Exploring Norman Bates: DID, Psychodynamic Theory, and Therapy Options

This essay presents a case study of Norman Bates, the fictional character from the movie Psycho, focusing on his dissociative identity disorder (DID). The essay explores the psychological theories that explain Bates' mental illness, particularly psychodynamic theory and the diathesis-stress model. It delves into his childhood experiences of emotional abuse and the impact of his mother's controlling behavior, which contributed to the development of multiple personalities. The essay also examines the interdisciplinary biopsychosocial model. Furthermore, the essay proposes and explains potential therapeutic interventions, including psychodynamic psychotherapy, cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), and dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), considering ethical principles such as beneficence, non-maleficence, and autonomy. The essay concludes by summarizing the application of these therapies to address Bates' condition and improve his mental well-being.

Running head: ESSAY
Case study essay
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1ESSAY
Introduction- Mental health difficulties range from all the apprehensions that individuals
experience in the form of a component of their everyday life, to life-threatening long-term
conditions. Majority of individuals who report signs and symptoms of mental health problems
can usually cope with them, or learn the ability to address them, particularly if they are provided
help during the early stages of the difficulties (Zeanah, 2018). Mental health problems are
typically described or categorized, in order to enable healthcare professionals to refer to the
affected people for apposite treatment and care plan. In other words, mental difficulties refer to a
group of diseases that comprise of symptoms, which create an impact on the perceptions,
thinking, behaviour or mood of the affected person. Mental illness generally makes it
problematic for the people to cope with their work, in educational attainment and personal
relationships (Melton et al., 2017). Some of the most widely prevalent mental disorders are
bipolar affective disorder, psychotic disorder, depression, psychosis, schizophrenia, post-
traumatic stress disorder, and dissociative disorder. This assignment will elucidate a case study
of the fictional character of Norman Bates and utilise psychological theories for explaining the
mental health difficulty that the person is vulnerable to, following which an explanation will be
given for the possible therapies and treatments.
Mental disorder- Multiple personality disorder also referred to as dissociative identity
disorder (DID) refers to a mental difficulty that is predominantly characterized by the presence
of not less than two comparatively separate and distinct personality status (Brand et al., 2018).
These are concomitant with memory gaps, beyond the ordinary nature of forgetfulness, and the
personalities alternately appear in the behaviour and presentation of the affected person,
nonetheless they are variable. According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental
Disorders the signs and symptoms of DID encompass existence of two or even more unique

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personality states that are accompanied by incapability of the person to remember personal
information (Cooper, 2018). The co-occurring identities are unaware of one another, and they
often compartmentalize memories and knowledge, by this means leading to chaos in the personal
life of the patients. While the primary identity typically associated with the name of the patient
tends to be culpable, depressed, dependent and passive, the other identities are hostile,
aggressive, and more active.
Case study- The selected fictional character is that of Norman Bates, that first appeared
during the 60s in Psycho, a classic horror film. Bates was in his mid twenties and a manager of
the highway motel in California. Following a relationship of his mother with Joe Considine,
he used strychnine to murder them both, and after a brief hospitalisation, gradually developed
dissociative identity disorder (DID). He was also found to be a serial killer. The other
personality that he had was that of his death mother that took over him and performed the ghastly
killings (Roberts, 2017). DID was developed assuming that the personality of his mother
repressed his understanding and familiarity with her death, and also helped him escape the
culpability of killing her.
During his childhood he had been subjected to emotional abuse by his mother Norma,
who taught him that different aspects of sex and sexual behaviour were particularly sinning, and
that other females were promiscuous women. His mother was an extremely controlling and
domineering woman, and was obsessive about protecting Norman from any kind of harm. He
was also prevented to spend time with kids belonging to his age. The loss of his father at a young
age also made Norman feel safe and comfortable only in presence of his mother. The degree or
level of psychosocial functioning governs the functioning of an individual in contentment, daily
activities, interpersonal characteristics, wellbeing and self-direction (Gerrard, 2019). The fact

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that Norman, along with his mother, lived essentially amongst themselves, inhibited personality
development in the former. Lack of social interaction with others, obligation of personality
limits, and little or no development of aspirations, dreams or goals also acted as major risk
factors for the development of the mental illness. Therefore, while the normal personality of
Norman involved a well functioning adult, who experienced the emotions of regular life, that of
his mother Norma belittled and dominated him as during his childhood, and also prevented him
to have any life beyond the imposed restrictions.
Theories- Psychodynamic theory holds major significance in explaining the DID
developed by Norman. According to this theory human personalities act in the form of defence
mechanism and provide protection to individuals from traumatic events that occur in their lives.
The psychodynamic perspective originated from the philosophy of Sigmund Freud and places an
emphasis on a range of unconscious psychological processes such as, the fears, wishes, and
aspirations that a person is not completely aware of (Guntrip, 2018). The theory also elucidates
that childhood experiences play an important role in shaping the personality of an adult. It
contends that most of the psychological procedures occur outside the limitations of conscious
awareness, and that activities of the mind are thought to be primarily unconscious.
Maturity of mental activities like motives, feelings, and memories, are not accessible to
consciousness. The psychodynamic theory states that only experiences, together with those that
occur during the initial weeks or months of life affect a person, several decades later (Fulmer,
2018). Another key assumption of this theory is that that there does not occur any random
feeling, motive, behaviour, or thought in a person (Bornstein, Maracic & Natoli, 2018). In other
words, it focuses on cyclic determinism, which says that different mental processes are not
haphazard, rather they are governed by the pre-existing or unconscious mental complexes, such

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as, the emotional abuse suffered by Norman during his childhood, or the restrictions imposed on
him that prevented interaction with any other person, apart from his mother. Furthermore, the
perceptions inculcated by his mother about other females also governed his behavior, and made
him kill them.
DID, can also be explained by the diathesis-stress model, which elucidates mental
disorder as a consequence of interaction, between a stress that has been associated with life
experiences, and predisposition vulnerability. According to Jolicoeur-Martineau et al. (2017) if
the combination of stress and predisposition to a certain risk factor goes beyond threshold, an
individual is bound to develop a disorder. Presence of vulnerability increases the likelihood of a
person to succumb to psychopathology development, upon encountering particular stress
factors. Stress in turn is conceptualized in the form of life circumstances that disrupt balance in
the life of a person, and they occur in the form of discrete events like death in a family, or
separation of parents (Colodro-Conde et al., 2018). In this case study, stress primarily developed
during his adolescent years, when after several years of living socially isolated from others,
Norma developed a relationship with Joe Considine, which directly threatened relationship of
Norman with his mother and forced him commit the crime.
In contrast, the interdisciplinary biopsychosocial model explores the interaction between
psychology, biology, social and environmental factors. This model also highlights that the
overall health of a person is not the direct manifestation of only medical or physiological aspects,
but also refers to the sociological and psychological wellbeing (Lehman, David & Gruber, 2017).
There is non-existence of consensus regarding management of DID. However, following the
principles of the models described above, the best interventions for the character of Norman

5ESSAY
Bates would be psychodynamic therapy, cognitive behavioural therapy and dialectical behaviour
therapy.
Interventions- Psychodynamic psychotherapy emphasizes on identifying, understanding,
acknowledging, overcoming, and expressing contradictory and negative feelings, in addition to
emotions that are oppressed, by this means it enhances the affected person’s relationships and
interpersonal experiences. Considering the fact that Norman Bates has not interacted much with
his outer world, since childhood, and has always been protected by his mother, it is imperative to
develop of therapeutic alliance with him that will help him to disclose and share intimate beliefs,
thoughts, and emotions, in relation to the disorder that is being treated (Gabbard, 2017). After
establishment of the therapeutic association, psychodynamic psychotherapy will focus on
providing assistance to Norman to gain a sound understanding of how his repressed emotions
govern his decision making, serial killing behaviour and mental disorder. Not only will it help
him increase awareness of the underlying root causes of his mental difficulties, but will also
facilitate overcoming the existing problems (Cabaniss, 2016). Some of the techniques that will
be employed in the psychotherapy are dream interpretation, free association, and working
through difficult issues and painful memories. It will help Norman to analyse and resolve his
behavioural issues by supporting him to conduct a deep exploration of his previous experiences.
In other words, the major objective of the psychotherapy would be to revisit the unconscious
opinion, approach, and behaviours of Norman’s psyche, in order to lessen his psychic tension
(Martinsen et al., 2019).
Norman will also be treated using the psychosocial intervention of cognitive
behavioural therapy (CBT) that will place an emphasis on changing and challenging his distorted
beliefs, feelings, and attitudes that might have triggered development of DID. Not only will this

6ESSAY
therapy focus on enhancing his emotional regulation, it will also provide him assistance to
develop personal coping strategies, thereby facilitating overcoming the traumatic experiences of
emotional abuse that occurred during childhood. Based on the basic postulates of cognitive and
behavioural psychology, this therapy will prove effective for addressing the mental disorder of
Norman, taking into consideration the fact that it is action oriented, and focuses on problem
(Muran et al., 2018). Therefore, it will assist Norman to explore and practice strategies that will
help in decreasing the signs and symptoms of DID. The therapy will comprise of several stages
of psychological assessment, skills acquisition, reconceptualization, consolidation of dexterity
and application training, generalisation and post-treatment follow-up or assessment (Dobson &
Dobson, 2018). All the aforementioned stages will help him recognise his undesirable behaviour,
following which adaptive coping strategies, biofeedback and goal setting will be implemented, in
order to bring about a change in his maladaptive thoughts and perceptions about self and others.
The third intervention of dialectical behaviour therapy will provide assistance to Norman,
in order to enhance his cognitive and emotional regulation, by teaching him about the triggers
that might have resulted in the disorder, following which he will be provided assistance in
implementing coping skills to avoid maladaptive behaviour. The therapy is based on the
presumption that all clients are biologically predisposed to emotional dysregulation, and their
dysfunctional behaviour is validated by the social environment, as in this case study (Swales &
Heard, 2016). This therapy has the primary objective of helping all patients to consider the
therapist as their friend or ally, rather than any adversary during the treatment of psychological
issues. It will help in validating and accepting Norman’s feelings, besides informing him that are
some of them are harmful, thereby providing him the opportunity to acquire information on
better alternatives. Not only will the therapy focus on helping Norman acquire new skills, but

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will also changed his behaviour with the sole objective of helping him achieving a purposeful
and meaningful life (Toms et al., 2019). All the aforementioned interventions will be following
the ethical principle of beneficence, or working for the welfare of the client. However, while
subjecting him to the therapy, the ethical principle of non-maleficence will be followed. Efforts
will be taken to prevent any stressful circumstances that might lead to re-traumatisation, and
significantly impact his emotional and psychosocial wellbeing (Pipien, 2018). Furthermore,
Norman will be allowed to express his opinion while accepting or refusing the intended plan of
care, thus maintaining the principle of autonomy. In addition, his informed consent shall also be
taken, prior to subjecting him to any of the aforementioned interventions. This will ensure that
the client is well aware of the purpose, potential advantages and adverse impact (if any) of the
therapies (Osuji, 2018).
Conclusion- Thus, it can be concluded that mental health refers to a state of mind where
the person is able to exert control upon his moods, behaviour, thoughts, perceptions, and
feelings. The association between mental disorder and stress is multifaceted; however, it is a
widely accepted fact that stress aggravates the episodes of mental disorders. The case study
discussed in this assignment is that of the fictional character of Norman Bates, from the film
Psycho, who suffered from DID, which in turn can be accredited to his emotional abuse during
childhood and protective nature of his mother. With the aim of providing him assistance to deal
with the maladaptive behaviour, the three interventions that would prove most effective are
cognitive behavioural therapy, dialectical behaviour therapy and psychodynamic psychotherapy.

8ESSAY
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