Disturbingly, Donald Trump’s rise to the presidency suggests a sociopathy in America, making the film (and novel) American Psycho even more relevant today.
As I’ve said elsewhere (see my horror film list), to my mind, American Psycho (2000, Mary Harron) is not just an important horror film but also one of the most radical political films to ever come out of Hollywood. In short, simply put, I contend this because the film not only reveals why Patrick Bateman is an American psycho, but, in this revelation, the film also subversively reveals why America in general is also psychopathic!
Consumerism Robs Us of Our “Inside”
To better unpack this idea, I want to come around to it via the election of Donald Trump to the presidency. Coincidentally, Donald Trump is actually in the novel; indeed, Trump is revered by Patrick Bateman, adulated by Patrick because he is an embodied signifier of Patrick’s commodity (brand name) worship (though to be sure Patrick’s consumption goes well beyond elite brand name consumption, e.g., he is also fixated on The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, porn, pop music, pop culture in general…), and because Trump represents the ultra wealthy, gluttonous and avaricious excess, and the fetishized consumerism so on display in the 1980s. Though Trump isn’t in the film, the hedonist consumerism that only the wealthy can so wholly partake in is, the deeper implication being that as we become more informed by consumerism, we become in the words of Marxist scholar Fredric Jameson, “depthless” consumers, which Patrick (the film) potently gets at when Patrick says of President Ronald Reagan (and, implicitly, generalizing America), “but inside doesn’t matter,” a line that informs his own being, a realization of how consumerism has literally robbed him of his humanity he so identifies and embodies consumerist discourses, objects, pop characters, slogans, and so on.
“I am simply not there.”
“No Inside”: A Consumerist Identity
That is, he literally transmits and embodies consumerist messaging to the point of taking on a consumerist identity formation. In other words, Patrick is an amalgamation of internalized consumerist messaging, lacking any of the historical, cultural, societal, familial, spiritual (empathetic) “inside” that makes us moral, ethical, and empathetic human beings.
Transmitting consumerist messaging (e.g., Leatherface)
Patrick Bateman and Ronald Reagan, Mirror Images of Each Other
In the ending moment with Ronald Reagan in particular, Harron positions Patrick in a mirroring effect (he is directly opposite the TV screen with Ronald Reagan on it) punctuating this idea that these two figures are indeed mirror images of each other, suggesting that it isn’t just Patrick who has “no inside,” the deeper implication of which is that it also isn’t just Patrick who is an American psycho.
Patrick Bateman and Ronald Reagan mirror each other
Patrick Bateman=Donald Trump
The transgressiveness of this reading gets us back to the election of Donald Trump, a kind of present day Patrick Bateman. Indeed, if this novel/film were written/directed today, the key doppelganger for Patrick would not be Ronald Reagan but instead would be Trump, especially considering, again, that Trump was one of Patrick’s heroes in the novel, a telling statement by Ellis in itself, made more telling even now as Trump morphs into more than just a wealthy, successful, hedonist Playboy elite who Patrick wants to emulate. In his rise to prominence and power – in his ascendency to billionaire business tycoon, “star” icon, and president – we have a man who embodies all of the sociopathy of Patrick Bateman. That is, Trump is at the same time the consummate ruthless capitalist, a commodified (reified) self, and a man whose rise at least partially stems from his consumption of Others, not to mention that consuming Others is part and parcel of what he does, making him not unlike Patrick, a real life allegorical figure who mirrors the madness of a hedonist and consumptive America itself.
Trump’s Consumption of Others
In terms of consuming Others, Trump already had a history of grounding under Others for gain. In his bid for the Republican nominee for president, Trump’s egregious consumption of Others – a consumption that is embodied in Patrick’s treatment of Others in the film – is even more telling. We can see this consumption in his infamous racist, misogynistic, xenophobic, nativist comments, especially as they are directed at Latinos, women, and Muslims. (In not immediately disowning the endorsements of white supremacist figures and groups, we can include African Americans into this mix; Trump leading the “birther” movement charge suggests a more outright racism on his part and see my post on The Central Park Five for another example of Trump’s racism.)
Patrick’s consumption of Others (“I have nothing in common with you.”)
Trump’s Consumption of Women
Most pointedly is Trump’s misogyny and sexual predation, perhaps the most disturbing resemblance to Patrick; though of course Trump is not a “serial killer” of women (though in my reading neither is Patrick!), both men “consume” (objectify, dehumanize) women in their own particular way. In my essay on the film, I point out how the film complexly constructs a food fetish, which then gets subversively associated with Patrick’s – and since Patrick is really an allegorical representation signifying predatory consumerism and capitalism in general, consumerism and capitalism’s – suggested cannibalism specifically linking his consumption of food to women. In this way, then, in allegorical terms, Patrick in effect is the Real or “return of the repressed” of consumerism/capitalism (ideologies that consume women) as Trump too signifies consumerism/capitalism, e.g., the Real desire of Trump is to consume (objectify, dehumanize) women.
Patrick’s (red, white, and blue) imagined kill
From the above image, the camera then tilts up to this food dish (with red, white, and blue coding), associating eating (consumption) with Patrick’s imagined murder of Christie
Trump’s Narcissism
In terms of Trump’s outlandish views on Others in generals (e.g. mass deportations, bans, etc.), though he almost certainly believes what he says, I would argue that he also uses this kind of inflammatory rhetoric for the disturbing purpose to fascistically get people to follow him in his single-minded drive for more power, prestige, and attention. Informing all of this is another distressing similarity to Patrick: Alarmingly, Trump exhibits traits that suggest a narcissistic personality disorder. Sam Vaknin asserts, “To my mind, Trump is the most perfect example I have ever come across of a malignant and, probably, psychopathic narcissist.” Among the many symptoms of Trump’s narcissistic personality disorder, Vaknin says that “Trump lacks empathy and clearly enjoys embarrassing and hurting other people gratuitously. Such antisocial misconduct makes him feel (and, in his mind, actually renders him) all-powerful and God-like (‘omnipotent’).” Moreover, Vaknin observes, “Trump confabulates a lot and has grandiose fantasies, which he has come to believe in, thus partially and intermittently losing touch with reality (delusionally ‘failing the reality test’).”
Patrick’s narcissism
Delusional Trump
Trump’s disclosure that he gets his foreign policy advice from TV shows informs this latter point (“delusionally ‘failing the reality test’”) and suggests a deeper implication, that, like Patrick, Trump too may have internalized consumerist messaging, collapsing representation and reality (or, like Patrick, outright replacing reality with a consumerist reality) and suggesting at least in part (or whole) a consumerist identity formation.
“Failing the reality test” (living an imagined, delusional reality)
Commodification of Self
This latter element may also partially explain yet another troubling similarity to Patrick: In his penchant for conspiracy theories and just in his general fabrication of events and evidential support, Trump collapses the imaginary and the real. Even more egregiously – since this element is why Trump’s consumption (reification) of Others inexplicably doesn’t matter to so many — this element intricately connects with Trump’s commodification of self for gain, via his celebrity status (especially as it is informed by his popular reality show The Apprentice) and via his name branding in general (“Trumpism,” “The Donald”) – both of which had already created a “star” worship, sycophantic following – and, in this latest phase of him vying for kingship, via his marketing of himself as the people’s “anti-establishment” champion, the latter of which includes constantly acclaiming himself, constantly expressing politically incorrect views – again, often outrageous, incendiary, scapegoating views directed at Others (Muslims, Latinos) – and, most alarmingly, via his appeals to “angry white males,” his primary constituency, a “get tough,” anti-PC approach (“I would bomb the shit out of them. I’d just bomb those suckers. I’d blow up the pipes, I’d blow up the refineries, I’d blow up every single inch—there would be nothing left”) that both appeals to many men’s hypermasculine, phallocentric, patriarchal (authoritarian) sense of self as well as a compensatory release of the emasculatory feelings of rage many of them have.
Commodifying Self
In other words, Trump has packaged himself as the ultimate commodity, to which he has then, in turn, created a “cult of personality” following, which is furthered by a mainstream (corporate) media hungry for the kind of ratings such an attention getting, spectacle persona such as Trump can garner them, no matter that this excessive media attention only feeds and furthers Trump’s megalomania, further marketing him as a media sensation, which, in turn, I would argue did indeed contribute to his bid for president, an outcome that the mainstream (corporate) media has a lot to answer for.
The Glossy Surface Versus The Real
Perhaps the most disturbing implication of the Trump phenomenon is that so many can’t see the “truth” of Trump. But then, in the similar way that people can’t see Patrick the psychopath – because he too has packaged himself as a glossy object ideal to be consumed and because people have become mindless (disengaged) consumers – people can’t see Trump the sociopath. In this way, intriguingly, also like Patrick, Trump too could be seen as both the glossy surface (“no inside”) of capitalism/consumerism and also as a kind of “return of the repressed” or Real of this sociopathic ideology. That is, Trump projects the perfect glossy surface of a capitalistic, consumerist ideal but his inability to filter his thoughts brings to surface the Real (violence) of this capitalistic/consumerism system and its consumption (“cannibalism”) of Others.
Can’t see…
Waking From Our Consumerist Fog
Finally, as I touch on above, most deflating is the fact of Trump’s ascendance, another element that mirrors Patrick’s ascendance (ascendance to serial killer, e.g., in my reading he only imagines himself a serial killer though by the end of the film I argue that he is ready to become one), made possible because of how consumerism has not only robbed Patrick of his humanity but those around him as well. In this way, we can see the film’s most transgressive message, that it isn’t just Patrick (and Trump) who are American psychos but the American populace as well. That is, as Americans also internalize a consumerist identity formation, they literally dehumanize their Self, becoming lost in a Self that is all about consuming and internalizing consumerist messaging and brand name identifications. And in the way that too many Americans make consuming their very way of being – to the detriment of “truth seeking,” critical thinking, enlightened thinking, and just paying attention to the critical issues that impact their lives — just like America created Patrick Bateman, it also created Trump, a modern day Frankenstein’s monster though this monster has the wealth and power and now the position to be a real threat to the country and to the world. The end of the film has Patrick saying that because people can’t see his psychopathy (again, blinded by their own lack of “inside”), he sees that he will not be stopped by a thinking and caring people and thus his serial killing can commence, not unlike a populace who are so lost in their own consumerist fog that they too allow their government and corporations to act like serial killers, abusing and even killing people in this country and around the world. If we don’t wake up from our consumerist fog and see Trump, see our consumerism and capitalism for what it is – e.g., like allegorical Patrick, a monstrous serial killing machine – we allow ourselves to be just as sociopathic as Patrick, and Trump.
See my essay “‘Inside Doesn’t Matter’: Consumerism’s Serial Annihilation of Women and the Self in American Psycho” for a deeper and fuller analysis of the film.