Author Robert Bloch was an important writer in the history of the horror genre. He is also somebody who contributed a great deal to multiple formats of writing—short stories, screenplays, etc. Psycho (1959) by Robert Bloch, is a mainstay of the horror genre and has spawned multiple movies and television shows.  By examining this landmark novel and its source of inspiration, writers can see the true nature of inspiration.

‘Psycho’ by Robert Bloch Summary

Psycho details the story of Norman Bates, who is a caretaker at an off-the-beaten-path motel in Fairvale. His mother dominates his life, who refuses to let the young man out of her peremptory grip. They argue about the failing motel, whose business has been recently rundown by the relocation of a nearby highway. 

After his mother murders Mary, a woman who is on the run for stealing cash from her real estate client, Norman disposes of the body. Afterward, he continues caring for the motel…and its aging matron. After the woman’s sister, Lila, Marion’s ex-boyfriend, Sam, and a private investigator, Arbogast, come looking for the now deceased woman, Norman’s mother strikes again. This time, she kills Arbogast with a razor while the former two are out investigating. 

After further inquiry by Lila and Sam, some revelations occur. First, Norman’s mother has been dead for years, and Norman spent time in a mental institution. Second, Lila finds the corpse of Ms. Bates in the fruit cellar, Norman attacks her. Horrifyingly, he is is wearing his mother’s clothes. Luckily, Sam stops Norman. The explanation given is that Norman turned into his mother after a bout of matricide in which he poisoned her and her lover out of jealous rage. Confined to a mental institution for life, Norman psychologically transforms into his mother. There, he deigns to prove that he wouldn’t dare even hurt a fly. 

How Inspiration Informs Our Novels

The Gein Inspiration

Inspiration can be a tricky thing to conjure. You may have to be in the exact right mood. Or, maybe you have to be lying in bed in the morning, or maybe you have to be taking a shower…or perhaps you are just out mowing your lawn. Regardless, inspiration will come smack you right in the head with a great idea. 

Whatever it is that works for you, works for you. 

The story of Ed Gein inspired the story behind Psycho (1959) by Robert Bloch. Gein also has a relationship with multiple personality disorder and murder. For instance, he had murdered two women and set himself about crafting a skin suit after his own mother’s heart. In this case, inspiration came from real-life scenarios. Additionally, it comes with some past stories of Bloch’s earlier works that also dealt with multiple personalities and grim situations.

As written by Galaxy Press: “In this regard, Robert Bloch’s protagonist, Norman Bates, was much like Gein. Bloch realized, ‘I’d discovered how closely the imaginary character I’d created resembled the real Ed Gein both in overt act and apparent motivation’.”

Bloch wrote Psycho over a six-year span in Weyauwega, Wisconsin. As Bloch later stated, he based Psycho on a “situation rather than any person, living or dead…” 

As Shane Nyman writes in an article for Post Crescent: “Living only about a 35-minute drive from Plainfield, the already-accomplished Bloch read about the discoveries at the Gein family farm when it hit the papers in 1957. Two years later, the world was introduced to Norman Bates.”

Bloch’s Version of the Story

And, yet, Bloch also disputes the claims of his immediate knowledge of the incident. He wrote in his 1993 memoir that he knew “very little” of Gein at the time of his writing, only realizing the connection years later when writing an essay about Gein. He soon realized that there were lots of similarities between his novel and the case. 

I think, in this way, inspiration was a sort of parallel thinking in the ether. It was the right time and place for the story to happen, and so was the Gein case. It’s horrible to think, but lots of murders occur and books are written at the same time. Some of them build traction with the public and some don’t build traction at all. It’s an Overton Window of sorts where whatever is happening in the zeitgeist propels a story to success. Yet, two sources of inspiration can happen in tandem. 

Conclusion

Regardless of how you are inspired—whether by true crime events now or later—inspiration can bring forth interests that we already have and allow them to proliferate on the page. Bloch loved true crime, such as Jack the Ripper and Lizzie Borden, so it makes sense that inspiration came to Robert Bloch for Psycho in the form of his interests. 

He was also devoted to strange fiction and tales of the macabre, which even featured his mentor’s death:

The Library of America states that: “One of the stories Bloch wrote while (H.P.) Lovecraft was alive featured Lovecraft as a character, killed by a monster. Weird Tales required Bloch to get the victim’s permission before publishing the story, and Lovecraft authorized Bloch ‘to portray, murder, annihilate, disintegrate, transfigure, metamorphose, or otherwise manhandle the undersigned in the tale entitled THE SHAMBLER FROM THE STARS’.”

In so many words, find your inspiration where your love is at, whether that be stories like Psycho by Robert Bloch about killers in the Midwest, or stories where you yourself are doing the killing.