In David Fincher’s movie, we can see many of the ideas that Freud presents in his book, Civilizations and Its Discontents.  Some of the major ideas that Freud argued were the psychological ideas of the ego, superego, and the id. The id represents our animalistic instincts and the attainment of our desires and pleasures.  He introduces the superego as a completely contradictory part of our minds.  It represents the rules and regulations put for by society and more so as a sense of complete control.  The ego is basically the battleground between these two.  It attempts to obtain a sense of balance: obtaining as much pleasure as possible, while staying with the constraints of societal rules.  In this movie, which I’d rather not name because the first and second rules both state that I cannot talk about it, different characters are introduced that are portrayed in such extremes as to represent the id, ego, and superego.  For the purposes of this entry, we’ll refer to this David Fincher movie as: “the movie” and the characters in this movie as: Tyler and Jack.  In the movie, Tyler was technically not another character, but rather a manifestation of Jack’s id.  I guess you Tyler could say “I am Jack’s id.”  The character of Jack was represented as the superego.  He was a character that was seen as bound by all the rules of society and adhered closely to them as well as a character that sought control.  This distinction was made very clearly by one particular scene in the movie.  In this scene, Tyler is driving and he lets go of the wheel and just drives.  Jack, for obvious reasons, was greatly worried by this and immediately attempts to take control of the car.  I found this scene very symbolic in that Tyler was portraying a state of complete lack of control, while Jack cares much about obtaining control of the vehicle.  Although, this was rather difficult to conceptualize, I feel that Jack also represents the ego, because he was really both Tyler and Jack.  Instead of the traditional struggle between the superego and the id, he switched between two personalities, each portraying a single psychological state. 

I guess this is getting kind of difficult to explain with a movie that I can’t even talk about, so I think it would be better to look at another movie that also has these Freudian ideas.  Luckily Freud is everywhere.  Even in….

In Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight, we see some very similar Freudian ideas being presented.  In this movie, Batman attempts to maintain order and justice in Gotham City by defeating the Joker.  In my opinion, the character of the Joker, as portrayed in this movie, is the complete embodiment of the id.  The Joker is chaotic and aggressive.  Although he has plan, he acts very instinctively and cares nothing for the rules and constraints of society.  In fact, throughout the movie he attempts to get rid of all the rules.  He acts on his desire, which in this case was to put the world into chaos and get rid of all the rules.  This can especially be seen with his interactions with batman.  Batman doesn't kill.  The Joker knows this and often tries to get batman to break this rule.  His complete disregard for the regulations and restraints of society can be seen with his blatant breaking of rules.  He robs a bank which is the most typical crime.  Also, when he gets the money from the criminals of Gotham, he just burns it. He doesn't care about the importance that society puts on money.  Batman, on the other hand, can be seen as a character that strongly exhibits his superego.  He has a strong sense of rules and takes control of the justice in Gotham City.  He never breaks his rule of not killing, even though it would have been easier to do so.  Also he does not exhibit any signs of pleasure or desire.  Although he had feelings for Rachel, I would say that is part of Bruce Wayne’s character and not Batman’s.  In the clip below we see how the Joker is trying to get society to ignore their superego and express their id.  He make many Freudian critiques of society. 

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