrator and
Tyler Durden, who are one and the same. The key character is Tyler Durden, portrayed by Brad
Pitt in the film, who is the alternate personality of the Narrator. The Narrator, played by Edward
Norton, is unaware of Tyler Durden’s true nature, believing him to be a friend, roommate, and co-
creator of fight club. The rules of fight club are simple –
1. Do not talk about fight club.
2. Do not at any cost talk about fight club.

Tyler Durden, played by Brad Pitt in the film, is the Narrator's other identity. The Narrator
(Edward Norton) is oblivious of Tyler Durden's actual nature, thinking him to be a buddy,
roommate, and co-creator of fight club; a completely distinct creature from himself. The
duo form a fight club as a way for men to vent their frustrations with the system, reclaim
their manhood, and find hope in their life. The Narrator realises they share the same body
as fight club transforms into Project Mayhem, an anarchistic vehicle used by Tyler Durden
to bring civilization to the verge of annihilation. The Narrator subsequently endeavours to
disparage Tyler Durden in trying to save Marla Singer, Tyler's love interest.

Henceforth, the Narrator and Tyler Durden will be referred to as one character,
interchangeably, since they are one and the same.

Durden, the son of divorced parents, grew up in a country where community was vanishing.
He grew up seeing idealists and campaigners from the 1960s and 1970s sell out to become the
voracious "greed is good" businessmen of the 1980s. Despite their wealth, the elder generation
was sad and miserable. Tyler's generation grew up seeing assassinations, protests, and riots on
television. As a result, many linked politics with the Watergate, ABSCAM, and Iran-Contra
scandals as teenagers. They were aware, however, that corruption was not isolated to the nation's
capital. Tyler Durden's generation grew up in an America increasingly dominated by shopping
malls filled with franchise chains and corporate fast-food outlets; they accepted "mcjobs" because
the baby boomers had usurped all the jobs; and they grew up in an America increasingly dominated
by franchise chains and corporate fast-food outlets. For the first time in American history, his
generation could not practically expect to have the same standard of life as their parents. His
generation seen the Vietnam War give way to the War on Drugs, and the jail population skyrocket.
Tyler's generation grew up in a society where values were in flux and expectations were constantly
evolving. On television, in movies, on billboards, and in music, sex was titillating, but actual sex
was dangerous. During Durden's young adulthood, pornography, which had been a primarily
underground phenomena for his parents' age, became a multi-billion-dollar industry. Hardcore
movies, peep shows, live sex acts, adult cable programming, sexual vices, computer porn, and sex
magazines brought in more than $8 billion in 1996, much more than Hollywood's domestic box
office profits and all the income produced by rock and country music records combined.
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Personality Theory

Highs and lows in mood, energy, motivation, cognition, and activity define bipolar
spectrum illnesses. The dysregulation theory of the behavioural approach system (BAS) provides
an integrated paradigm for understanding psychosocial and biological aspects of bipolar illnesses.
The theory highlights the importance of reward and goal sensitivity in bipolar illness. To achieve
rewards, the BAS governs approach motivation and goal-directed behaviour. It is triggered by
rewards or goal-relevant signals, which can be external (the presence of a desired objective) or
internal (the presence of a wanted goal) (expectancies of goal attainment). BAS activation has been
linked to the production of pleasant goal-oriented emotions like happiness (Gray, 1994). When
goal attainment is hindered, there is also a link between rage and BAS activation, according to
recent research (Carver, 2004). The BAS has been connected to a reward-sensitive neural network
that includes dopamine neurons that project between multiple limbic and cortical brain areas that
are involved in emotion and reward (Depue & Iacono, 1989). Bipolar depression is induced by
negative life experiences, whereas (hypo)mania is triggered by both negative and good life events.
The BAS-dysregulation theory has the benefit of predicting the sorts of circumstances that should
provoke bipolar mood episodes. BAS-activation events such as goal accomplishment, goal
striving, or rage provocation should cause (hypo)mania, whereas BAS-deactivation events such as
failures or losses should trigger despair.
The theory of Behavioural Approach System in the case of Bipolar Sprectrum Disorders
hold true for the case of Tyler Durden.

Reasons for choosing the character

The character of Tyler Durden was chosen to highlight the Jekyll and Hyde personality that
many individuals possess, and to demonstrate that while this is an uncommon trait, it does exist in
the lives of many people throughout the world. He is a guy whose life has been impacted by his
father's oddity, as well as the nearly continual presence of pornography and narcotics, which, albeit
unrealistic, have become somewhat of a staple diet of this age. This research will be used to show
the rest of the world what is going on and what can be done to maybe avoid it.

Motivation and Emotion

According to B.F Skinner, Motivation is “sustaining, persisting, arousing and directing

desired behaviour. Motivation and Emotion are two interrelated concepts because motivation can
lead to an emotion and an emotion can lead to motivation. Motivation can be classified into
intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation. Extrinsic motivation may be a motivation for
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rewards or promotion at a job but intrinsic motivation occurs for self-fulfilment. Similarly, Tyler
Durden has both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation.

Take Home Message

The only take-home message that can be thought of at this junction is that one should never
judge another because of their problems or the way they act. One should always refrain from
pornography and drugs as they corrupt the mind and soul. One should take care of their kids, and
not expose them to unwanted scenarios. And lastly, if one has any psychological issues, they
should always visit a psychiatrist/psychologist, and there is nothing to be ashamed of that. Also, if
people see that someone has psychiatric issues, they should be supportive of that person, but at the
very least, the person suffering should not be the basis of ridicule and humiliation.

References

• Alloy, L. B., & Abramson, L. Y. (2010, June 1). The role of the Behavioral
Approach System (BAS) in Bipolar Spectrum Disorders. Current directions in
psychological science. Retrieved November 13, 2021, from
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2894637/.
• North Dakota Law Review - commons.und.edu. (n.d.). Retrieved November 13,
2021, from
https://commons.und.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1375&context=ndlr.