Psycho

PSYCHO By Robin Wood, Professor of film studies at York University,Canada . . . . . . . . function Is smother'd in surmise, and nothing is But what is not. - Macbeth But if you look at the matter from a theoretical point of view and ignore this question of degree you can very well say that we are all ill, i.e. neurotic; for the conditions required for symptom-formation are demonstrable also in normal persons. - Freud, Introductory Lectures on …

…was doing when he made the film. This, needless to say, must not affect one's estimate of the film itself. For the maker of Psycho to regard it as a "fun" picture can be taken as his means of preserving his sanity; for the critic to do so-and to give it his approval on these grounds-is quite unpardonable. Hitchcock (again, if his interviews are to be trusted) is a much greater artist than he knows.