How we cite our quotes: All quotations are from Psycho.
Quote #4
SAM: You are alone here, aren't you? It would drive me crazy.
NORMAN: That would be a rather extreme reaction, wouldn't it?
Sam and Norman here raise a good question—what causes mental illness? The psychiatrist seems to suggest that Norman's lack of a father, and his mother's new boyfriend, perhaps pushed him over the edge into insanity. But surely a stable person wouldn't see that as a reason to murder his mother. The film makes mental illness rational; it explains it. But mental illness doesn't follow rational logic, surely. It's, by definition, an "extreme reaction." Does Hitchcock want you to accept the psychiatrist's explanation at face value? Or is it supposed to feel a bit hollow?
Quote #5
NORMAN: [voiceover as his mother] They'll put him away now, as I should have years ago. He was always bad, and in the end he intended to tell them I killed those girls and that man... as if I could do anything but just sit and stare, like one of his stuffed birds. They know I can't move a finger, and I won't. I'll just sit here and be quiet, just in case they do... suspect me. They're probably watching me. Well, let them. Let them see what kind of a person I am. I'm not even going to swat that fly. I hope they are watching... they'll see. They'll see and they'll know, and they'll say, "Why, she wouldn't even harm a fly..."
Norman, as his mother, is terrified here of being seen and watched. Earlier in the film, Norman spies on Marion—and then kills her. The real madness here could be seen as a disorder of looking, and a fear of being looked at. Madness and voyeurism go together —at least when you're at the movies watching Psycho.