Psycho Textual analysis (Mental health)

Norman Bates from the film Psycho is a single representation of mental illness, this is because his character in the film suffers from schizophrenia. I this scene Norman has been arrested and is sitting in his cell,  thinking to himself in his mother's voice.

The voice the audience hear isn't that of a young man who Norman is but instead of a older woman, this shows the audience how its the Mother side if Norman that is currently thinking and it shows how Norman suffers from a mental illness as he isn't just him but also his Mother, which is a split personality which is a trait of someone who suffers from schizophrenia.

During the film Norman and his Mother (being the same person) are both the villain or antagonist according to Propp's character types, due to Norman being the killer who is controlled by his Mother and he eventually kills the protagonist.

In the beginning of the scene Norman is given a blanket, in which he replies "Thank you" in  a woman's voice showing his Mother side. As the scene continues the camera tracks forward towards Norman's face, eventually ending in a CU, he looks directly down the camera with a sinister smile, the smile is almost evil and scary as the Mother in him is thinking that she will not be blamed for the murders but instead Norman will also highlighting he is the villain.

The scene continues with the Mother saying that she is being watched as a fly lands on her hand, she says "She wouldn't even harm a fly", which is the Mother continuing to convince herself of her innocence and that she is not the blame and that by just sitting their she is fooling the police officers. This represents people who suffer from a mental illness as feeling no empathy or remorse for what they do, however this is true but not completely as people with mental illness' only show less empathy than a mentally stable person but just not none at all.

During the end of the scene the camera fades out from the CU of Normans face, whilst this is happening a skeleton face takes the place of Norman's face, the face is of Normans Mother's dead body, this indicated that Norman now is  Mother and that side of him has now taken over.

This is a negative representation of mental illness as it shows people with schizophrenia to be psychopathic killers as the character of Norman is a single representation of the stereotype as throughout the film he takes part in violent murders. It is also negative due to Norman being the antagonist of the film.