Psycho

Content Warning: This guide describes and analyzes the source text’s treatment of trauma, abuse, and mental health. The novel contains stigmatizing depictions of cross-dressing and an individual with a mental health condition, which relies on outdated and offensive tropes that connect mental health with violence.

Psycho’s cultural impact has a strong link to Alfred Hitchcock’s 1960 adaptation, a film that shocked contemporary audiences and remains a classic of horror cinema and an example of Hitchcock’s use of suspense. The scene of Mary Crane’s (Marion Crane in the film) murder in the shower, set to a frenetic string soundtrack written by composer Bernard Herrmann, is one of the most iconic and parodied scenes in film history. Actor Janet Leigh reportedly could not take showers for years after filming this scene, fearful that an intruder would try to make life imitate art. Norman Bates, the titular “psycho,” a cross-dressing serial killer, is the poster child of psychological horror, drawing on and contributing to a negative cultural perception of cross-dressing and mental health conditions. Hitchcock, who often used literature as source material for his films, along with Universal Studios, seized adaptation rights for Bloch’s novel almost immediately after its publication. All the twists for which Hitchcock received praise in his film derive from the novel—a testament to the power of Bloch’s plotting.

For his part, Bloch, who considered himself a disciple of famed weird fiction writer, H.P. Lovecraft, found partial inspiration in the case of real-life serial killer Ed Gein. Gein was arrested two years before Psycho’s publishing in West Plainfield, Wisconsin, less than 50 miles from Bloch’s residence. He was convicted of two murders, along with grave-robbing and mutilating multiple corpses; he was also a suspect in seven more murders. Many parallels exist between Gein and Norman Bates, including a domineering mother, misogynistic views of women, grave robbing, and social isolation. Gein infamously turned his victims’ bodies into various objects, such as lampshades and clothes, evocative of Norman’s taxidermy hobby. In addition, Gein allegedly wanted to make a suit of women's skin, which is analogous to Norman donning his mother's clothes to “become” her. Gein’s crimes left a deep cultural impact on the United States, feeding into a nascent fascination with serial killers and inspiring many other horror villains after Norman Bates, including Jame Gumb (“Buffalo Bill”) from The Silence of the Lambs and Leatherface from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

Bloch followed Psycho with Psycho 2 (1982), a novel unrelated to the film of the same name. Universal Studios refused to adapt Bloch’s sequel and barred him from screenings of the sequels. Bloch’s final installment, Psycho House was published in 1990, four years before Bloch’s death. Chet Williamson wrote another installment in the Norman Bates saga, Robert Bloch’s Psycho: Sanitarium, published in 2016. The unrelated film series continued through Psycho IV, though none approached the critical reception of Hitchcock’s original. Gus Van Sant directed a shot-for-shot remake of the original, released in 1998, which was a complete commercial failure. Finally, a television series, Bates Motel (2013-2017), ran for five seasons to positive critical acclaim.