Norman Bates is the name of a character in the seminal Alfred Hitchcock horror movie Psycho (1960) which was based on an equally influential novel by author Robert Bloch. The character was based on real-life serial killer Ed Gein. Played by Anthony Perkins in the film. His delusions and violence seem to have become the basis for the myth of the modern serial killer.

Bates suffered emotional (and possibly sexual) abuse at the hands of his mother, who preached to him that women and sex were evil. The two of them lived alone together in a very unhealthy state of emotional dependance after the death of Bates' father. When Bates was a teenager, his mother took a lover, making him insanely jealous. He murdered them both with strychnine and preserved his mother's corpse. Bates developed multiple personality disorder and assumed his mother's personality, repressing her death as a way to escape the guilt of murdering her. While as his mother, Bates dressed up in a wig and his mother's clothing and spoke to himself in her voice. As his mother had in life, Bates' "mother" personality dominated him, forbidding him to make any friends and killing anyone who interfered with their relationship, especially attractive young women. As Norman, he was horrified to find yet another body but seemed undisturbed about disposing of the corpse. After one such murder, he was arrested and sent to an institution, totally becoming his mother.

Norman was released 22 years later, but the "mother" personality eventually resurfaced and he started murdering people again. After another institutionalization, he married, had a child and finally overcame his mother's psychological hold on him.

External link

• Horror Asylum: Norman Bates