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“For almost 40 years, thanks to Alfred Hitchcock’s seminal film, Psycho, the word Psycho has conjured up some of the strongest and most enduring, not to say frightening and even misleading images of mental illness in contemporary western culture.” – M. Welch, T. Racine
Alfred Hitchcock directed the 1960 film Psycho, which is considered a masterpiece of the horror genre. It was widely regarded as the scariest film of its day, causing shock, revulsion, and mental anguish among its target viewers. Young Marion Crane steals $40,000.00 from her employer in the movie (Hitchcock, 1960). Her encounter with Norman Bates, the manager of a nearby hotel, takes a surprising turn as the dialogue between them shifts from friendly to sleazy. When it comes to Norman Bates, it is clear that his mother has a lot of control over him. When Marion Crane suggests that he send his mother to a mental facility, he seems to change his tune toward her. 1
Norman Bates suffers from a mental disorder known as dissociative identity disorder (DID) or multiple personality disorder (MPD). After enduring emotional and physical abuse from Norma from an early age, Norman would go onto develop a second personality/identity that resembles his Mother in many ways. When he portrays his true identity, Norman is a sympathetic, friendly, and down-to-earth man. However, his alternative personality demonstrates the polar opposite. As a result of his mental disorder, Norman Bates exchanges between his original identity, and a second identity known to resemble his Mother. It can be assumed that as a result of his childhood abuse from his mother, the passing of Norma was an ultimate stressor in developing his mental illness. Norma Bates was very persistent in making her son believe that all women were evil with the exception of herself. She made it a goal to make Norman realize that they are manipulative to the core and want nothing but the worst for her son. As a result, when Norman demonstrates his Mother’s personality, he is not afraid to murder anyone who attempts to separate Norman from his Mother (either physically or mentally). Most of Norman’s murders are done while he is demonstrating his Mother’s personality which goes to show how emotionally abusive she was towards Norman while she was still alive. 2
Psycho’s titular protagonist/antagonist Norman Bates is a Rubik’s Cube of Freudian psychology. But, is he really a psycho? Or is he just a misunderstood victim of mental illness? Since there is no way to come to any sort of finite conclusion about Norman, the point of this is to attempt to peel back some of his layers to see what makes him tick.
Norman Bates or any of the themes in Psycho can’t be talked about without first introducing sex into the equation. The amount of sexual under and overtones almost elevate Psycho from a psychological thriller to a psychosexual thriller. All of the sexual themes that Norman embodies all lead back to one place: his mother. It’s no secret that Norman Bates has a laundry list of mommy issues. In fact, it’s heavily hinted at that he has the greatest mommy issue of all: an Oedipus Complex. To put it bluntly, an Oedipus Complex is the Freudian idea that young boys have the innate desire to kill their dad and have sex with their mom. The idea of the Oedipus Complex has been debunked numerous times in the world of psychology (no duh), but here in Psycho, Norman Bates is basically Freud’s wet dream.
The psychologist at the end of the film tells audience that after Norman’s father died his mental state began to quickly and violently deteriorate. This deterioration of his mind eventually lead Norman into killing his mom and her boyfriend while they were in bed together. Norman was in love with his mom, to an unhealthy extent and thus was both envious and jealous of her boyfriend, like any former (unstable) lover would be. It can also be possibly assumed that Norman may have murdered his own father to win the sole affection of his mother, even if he was only still a child.
All of this leads to one question: why does Norman have an Oedipus Complex? This question has two possible answers. The first being Norman was born a “psycho” rather than bred into one. Meaning that Norman was born with an abnormal psychology resulting in a subconscious Oedipus Complex manifesting as his conscious desire. He felt the need to eliminate any competition that stood between him and his mother. This answer however only applies if Norman did in fact kill his father. If he didn’t, then answer two is more likely the case.
This explanation poses the idea that his Oedipus Complex was a result of loss and abuse. If he did not kill his dad, then it may be that his death triggered Norman’s underlying abnormal psychologically. Adding to this theory, after his father died his mother became distraught and mentally unstable. The audience is told that Norman was left alone in his house with his mother for years, all the while being subjected to constant abuse. She was clingy and demanding, and this abuse and isolation may have led to Norman developing a classic case of Stockholm Syndrome. That is, he fell in love with his abuser and captor. Since the person holding him hostage in isolation hidden away from the world was his mother, he developed Oedipal desires.
Contrasting to the Oedipus Complex there is another Freudian idea known as the Electra Complex. The Electra Complex is essentially the opposite of the Oedipus Complex. This is the idea that young girls have the innate desire to kill their mom to have sex with their dad. Ms. Bates doesn’t have an Electra Complex, but instead has the reversal. Instead of a daughter wanting to have sex with her father, it’s a mother wanting to have sex with her son. It’s alluded to that she wanted, or did have sexual interactions with Norman, and she sheltered him away from any other woman that she may consider to be competition. Her personality however, just like him, takes this one step farther to the extreme and kills any other woman that Norman talks to.
However, the question arises of how much of her personality is the real Ms. Bates and how much is Norman’s interpretation of her. Did she have these murderous impulses or are they just an exaggeration and a projection of Norman’s personality? This is where the concept of theory of mind comes into the equation. Theory of mind is essentially the ability to understand that other people have different thoughts, feelings, emotions, and beliefs from our own. This is almost a universal ability that everyone has, with some exceptions. Norman Bates is one of these exceptions. The psychiatrist in the end says that because Norman was so jealous for his mother, he projected those feelings upon her and believed that she felt the exact same way about him. This is evidence of Norman’s lack of a theory of mind. Even in the parlor scene with Marion, he believed that she was running from something and that everyone is trapped because he himself is running and is trapped.
Now that we’ve gotten multiple incestuous complexes burrowed within Norman’s psyche out of the way, it’s time to move on to another part of Norman’s psychology: his sexuality. Norman is a bit of a creep, but not in a “Buffalo Bill” type of way. He’s more of a “guy who tells women to smile more often” type of creep. Why is he a creep though? And, more importantly what’s the deal with his sexuality?
Once again, it all goes back to his mommy. Mrs. Bates essentially kept Norman a prisoner in his own home. She abused and belittled him constantly, and from his impersonation of her she clearly didn’t think too highly of other women. In fact, it appears as though she found other women to be a threat to him. We can then infer from all of the information we’ve been given throughout the course of the film that Mrs. Bates kept Norman isolated from the opposite sex. It wasn’t the world she wanted to hide him from, rather it was other women.
This isolation altered Norman’s development during puberty. Suffice to say when a young boy goes through puberty, that is when they get an interest in girls (if they’re straight, which Norman is, or actually might not be, that’d be fun thing to write about). But, Norman was completely isolated from girls when he was a child, all but his mother of course. Due to her oppressive personality, Norman more than likely didn’t come into contacted with anyone besides his mother. This means that growing up there was only one person he could act his sexual desires on… his mom, it’s his mom if that hasn’t already been said more than it should be.
Not only is Norman sexually repressed, but he is sexually envious and has the mind and mannerisms of a little boy. It could be assumed that part of Norman’s envy towards his mother’s boyfriend came from his own feelings of inadequacy. Her boyfriend was a full grown adult man, whereas Norman was still only a boy. He was unable to satisfy her (wink wink) in the way her boyfriend could. As far as mannerisms go, he carried the tray of bread and milk to Marion like a child, and stutters when trying to say “falsity” because that is a big word for a little boy.
Because of Mrs. Bates imprisonment of him his already abnormal psychology began to expand. He never had the chance to develop like an average child would. Norman is now stuck as a little boy trying to be a grown man, something he just can’t do.
What does this all tell us about Norman? Is he a “psycho”. No he isn’t, his character is far more complex than a simple label (makes for a cool title though). Norman Bates became who he did, and did what he did not because he is some evil or malicious man, but because he is severely mentally unstable and was traumatized throughout his childhood by the one person who should have taken care of him. He’s a man who more than likely was born with a vastly abnormal psychology, and was subjected to years of mental and maybe even sexual abuse from his own mother. Even if he wasn’t born with a mental illness, he would have easily developed one as a result of her torture.
Norman is a victim of his illness, a victim of abuse, and maybe even worst of all, a victim of a broken mental health system. Within his psyche lies two sides of the same coin: good and evil. He is the protagonist and the antagonist. Once we’re introduced to Norman Hitchcock immediately begins to try and make us as the viewer empathize with him. We feel for Norman. We feel for him for a lot of reasons (one of which is Anthony Perkins flawless performance), but one that doesn’t get mention nearly enough is that we feel for him because he was failed by the world.
When it comes to the mentally ill, even to this day society fails to help those who are incapable of helping themselves. It’s almost like once that label is slapped on someone that they’re dead to the world. That’s part of why a lot of people keep their illness a secret and let it build and build until it tears them apart. They’re simply afraid of what will happen when people find out what’s really going on inside their head. That’s a fear that I truly understand and honestly can’t blame anyone for having. It’s a tragic reality that those who are the most vulnerable are the same ones who are treated with such stigmatization.
Psycho teaches us an important lesson about the mentally ill. It says that we shouldn’t approach mental illness with disgust or hatred, but with acceptance and understanding. Even though we may try to understand or accept him however, that does not excuse or justify any of his actions. He still took lives, but unlike in normal murder cases, Norman does not deserve or need to be put in jail. He doesn’t have control over his own psyche anymore, an idea emphasized when his face blends with Mrs. Bates skull. He needs an institution. Norman needs a place where he can spend a long time in a professionally trained environment. He needs to get rehabilitation treatment to help return him to a more stable normalized state so he can be a functioning member of society. If after he killed his mother there was some sort of psychological intervention, then he may not have gone down the road he did. He could have found redemption.
If he had someone in his life like the psychologist we see in the last scene, or even just a simple understanding friend, then Norman could have very well possibly become the type of person who wouldn’t even harm a fly. 3
Reference
1 PsychologyWriting. (2023, September 15). Psychological Theory of Psycho by Alfred Hitchcock. https://psychologywriting.com/psychological-theory-of-psycho-by-alfred-hitchcock/
2 https://slasher-universe.fandom.com/wiki/Norman_Bates
3 https://johnnywickwrites.wordpress.com/2016/07/31/case-study-norman-bates/