Dark & Twisty

Psycho is one of the greatest films of all time.  Sequels and remakes have attempted to catch the original lightning in a bottle, and have fail miserably.  The movie, so masterfully created by A. Hitchcock was based on the text by Bloch.  The text and the movie are similar but there are significant differences.  The text, as is typical, proves more subtle and disturbing relying on the inner moods instead of shadows and stuffed birds.  (Hitchcock and his birds.).

The main issue in the text version of Pyscho is if Norman is aware of his own illness.  This is an important part of the story because it changes the way it makes the reader feel.  Bloch never makes it clear if Norman is aware that he is his mother.  There are hints that he understands he has a different relationship with his mother.  Norman reads a lot  of books about Freudian analysis and Oedipus complex, but he also reads things that would make his mother very angry if she knew.  This would cause a psychological phenomenon called cognitve dissonnace.  Now, this could be the reason why Norman goes on his two man killing spree.  He is doing something mother wouldn't approve of, but at the same time he is his mother.  What is brain to do?  The two parts of his psyche are in direct conflict. 

This is the obvious cause for the split when Norman becomes Mrs. Bates.  The issue is does the Norman alter know what the mother alter is doing.  Bloch never makes that clear.  This wonderful for many reasons.  In terms of writing, it gives the audience the ability to make that decision.  The story is less scary to me if Norman knows what he is doing while he is mother.  So I chose to think, he has the rare and perhaps fictional dissociative identity disorder (multiple personality disorder).  The reason why this seems scarier is that he can snap at any minute without any premeditation.  Scary stuff.  Of course not knowing, Bloch has left it up to the reader in a tiger or lady issue.  I can chose.

Bloch uses a lot of psychological issuesfor the day.  He uses it as a way of making his character ordinary and terrifying.  This is grandfather of our psychological horror in many ways.  The author helped to give birth to a new subgenre.  He did this with his use of psychopathology and not giving away much about that pathology.  It was a wonderful feat in such a small text.