Depression is a condition that is highly shunned by many societies and one that many do not like to admit to and would rather keep quiet about it as opposed to creating awareness about it. The condition wreaks havoc in the minds of victims, and few can come out of it successfully. On the one hand, many have learned and conceptualized ways and means of coping with the condition. On the other hand, many have been consumed by the pain and suffering that accrues from it, and some of them have been driven to committing suicide. The film Fight Club depicts mental illness as a dangerous and ravaging disease that encourages men to the edges of their existence and makes their lives a misery as shall be explained through the animation of Jack.
Jack is the narrator and also the protagonist in the film. He presents as the co-creator of the fight club and works with Tyle Durden. Before the formation of the fight club, he hated his job working as a recall specialist in the automobile industry. Moreover, he hated his boss, who made his life miserable and unbearable in everything he did. He starts to go to the support groups where he meets with Marla Singer (Fincher, 1999). Although they both do not have any disease that requires them to go to the groupings, they just happen to find themselves there. They go to the meetings so as they can feel some connection with other people.
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At the onset, Jacj rejects Maria when she reminds him too much of himself and this is the first manifestation of his situation of depression. He signifies the many people who do not want to confront the idea that they could be sick and that they may need some help (Smith, Choi, Pieper, Moutier, & Choueiti, 2019). Many of them have their minds closed to the idea that they could be sick and could require some assistance. It is only later on that he realizes that she was something he needed in his life all along. This leads to his confrontation with Tyler, whom he then realizes is only but a mental projection of his conceptions.
The lived experiences of people with mental health are either limited or missing in contemporary pain. Whereas some people indeed fall into depression out of situations they have little or no control of, very few are willing to admit to suffering from such calamities as many are eager to remain adamant about it and not agree to their suffering (Haider, 2019). Fight Club is an example of a film that takes on the theme of suffering in the society and uses it to confront a somewhat guarded secret that is the reason for suffering for many people in the society.
Similar to the experience of Jack, work-related stress is the primary reason why many people fall into depression, and this leads many people to quit their jobs or underperform. Many have been fired or had their contracts terminated because of poor performance. Bosses and the type of management, in general, is a significant reason why people drown into depression. Poor pay and oppressive long hours of work are the perfect recipes for poor performance and resultant depression at work (Beachum, 2010). Work-related stress remains the most excellent source of distress in this age. The more people are unwilling to confront their fears, the more they get consumed by depression.
Mental health conditions affect a quarter of the world population. So adverse is the effect of mental health that more than 17% of the adult US population suffers from one form of mental health or multiple ways. Depression is identified as the most common form of mental health in the world with more people suffering from it than the number that is willing to admit to it. Of all the adults suffering from mental health about 5% are identified as having the most severe strains of the condition As mentioned earlier the more the people suffering from it are unwilling to admit to it the more, they are likely to keep suffering from in silence (Beachum, 2010).
Jack does an excellent job of portraying people living with depression and how they deal with it. From the preliminary scenes of the film, Jack presents as a helpless worker who is pitted between his boss and a cruel world. He suffers from bouts of insomnia and cannot sleep to the extent that he feels like he will die and consults a physician. The physician assures him that he cannot die from insomnia, and that is the only time he gets to rest easy, but still, his depression does not go away. He can see and feel his life ending every other time he wakes up and has to go through the motions once again.
Together with Tyler, Jack begins the Fight Club, where men undergoing depression go to fight as the therapeutic way of dealing with their anxiety. The club is situated in the basement and is very secretive. The high number of men who end up frequenting the fight club is indicative of the fact that many people suffer from depression and have nowhere to turn to. The disease is more prevalent in men compared to women because of the number of men who attend it. Women are virtually non-existent in this club. The film curates the idea of a club that serves as a temporary solution for people with depression, and this works for them for the time being.
As Jack depicts in the film, the consequences of living with depression are staggering and lead to suffering and disability at multiple levels, including the societal, family and individual levels (Greenstein, 2017). The film shows that mental health issues cut across all people regardless of gender and age even though men are the greatest sufferers due to their tendency to remain silent about problems and their likelihood to remain adamant about seeking help. Also, when they find support, many do not know what they need. This is depicted by Jack's perception of Maria. He does not know he really needs Maria in his life until later on in the film after trying to dismiss her.
The conceptualization of the fight club made Jack start to see things in a different way. He would show up at work unkempt, untidy and indecent. He did not worry about his boss anymore and wanted to spend more of his time at the club. As jack says at a scene in the club, the society raises people to believe that they can all become successful movie stars and career people and idols of some sorts. However, life seldom prepared people for reality, and the reality is often that sometimes people do not become all that they aspire to become. This is one of the reasons why many fall into the trap of depression and end up miserable. As earlier explained by the film, the more people with mental health are made aware of their situation, the more they are likely to seek for assistance.
The film carries the message that is dealing with the issues of perceptions about depression in the society is essential in the efforts to improve the lives of people in the society or the nation. The creators of the film understand that mass media is one critical area that can help to improve perceptions about mental health. Since television and film exert power in the way they shape perceptions, using them to paint the right image about depression is essential in helping people suffering from it to seek and get the help they need. The film carries the correct portrayal of people with mental health because as much as it shows that they need help, it does not deny them the power for self-determination.
Overall, the film Fight Club depicts mental illness as a dangerous and ravaging disease that drives men to the edges of their existence and makes their lives a misery as shall be explained through the animation of Jack. The film epitomizes the pain and the agony of living with mental illness and being held up in a mental space in which one has little or no power to express oneself or become something out of the ordinary. The more the person stays in this mental state, the more they are likely to remain held up in it, and the less they are likely to seek help. This film is the correct presentation of people with mental health because it does not take the self-determination from them.
References
Beachum, L. (2010). The Psychopathology of Cinema: How Mental Illness and Psychotherapy and Portrayed in Film. Honours, 1 (2), 1-38.
Fincher, D. (Director). (1999). Fight Club [Motion Picture].
Greenstein, L. (2017). The Best Movies About Mental Health . Retrieved from https://www.nami.org/Blogs/NAMI-Blog/December-2017/The-Best-Movies-About-Mental-Health
Haider, A. (2019). How Cinema Stigmatizes Mental Illness . Retrieved from BBC: http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20180828-how-cinema-stigmatises-mental-illness
Smith, S., Choi, A., Pieper, K., Moutier, C., & Choueiti, M. (2019). Mental Health Conditions in Film and TV. The David and Laura Lovell Foundation, 1 (2), 1-42
