Psycho IS Psychology!

Well I had to save the best for last for my media project. It would be hard to imagine anybody else playing the role of Norman Bates in the 1960 thriller "Psycho" than Anthony Perkins. I had recently seen Psycho again a few weeks back (around Halloween) on the Turner Movie Classic channel and instantly realized I had to add this to my project. Psycho is Psychology. Just in case you have not been a live anytime after 1960 and have not seen Psycho here is the plot--in short. The main actress in the movie next to the menacing Norman Bates is the beautiful young woman Marion Crane (Janet Lee in real life). In order to have money to marry her boyfriend Marion steals a large sum on money from her employer and races away in the car. During a terrible rainstorm the only place to stop is the Bates Motel. There at the hotel she meets the innkeeper Mr Norman Bates. Before giving the young lady a room for the night Norman tells her about his sick mother. Marion tells Norman to institutionalize his mother which gets the Psycho mildly upset. From here the movie goes to the famous shower scene as Marion is trying to settle down for the night at the hotel. In walks a "woman figure" and proceeds to stab and kill Marion in the shower. Next the movie proceeds with a friend and police following up on the young lady that is missing. Both get a chance to meet Norman Bates. A detective visits the mysterious house on the hill next to the hotel and gets "missing" as well when he runs into that same "woman figure".

Who is the the "woman figure" and what is the climax of the movie? What about psychology?

The woman figure is none other than Norman Bates and his alternate personality. The climax has Bates being caught red handed in the basement of that mysterious house while he is in his "mother's" clothes. He is alive, but not his dead preserved mother found next to him. The psychologist at the jail reveals Bates killed his mother and took her identity. Personality disorder, repression where to start with the psychology. In chapter 14 I studied about a psychological disorder called dissociative identity disorder or its more heard of version called multiple personality disorder. Chapters 14 definition of dissociative disorder, "in this disorder a person seems to experience at least 2 or more distinct personalities existing in one body". In the movie sometimes Norman Bates -was/acted like Norman Bates, other times usually when he was doing the killing he was his mother. Why does Norman Bates assume his mother's identity? Well, he does this in order to repress the guilt of murdering her. In chapter 11 of my psychology book it talks about repression which is a defense mechanism. Proposed by Freud and his daughter defense mechanisms allow a person to reduce stress and anxiety. Repression itself is when a person moves events usually bad ones out of a persons conscious mind or memory. All of this is what is going on with Norman Bates.

One last thing, we all have heard of the term sociopath and immediately connect that to serial killer. Was Bates a sociopath? Maybe, maybe not. A sociopath is an antisocial personality disorder a bit different from a dissociative disorder. The book says most antisocial personalities are not killers, although they do break the law and tell lies. Bates was a serial killer for sure.