# In American Psycho, was it all in Bateman's head? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 4, 2014, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-american-psycho-was-it-all-in-batemans-head/687609 "2014-05-04T01:37:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Bozuit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/edb3f5/32.png) [@Bozuit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bozuit)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2014, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-american-psycho-was-it-all-in-batemans-head/687609/21 "2014-05-06T22:38:36Z")
> [@Shalmanese](#): > > But I have a question for people who subscribe to the “it was all a dream” interpretation of the movie; what do you get out of the movie? What do you see the movie as? What’s interesting about it? Why does it still endure in your imagination? I don’t understand how American Psycho can have heft if it’s just inside someone’s head. If it _is_ in his head, it’s not _all_ in his head. Presumably the more mundane parts of his life are real, and perhaps the extreme parts are “inspired by real-life events” in a very loose way. ---
**Author:** ![Fuji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a9a28c/32.png) [@Fuji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fuji)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2014, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-american-psycho-was-it-all-in-batemans-head/687609/22 "2014-05-06T22:49:02Z")
> [@Bozuit](#): > > If it _is_ in his head, it’s not _all_ in his head. Presumably the more mundane parts of his life are real, and perhaps the extreme parts are “inspired by real-life events” in a very loose way. At least _some_ of it has to be. Again, I draw your attention to: FEED ME A STRAY CAT Uh, unless you’ve got a buddy who works with these machines, if you see this phrase in the display of your ATM, you’re having a psychotic episode. ---
**Author:** ![Ibn\_Warraq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e19b73/32.png) [@Ibn\_Warraq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ibn_Warraq)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2014, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-american-psycho-was-it-all-in-batemans-head/687609/23 "2014-05-07T03:00:46Z")
> [@Cardboard](#): > > Was all the violence and murder and gore in “American Psycho” real, or did it just happen in Patrick Bateman’s head? Some of the stuff seemed pretty clear to be “in his head” stuff being portrayed as real life, like when he randomly said disturbing, violent things, but what else was imagined and not real? Are you talking about the book or the movie? I think it pretty clearly was in his head in the movie. A lot of reviewers and readers of the book rather clearly thought it was real and it inspired an attempted boycott by IIRC NOW. I haven’t read the book so I can’t say if they were correct or not, though I remember a reviewer who clearly thought it was real listing one of the books errors that none of Bateman’s murders made the papers, which when I saw the movie led me to think the reviewer might have missed the point. ---
**Author:** ![Denial\_flash](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d2c977/32.png) [@Denial\_flash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Denial_flash)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2014, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-american-psycho-was-it-all-in-batemans-head/687609/24 "2014-05-07T03:18:02Z")
> [@Shalmanese](#): > > … If you take the interpretation that most or all of it is real, American Psycho is a stunning indictment of a society so depraved and venal that it can allow for a Patrick Bateman to exist and a funhouse mirror look at the 80’s America and the perverse nature of many of it’s promises. \ This. To me most, if not all of it, had to be real because otherwise there wouldn’t be much of a point to the story. I read it as a comment on society. The suspicious and blatantly obvious things that he did in front of other people _should_ have been noticed, but they weren’t --not because it was all in his head but because the people around him are either too superficial and self-absorbed to notice, or they simply don’t want to be inconvenienced. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-american-psycho-was-it-all-in-batemans-head/687609.md?page=1)