My First Revelation: A Look Into Bateman's Vulnerabilities

As I've mentioned before, although I knew almost nothing about psychopaths, before reading the novel, I was very curious about psychopaths. I had many assumptions that were based on stereotypes of psychopaths. When a friend is called a "psycho" for acting crazily in public or when someone ponders out loud about violent "what if's", then dismisses the thought as being "psycho," the idea of an apathetic psychopath who does not care about societal conventions is ingrained in my mind.

Near the beginning of this novel, during a dinner with his friends, Patrick pulls out a brand new business card that he feels proud to show off. His pride is quickly shut down when his friends pull out their business cards which are much better, and Bateman starts to feel threatened by his friends' superiority. This business card is symbolic of Bateman's first display of true vulnerability. I found this interesting, because it destroyed my initial idea of psychopaths, who are apathetic about everything. The business card was the first indicator of Bateman's emotion complex. He has the ability to feel vulnerable and inferior. This was the first significant revelation in my mind of what a psychopath is like.

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The Patty Winters Show: a reflection of Bateman's mental state

One of Patrick Bateman's most consistent references, other than his favourite brand names, is his documentation of the topic on The Patty Winters Show . While the topics seems unrelated to Bateman, it is unusual for him to be so invested in this show, considering that the topics in the beginning of the novel seem unlike for him to be engaged about. As the novel progresses, it is clear that the show represents Bateman's mental degradation. In the beginning of the novel, the topics were innocent and normal: autism, the President, etc. Then, the topics become more unusual: toddler murderers, a cheerio that sat in a small chair and was interviewed for an hour, a boy who fell in love with a bar of soap, a man who lit his daughter on fire while she was giving birth, etc. In the last third of the novel, especially, The Patty Winters Show becomes a more direct reflection of Bateman's decreased sense of reality. Near the end of the book, Bateman's perfect persona that he obse...

How Materialism Contributes to Bateman's Psychopathy (1/3)

Bret Easton Ellis' American Psycho is a story told by the psychopath himself, Patrick Bateman, about his double life as a wealthy Wall Street banker and violent serial killer. The novel gives deep insight into how a psychopath like Bateman thinks during his social interactions and his violent crimes. After having read a third of the novel, the complexity to his psychopathic nature was revealed which demonstrated to me that psychopaths are not always simply born apathetic and inherently evil, but instead can be surrounded by factors that drive them to behave this way. Since he is surrounded by an exclusive elite social circle that is driven by materialistic values, Patrick Bateman learns from his environment that the only way to maintain his status in his elite world is to be aggressive and apathetic. Their overarching materialistic values relate to their sense of dominance, status, and identity and ultimately define Bateman's motivations for his psychopathic thoughts and act...

The Portrayal of Bateman: The Book vs The Film (3/3)

After having finished reading the novel, my favourite thing about American Psycho is decidedly the unique insight into Patrick Bateman as a character where his perception, thoughts, actions, and mental state is so much more interesting than any other character I have read about. Personally, I tend to read books where the characters are relatable, familiar, and comfortable. Patrick Bateman is none of these things, which makes the whole American Psycho experience so interesting. My favourite thing about this book is the narrative consistency about such an emotionally inconsistent narrator, since there are so many consistently recurring motifs that perfectly encapsulate Bateman's character. Once I finished reading the book, I watched the movie. I was excited to see how the book could be translated into a movie and to compare that with the version that played out in my head. At last, I can conclude that, although the movie portrayed the story well, the movie simply does no justice ...

American Psycho(-analysis)

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