The psychiatrist in the film is discussing the crimes of passion, which are not motivated by profit.
Psycho Plot Synopsis
Marlon checks into the motel and quickly realizes that it’s not as nice as she thought. The only thing to do is to take a bath and then go to bed. However, when she goes to take a bath, she finds that the water is cold. She assumes that it must be the manager’s bathroom, but when she looks in the mirror, she sees that her hair is wet and her clothes are soaked. She decides to go back out into the rain and call it a night.
Marion has deep conversations with Norman over dinner about stepping into private traps. She later decides to drive back to Phoenix in the morning and return the money. However, she doesn’t get to see the sun the next day as she becomes the victim of an inexplicably bizarre incident. ..
What happens with Marion?
Norman rushes to the murder scene to see what happened. Without wasting a single moment, he removes the body and rids the washroom area of any evidence.
He drives to a swamp and dumps Marion’s body there. He has a confident smirk on his face suggesting dumping bodies might be a part of his routine.
Who comes looking for Marion?
Marion’s real estate company hires a private investigator, Arbogast, to figure out her whereabouts and get the money. It’s not long before Arbogast reaches the Bates Motel and questions Norman Bates about Marion. After Arbogast checks out the register, he is sure Marion stayed at the Bates Motel. But, when he insists on meeting his mother, Norman asks him to leave. At a nearby phone booth, Arbogast informs Marion’s sister, Lila, and boyfriend, Sam, about the motel and his suspicions. ..
Arbogast returns to the motel and enters the home of Norman Bates, who has killed Marion. Arbogast is stabbed to death by the woman who killed Marion.
Who discovers the truth about Bates?
As they walk into the Bates Motel, Sam and Lila can tell that something is not right. They go to the Sheriff and he tells them that Norman’s mother has been dead for the past 10 years. They are fearful and perplexed, so they decide to go to the Bates’ Motel to find out the truth.
The business travellers try to find signs of Marion and Arbogast in the motel and Bates’ mysterious house.
Lila sneaks into Bates’ house as Sam distracts him at the motel’s reception desk. When Sam gets aggressive in questioning, Norman hits Sam unconscious and runs to find Lila. In the fruit cellar, Lila discovers what appears to be a woman sitting on a rocking chair facing the wall. Thinking it’s Bates’ mother, she taps her shoulder – only to be confronted by a mummified body of a female (Bates’ mother). As she screams in fear, Norman Bates pops us dressed like a woman – wearing an old lady wig and brandishing the same knife that killed Marion and Arbogast. As he moves to stab Lila, Sam comes running from behind and grabs hold of him. The next scene takes us to the psychiatrist in the County Court House. ..
What’s a Psychiatrist’s Explanation?
Norman Bates, the murderer of his mother, has been diagnosed with a condition called Dissociative Identity Disorder. According to psychiatrists, this disorder causes people to have multiple identities or personalities that they can switch between. In Norman’s case, he has three identities: the murderer of his mother, the caretaker of her corpse, and the person who dresses like her and speaks in her voice. This disorder makes it difficult for him to suppress his guilt for matricide and it led him to dig her body out of the grave and put her into the house. When that wasn’t enough, he began taking care of her as if she were still alive. ..
Norman’s efforts to keep his mother alive were so intense that he himself became her. In other words, he housed two personalities in his head – himself and his mother. At any given time, he could be in one of three states: Norman only, mother only, or both at the same time.
When he felt attracted to Marion, the mother half of his brain was activated, and she killed her. After she did her job, the Norman half of his mind was awakened. And, he did his best as a son to cover up the crimes of his mother. ..
What does the ending mean?
Norman Bates had killed two more women in the past, in a very similar manner.
Norman killed Arbogast because he was unable to kill his mother.
Norman’s decision to spare Sam shows that he no longer holds a grudge against the man.
In the last scene, Norman is seen reprimanding himself in his head as his mother. Based on the events we can see, Norman was a victim of a dangerous medical condition. If it had gone further, the mother would’ve killed him too.
In the early 1960s, American Psycho was written by Bret Easton Ellis and based on the real-life murders of Ed Gein and his wife, Mary. The novel is about a man who becomes obsessed with killing people and has a dark obsession with the character, Norman Bates, who is inspired by American Psycho’s real-life murderer.
