Can't Escape

Spoiler Alert: Do not read this blog if you have never the movie Psycho and wish for the plot to remain a surprise.
             Insanity follows me everywhere I go. Over the past few weeks my life has been filled with discussion of insanity through One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and Shutter Island. Simultaneously, I myself get closer to insanity with the data sheet and the approach of semester exams. Perhaps I have some subconscious desire to keep the insanity theme going in my life, because I decided to watch the movie Psycho on Friday night for the first time ever. Despite knowing the ending, the movie still held some terrifying twists and Anthony Perkins delivered the performance of a lifetime with his creepy, unstable, and truly sick character. Although the plots of Shutter Island and Psycho have virtually nothing in common, the main characters could not be more similar. Teddy, or Andrew, found his three children dead and then killed his wife. He could not live with the guilt and sadness of the situation so he invented an entirely new scenario with himself as the hero. Norman Bates, a young man who runs a small and lonely motel with his "mother," faced similar circumstances. He lived alone with his demanding mother for the majority of his young life. However, when his mother took a lover, he could not deal with the jealously so he killed them both. Unable to bear the truth, he recreated his life with his mother. He used her actual skeleton and dressed it up in her clothes. He would imitate her voice and have conversations with himself. And whenever Norman felt attraction to another woman, his "mother" would take control. He would dress up as his mother, grab a giant knife and slaughter the innocent female. Both characters had very serious mental problems. Both of them did something terrible that they could not live with, so they both made alternative realities to live in. The major difference involved how the characters ended up. Andrew seemed to come out of his delusions more or less. Although one could interpret the end in multiple ways, I think he seems to realize that he is a menace to society and willingly walks off to his death, or at least the death of his conscious self. Norman, on the other hand, allows the insanity to completely engulf him. The mother persona overtakes him so much that Norman "no longer exists," as the psychiatrist explains. The final image of Norman with an unbelievably creepy smile suggests that he will never again come close to sanity. Both the movies left me with unsettling feelings, but for entirely different reasons. I could not believe that I had grown to trust and believe a character that seemed so completely unstable. It really warped my perceptions and left me confused. In Psycho, the fear comes from the fact that no one can ever get through to Norman. His insanity runs far too deep to ever be saved. I feared him and found him extremely creepy, but I could not bring myself to hate him. He did horrible things, but he truly did not seem to understand because he had genuine mental problems. This movie truly made me realize that there is no easy solution when it comes to dangerous mentally ill people. How can you punish someone who does not understand why they are being punished? The only option to keep others and themselves safe seems isolation from society, but we have already seen that that leads to inhuman treatment. So what can we do?
  Norman in his final scene
  Norman's mother