My first introduction to Psycho was in my 10th grade art class. We had to watch and analyze the film, with many of us not seeing it before. However, like many people, I have seen the famous shower scene. You probably have too, even if you’ve never seen the movie.
The movie Psycho follows a young woman named Marion who runs away from home after she steals money from her bank job. She plans to flee to her lover's home in another state, but makes the mistake of stopping at the Bates motel first. There she meets Norman Bates, an awkward loner, who puts you on edge. He exhibits strange behavior towards Marion, as well as spies on her through a peephole in the motel wall. We’re then introduced to Norman’s mother, who we hear yelling at Norman from their house on the hill. She’s also the one who the viewer believes is stabbing Marion in the infamous shower scene (we only see the silhouette). Marion’s boyfriend and sister then go looking for her, only for it to come out that Norman’s mother died years before the murder took place. We then find out that Norman dresses up as his mom to cope with the fact that he killed her years prior. By the end of the film, Norman’s “mother” side has taken complete control over the body.
In years after the movie came out, Norman Bates has become a staple of horror pop culture. He has his own spinoff shows and movies, as well as being the definite standout character from the original movie. He has been ranked as one of the best villains of all time, and still maintains relevance today. While this is in one part due to Anthony Perkins' phenomenal performance as Norman Bates, it’s also due to the “psychological” aspect of his character. People are fascinated by his two “personalities” and many people believe this is what mental illness can really manifest as in a person.
That is what this article is here to explore! Who is Norman Bates? Does he have Dissociative Identity Disorder or Split Personality? Does childhood trauma lead people to becoming murderers? How has this movie played into stereotypes about mental health, and what is the importance of accurate mental health shown on the big screen? Let’s explore this character from a modern perspective.
Let’s first start with a more in depth analysis of Norman’s character in Psycho and his psyche. The first, and most notable characteristic is his relationship with his mother. Norman’s father isn’t in the picture, so he grew up with just his mother. It’s heavily implied that their relationship was abusive, and possibly even incestuous. Norman’s mother eventually remarries a man who convinced her to open up the Bates Motel. This sets off extreme jealousy in Norman, who kills both of them in a rage and frames it as a murder-suicide. Unable to forgive himself, he digs up his mothers body from the ground and pretends as if she’s still alive. The motel was a massive failure, and left Norman even more isolated and alone. He pretends to be his dead mother, even going as far as wearing her clothes and having full conversations between himself and “mother.” With two different personas inhabiting the same body, it causes extreme conflict. Whenever Norman is attracted to a woman, the “mother” side of him comes out and kills her out of jealousy. Norman then comes back to the surface, where he feels the need to cover his mothers crime. When he is caught and jailed at the end of the movie, the “mother” side of him has completely taken over. Whether or not his mother was actually jealous of Norman being attracted to women is a mystery, as Norman could’ve just imagined his mother felt this way towards him.
This complex character has been a staple of horror pop culture since the movie first came out in the 1960’s. It’s also no shock as to why. If one were to remove the aspect of its accuracy in depicting mental illness, the character by itself is incredible and worth studying. His relationship with his mother in real life, his killing of her and her lover, the duality between his two personalities, and the amazing performance by Perkins all make a great and engaging character to watch on the big screen.
A. Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) or Split Personality?
Dissociative Identity Disorder is a mental health condition where a person has multiple “alters” or identities inhabiting the same body. They each have control of the body at different times, leading to gaps in memory, and a lost feeling of who they are. There are frequent behavior changes, moodshifts, and concentration problems as well. A great YouTube video that helps to explain Dissociative Identity Disorder to someone who doesn’t have it is Anthony Padilla’s “I spent a day with MULTIPLE PERSONALITIES (Dissociative Identity Disorder)” (Padilla, 2020). It is very eye opening to the daily lives of the people with this disorder.
Norman Bates exhibits signs of DID through his two identities. There’s Norman Bates, the sheepish and quiet son of Norma Bates who argues and cleans up after his “mothers” killings, as well as manages the motel. The more dominant personality is Norma Bates, who is a serial killer that was based off of Norman’s real mother. Norman also exhibits many behavioral signs of dissociative identity disorder, like memory loss, hallucinations, and childhood trauma.
How does Norman compare to real people with dissociative identity disorder? The most harmful stereotype the film (intentionally or not) perpetuates is that people with dissociative identity disorder have “murderous” or “dangerous” alters. While people with dissociative identity disorder have different alters, they are not dangerous ones. And while these alters are distinct people with their own traits, the differences between the different alters aren’t nearly as drastic and dramatic as what’s presented in Psycho. Another inaccuracy is that most of the time alters are not imaginations of real people, like Norman’s alternate identity being his dead mother. Instead, they are distinct personalities that are not supposed to represent anyone in real life. However, what the film did get right about alters are that they can be different ages and genders. Another accuracy is that once an alter returns to consciousness, they will not remember what happened when there was another alter in the consciousness. For example, after “Norma” kills someone in Psycho, Norman will return to consciousness and not remember what happened. This can be seen as a very extreme example of dissociative amnesia. Another accuracy is that it stems from childhood trauma. This is prevalent in the film, as we get an idea of the abuse Norman faced at the hands of his mother throughout his childhood.
While we would like to hope that representation of dissociative identity disorder is more accurate nowadays, this is unfortunately untrue. The most famous recent example of this is Split, a horror movie that came out in 2016. The villain is a murderous alter called “The Beast” that can climb on walls and exhibits extreme strength. While this is obviously far from accurate to the real life people who suffer from dissociative identity disorder, these negative depictions can make the general public believe that these stereotypes are true. While both perpetuate harmful stereotypes, I’d argue that Split is more offensive than Psycho is. First of all, in Psycho it never explicitly states that he has dissociative identity disorder. This helps the viewer to better understand this as a work of fiction, and not something you could apply to real life. However, Split makes it very clear that the villain is someone suffering from dissociative identity disorder, which makes a viewer more inclined to believe this is true. Split also shows an alter having superpowers, which would almost be funny if real people with dissociative identity disorder didn’t pay for the consequence of this harmful stereotype. That’s why I believe Psycho, despite being 55 years older, did a much better job of depicting dissociative identity disorder, even if there’s still issues with how it’s presented.
B. Psychosis and Delusions
Norman Bates is such an interesting character, because he isn’t aware of his crimes. He genuinely believes his mother is alive and that she’s the one committing the murders. He has full conversations with her, alternating voices to represent both him and “mother.” He also doesn’t realize that he’s the one actually killing people, only returning to consciousness after his crime is over. He then feels the need to cover for his “mother” who he thinks is actually the murderer. He never realizes that his mother is dead, instead fully becoming his version of her by the end of the movie.
Nathan is experiencing psychosis, which is when someone loses touch with reality. This obviously manifests through him believing he is his mother, when in reality she’s dead. He has delusions and hallucinations all throughout the movie. This can heavily affect anyone’s sense of reality, as they’re often not sure as to what is real or not. This can lead someone to develop anxiety, paranoia, depression, and withdrawal from society out of fear of judgment.
While Norman Bates does have hallucinations and delusions like real life psychosis cases, he does have inaccuracies. The most obvious being that in real life this wouldn’t cause someone to go on a killing spree. In reality, people with psychosis are more likely to hurt themselves than to hurt other people. Although Norman Bates is a fantastic character, he does have the unintended effect of casting a negative image onto people suffering from mental illness. That’s why it’s so important that mental illness is handled and represented with care.
C. Childhood Trauma and Its Role
While Norman’s childhood isn’t covered in excruciating detail in the movie, there’s hints of it being abusive. He was heavily isolated from others and it seemed as though his mother had control over every aspect of his life. While the way that Norman presents as his mother may not be entirely accurate, it can give insight as to how he perceived his mother. There are also hints of their relationship being incestuous as normally a mother taking up a lover wouldn’t cause her son to kill both of them. However, this is never confirmed in the movie.
Early trauma can manifest in adulthood in many different ways. Attachment issues are one of the biggest ways, especially when looking at Norman. Although his mother isn’t alive he is still entirely devoted to taking care of what he believes to be her. He gets extremely offended at the idea of putting her in a home, and puts up with all of her abuse because she’s his mother.
There is a large connection between childhood trauma and mental illness. It’s also heavily linked to dissociation, which Norman Bates clearly has. This is due to the fact that dissociating can be used as a coping mechanism for abuse. That is why we see a correlation between the level of severity in abuse to the level of dissociating present. Any sort of abuse, ranging from physical, sexual, emotional, or neglectful abuse can bring out dissociation. Other mental illnesses associated with childhood trauma include PTSD (which I did a few articles on!), BPD, depression, and anxiety disorders. However, this doesn’t mean everyone who’s experienced childhood trauma will develop dissociative symptoms or mental illness. However if someone suspects they may be experiencing this then they should seek out professional help.
While Psycho didn’t set out to make a historically accurate account of what dissociative identity disorder looks like in someone, it does still contribute to negative stereotypes surrounding it. Having someone suffering with DID be a murder can help to confirm negative biases that viewers might have going into watching Psycho. It’s no secret that culture can heavily influence perception of mental illness, and horror movies are especially guilty or reaffirming beliefs that people with mental illness are scary or murderers.
Equating violence with mental illness perpetuates harmful stereotypes about people suffering from mental illness, and leads people to believe that they are dangerous. This has many negative effects on people who are experiencing mental illness, including avoiding seeking help, isolating themselves, and hinders their opportunities for employment and housing. A good way to address this issue would be to better report stories of people with mental illness seeking positive treatment, consulting mental health professionals with questions, and creating a more accepting environment for people to share their stories.
The horror genre is especially prone to doing the opposite, usually citing the reason for a murderer's intentions to be that of mental illness. This can lead to acts of violence or discrimination against people who are already suffering, as well as a lack of compassion towards them. So while the film has some accuracies, including mental illness stemming from trauma and dissociative amnesia, it’s too dramatic in their characterization of Norman Bates to be considered accurate. Because of this, there is room for interpretation that this film is harmful for the mental health community.
Depicting mental health accurately in the media is crucial, especially for teens. I can help them to better understand it, break the stigma surrounding mental health, and help them realize if they’re suffering from any mental illnesses themselves. By promoting understanding, teens are more likely to call out insensitive behavior and work towards creating a more accepting society.
The best advice I can give for consuming media that depicts mental illness is to take it with a grain of salt. Hollywood always overexaggerates, which can have the unintended side effect of not being accurate. If one has questions for anything mental health related, they should seek out professionals or reliable sources online for answers; not Hollywood. I hope you learned a thing or two around dissociative identity disorder, the importance of accurate mental health depictions, and how the media often blurs the line between accuracy and fiction. Use this newfound knowledge to create a more accepting environment for those suffering from mental illness!