Content Warning: This guide describes and analyzes the source text’s treatment of trauma, abuse, and mental health conditions. The novel contains stigmatizing depictions of cross-dressing and an individual with a mental health condition, which relies on outdated and offensive tropes that connect mental health conditions with violence.

Norman Bates is the proprietor of the Bates Motel, a secluded lodging situated off the main highway somewhere on the outskirts of the fictional town of Fairvale. He is a quiet and unassuming individual, awkward, though polite. While Hitchcock's portrayal of Norman, played by Anthony Perkins, dominates the image of this character in popular culture, Bloch’s Norman is very different: plump, middle-aged, and bespectacled. Norman has deep-seated mental health problems stemming from his complex relationship with his oppressive mother, Norma Bates. Much of the novel concerns itself with Psychoanalyzing Norman Bates in an attempt to explain or understand his violent behavior and delusions. However, it is important to note that Bloch’s psychanalysis does not align with modern standards or understandings of mental health. Modern psychological study disproves the connection Bloch suggests between violent behavior and mental health conditions, however; people with mental health conditions much more often experience violent crime than they commit it.