From 2013-2017, Bates Motel was one of the most popular shows on television. The series spawned from the story of Psycho, a book trilogy started in 1959 by Robert Bloch, and adapted for the screen in 1960 by Alfred Hitchcock. Bates Motel posed as a prequel situation to the original Psycho series, but was more of a re-telling that focused on Norma and Norman Bates’ lives before the events of the first Psycho story. Played brilliantly in their roles by Vera Farmiga and Freddie Highmore, the characters’ stories had an incredible amount of traumatic layers that led to the frightful culmination that most horror fans and cinephiles are familiar with. The time period at which the original story was written, and the original movie was released, mental health wasn’t as acknowledged, studied, or focused on as it is in modern day. Bates Motel did a fantastic job exploring and unpacking these themes, even when it was hard to watch. Let’s take a look at some of the mental health areas the show focused on:
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Abuse Often Leads to Abuse
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Early in Bates Motel, it is revealed that when Norma was a child, her and her brother fell in love and relied upon one another to escape the consistent physical and verbal abuse from their parents. Not only did the Bates’ siblings’ relationship end after Norma was sexually assaulted by her brother, but early in the season, she’s again the victim of sexual assault. Throughout her life, and in the show, Norma never sought mental health help for her traumatic experiences, and they simmered to a boil in her everyday life, causing her not only to unreasonably lash out at friends and strangers alike, but also develop a verbally (and sometimes physically) abusive relationship with Norman. More often than not, without mental health help, abused children end up becoming abusers themselves, and Norman follows suit in becoming one of these statistics, as he consistently lashes out at anyone that disrupts his daily life or threatens the relationship with his mother.
It’s Ok to Not be Ok
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There are many moments throughout Bates Motel where Norma comes incredibly close to being able to talk about her traumatic experiences and her current mental health state. She even sits with a psychiatrist for a short while, seemingly close to opening up, before shutting down quickly. While Norman spends a lot of time listening to other people’s issues, she tends to ignore her own and Norman’s, because she’s embarrassed to look weak. She’s already a single mom living in a small town, and trying to run a new business, so the confirmation that she has mental health issues, takes away from her projection as a strong independent mother who has it together. There are many moments throughout the series when Emma, Dylan (Norman’s half-brother), and Romero sit with Norma and tell her that it’s ok to not be strong all the time, and that it isn’t healthy living like this, but to no avail, as Norma continued to ignore both hers and Norman’s issues for far too long.
Ignoring Issues Often Makes Them Worse
If there’s one thing the mental health issues of both Norma and Norman teach us, it’s that having similar mental issues doesn’t always mean the same outcome, but can end with drastically different (and dangerous) results. Norma has had a lifetime of pushing her traumas down and combating them in the only ways she knows how, and granted, while they do reach unforgivable levels, they never get to the extent of Norman’s issues. Norman’s trauma starts very early, and the detriment to his mind is swift and crushing. Not only do both Norma and Norman ignore the tell-tale and well-known (in this universe) signs of early serial killer tendencies, like his obsession with dead animals, habitual lying, and close intimacy with his mother, but they encourage these behaviors right up to the point to when it’s too late. It’s only when Norma feels like Norman’s mental health can’t get any worse, she’s convinced he’s a serial killer, and that he’s smothering her, that she decides he needs to be hospitalized and put on medication. Unresolved traumas don’t just go away. They continue to fester and can obliterate the state of mental health until they’re accepted, worked on, and sometimes, eventually resolved.
Having No Money Makes Things Harder
When Norma finally makes the decision that Norman needs to be hospitalized for his mental health concerns, she’s initially turned away by the only nearby facility that can help him. Not only is this a huge problem in small-town America, but Bates Motel also goes the distance to show just how unhelpful state mental hospitals and facilities can be in the rehabilitation process. Patients often don’t get the care they need, and end up coming out worse than when they went in. The only psychiatric care facility equipped to help Norman get better costs $500 a day, and it isn’t until Norma asks Romero to marry her (to get on his health insurance), are they able to afford Norman’s care. In fact, Norman’s mental health state slowly starts to improve with the use of therapy and medicine, and it isn’t until Norma starts involving herself more, that he starts to dip back in the opposite direction. The issue that this points out is very real, and it’s happening to the majority of people in America that suffer with mental health issues. Those issues are simply not seen as equal to physical issues, like a broken arm or pneumonia, so they’re listed as needing special practices and facilities, often in places that lower-middle class Americans can’t afford, which also happens to be where most trauma happens and where the most mental health help is needed.
Environment Can be a Difference Maker
There were many times throughout Bates Motel where Norma was considering leaving White Pine Bay in favor of a new start. While for part of the series, the duo simply couldn’t afford to go, there was a turning point at which they could have left the town and their issues there behind. One of the first nights Norma is in White Pine Bay, she’s sexually assaulted and kills someone in self-defense in her own home. Leaving an environment where something like that happens may not have all the answers, but it certainly is more helpful than continuing to share a living space with those traumatic experiences. Obviously, it’s not always an option to get out of those environments, but as the series went on, Norma ignored the chances to leave, even as those who truly cared about her suggested it. Eventually, as Norman started to become more and more mentally ill, his connections to the property and area grew, and the aspect of leaving became impossible for him.
