A loving and conscientious man; hardworking and dedicated, who desires to live in a better society. That was the world’s first impression of Norman Bates, but behind the charm was his hidden personality. So, how does someone like him, become a psycho? Was Norman Bates, born a psycho, or was he turned into one because of his environment? There are many perspectives of psychology that will provide a fuller understanding of Norman Bates’ behavior.
From a Psychodynamic perspective, Norman’s behavior springs from unconscious desires and childhood conflicts. Norman’s unconscious desires are to please his mother. Based on the Famous novel, Psycho, Norman’s mother, was very controlling. She mentally and physically abused him; and also drilled into his brain that all women, except herself, are dirty, untrustworthy, and evil. She taught him to never let himself have feelings for women. Once Norman was physically attracted to a woman, he would black out and murder her. When he snapped out of it, he wouldn’t remember a thing. His unconscious state, unlocked many unconscious motives. Norman’s behavior reflects his childhood conflicts with his mother. From a Psychodynamic perspective, Norman was turned
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The psychological standpoint, would back up the idea that Norman’s behavior is caused by depression or low self-esteem. Which is very logical, considering all that he has been through with his mother. The biological point of view, blames genetics for mental illnesses. As mentioned before, Norma Bates is also unstable and her actions display a mental illness, which can be the cause of Norman’s abnormality. Next, there is the social-cultural stance, which would claim that peer pressure, or stress from society is a causing factor. The combination of these three perspectives, indicate that not only one factor causes people, in this case Norman, to act out or to
The 1960 Alfred Hitchcock classic thriller, Psycho and the psychological thriller novel, The Talented Mr.Ripley by notable American author Patricia Highsmith both challenge the audience’s perception of the noir protagonist through pronounced exploration controversial themes via the. Through the use of a range of stylistic features, the authors aim to blur the line between innocence and guilt in order to develop a false sense of empathy for the protagonists Tom Ripley and Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins). Characterisation of both of these protagonists, used in a way that forces the audience to connect with them and adopt an controversial point of view, transforms the audiences perception of how the murderer of a psychological thriller should behave. Hitchcock uses
Have you ever had a discussion with someone person and the first thing you hear, that person is a psycho? What the individual is really describing is a person who is believed to be insane or crazy based off of the way the person interacts with others or along. The movie that I chose to watch is American Psycho. This movie is about a materialistic, wealthy Wall Street investment banker who has a double life in which one of the lives he lives is as a serial killer.( Harron, M Director ,2000, April 14). He is addicted to drugs, sex, and conspicuous consumption. He is obsessed with designer clothes, business cards, alcohol, and music such as Whitney Houston, Robert Palmer, Huey Lewis, and many other artists. Most people think they know the answer after watching this movie but director Mary Harron's answer might surprise you there is a long list of evidence supporting the claim that Patrick Bateman has to be imagining everything.
When most people hear the word psychopath their mind forms a picture of a wild-eyed, rambling, lunatic who is often restrained in a straitjacket. The media has helped this belief along the way with slasher horror films and grisly CSI episodes depict these strange humans. However, the average psychopath is much harder to spot than most people believe. In fact, most of them are extremely difficult to distinguish from ordinary humans. They outwardly appear normal and many do not find it difficult to blend into common society. They can interact with others, hold successful jobs, and effectively keep themselves out of trouble. Most are not the sadistic killers many people think they are. Psychopaths are people born with problems (Bartol 105) or
Personality disorders are pervasive in nature, and are depicted in various mediums from film to novels. Narcissism will be discussed as it pertains to American Psycho; a film made in the early 2000’s to describe a man who lives a double life as a business man and serial killer. The main character in particular, Patrick Bateman displays with themes of Narcissistic Personality Disorder and his case along with the factors that are congruent with Narcissistic Personality Disorder will be discussed throughout.
Fifty years ago, a person breaking the law would either be called crazy or a criminal. Today, the mental health community has much more specific diagnoses. However, the explanation of certain behaviors may be difficult because there is much overlap among mental conditions. In Bret Easton Ellis’ American Psycho, the protagonist, Patrick Bateman, is apparently simply a psychopath. However, Bateman can be diagnosed with other mental illnesses such as Asperger’s syndrome, obsessive-compulsive disorder, schizophrenia, narcissism, and antisocial personality disorder. In both the book and film adaptation, Bateman’s actions can be understood more accurately when analyzed in light of modern psychology.
Normans mother is dead, but is alive in the mind of Norman. She is therefore dominating Normans mind. Alfred Hitchcock makes us infer that the mother was alive throughout the film. This manipulates the audience throughout the film. The audience thinks that the mother is alive, and therefore, she can potentially be the killer in the film.
Besides being at the brink of madness caused by her self-denial of the passing of her fame, Norma Desmond had also become rather sexual-transgressive. Some male traits shown in Norma consist of her dominance - she demands over Max, financial independence - owns factories which constantly makes profits and her assertive nature - she fearlessly confronts her passion for Joe. The way Norma is ridiculously insane to a degree of dark humour brings sympathy, entertainment and a corrupted depiction of celebrity to audiences.
In the movie each of the main characters, Norman who is eighty years old, Ethel who is seventy years old and Chelsea who is forty years old go through some of the stages of psychosocial development. The first character in the movie I will be talking about is Norman. I recognized him first from the movie because I knew something seemed wrong with him. For example, in the beginning of the movie him and his wife Ethel goes to their vacation spot and he sees a picture of them and doesn’t recognize who the people are. His wife had to remind him that it was them in the picture. He is very forgetful and it seems that his mental is not as strong as it
The main character observed was Norman even though it was his birthday and the rivals of his daughter visit. He encounters many emotion’s while on the journey entering late adulthood. Biologically Norman faces fear of aging, but also feeling the past is fading away. Norman attitude changes to due to grief felt as he experiences physical and mental changes, yet it puts relationships in a warp of a tornado. As the movie progress you will see Norman reveal emotions, insecurity, and mental instability and becomes a serious challenge, for example when Norman was lost in the woods he came back running because he was not able to find his way back. With the disease he is encountered with a slow mental decline. Aging adults become very grumpy, arrogant, and impatient, however, Norman will not let go what was once familiar to him, and even if he struggles to claim a command with the younger ones.
Psychosocial development addresses the interaction between psychological and social factors. Billy was in Erickson’s psychosocial stage—Identity versus role confusion. In the beginning, he seemed confused about his identity, and he did not get along with Norman. This indicates that he lacked someone to identify with. Later on, the time he spent with the couple on Golden Pond and his relationship with Norman made him progress
“I feel lethal, on the verge of frenzy. I think my mask of sanity is about to slip" (Harron) thought Patrick Bateman as he contemplated his growing feelings of emptiness and need for bloodlust. American psycho is the story of a greedy, materialistic, self obsessed businessman who transforms into an unstable and violent sociopath. Abnormal behavior can be defined by four patterns deviance, distress, dysfunction, and danger (Comer 2). Deviance is exhibited as unusual, or extreme behavior. Throughout the movie, Bateman was very blunt and would casually say violent, graphic comments. The only time Bateman experienced distress was towards the end of the movie when he couldn’t stop killing. He began to panic, called his lawyer to confess, and didn’t go into work. However, most of the time Bateman said he enjoyed the rush of a kill. Typically, abnormal behavior interferes with the person's ability to conduct daily activities (Comer 2). As a result of Bateman’s abnormalities he could not sustain a healthy relationship. The most extreme characteristic of Batemans abnormal behavior was that it caused him to put others in danger.
Though we are disturbed at the evil things he is doing, we feel a sense of sympathy towards him. We feel for him because of how his mother had treated him. We in turn teach our sub consciousness to start blaming the mother for all the murders that have been committed, just like Norman does. Both Norman’s façade of normality and our ambivalence towards his character verifies him as a quintessential psychopath.
Norman is criminalized but as a psychotic he cannot be kept in prison and so is put in an asylum. He cannot be justified even though he has gotten away with Marion for the sake of his long dead mother. The obsession and love for his long dead mother never help him to lead a normal life. Norman’s love for his mother makes him act like her and from his point of view his actions are right which is very clear from the parlor scene. Here the son who has lost his father early and a mother who has to marry another one are not responsible. The mother fixation of Norman is to be blamed entirely for his tragedy and others. Social institutions like marriage and family are involved here. The crime here is premeditated and violent. Norman Bates contorted by psychosis and dual personality syndrome, acts out his homicidal urges in the guise of his dead mother. His masochism suffers while seeing a sexually attractive woman as he already had a substitute marriage with his mother. Compelled by the split personality syndrome, he commits the crime and at the same time tries to protects her crime and destroys the evidence by washing the blood from the floor and dumping Marion’s body along with the
When "Bates Motel" begins, Norman seems to be a normal teenage boy, who is a bit of an introvert. He prefers school work and reading to going out and being social. He has an extremely
Joyce Byers is one of the main leading characters in “Stranger things.” She is the mother of two boys Will and Jonathan. They live in a small town called Hawkins, Indiana. To start off the show, Joyce seems to be a mother who is burning the candle at both ends. She seems as though she is working all the time and does not have time for her boys. One night, Will’s older brother Jonathan does not make sure he is home because he thought that his mother did. Then of course Will is not there in the morning when his mother tries to get him up for school and they can not find him. Joyce goes into a panic like any mother would, and this starts the going downhill in the way that she acts and does certain things. According to Simply Psychology, Abnormal psychology is a division of psychology that studies people who are "abnormal" or "atypical"