Bateman Behavior

A psychopath with thoughts of murder and torture or a highly successful businessman? Impression management allows this man to hide in plain view, living a secret life no one could imagine. A terrible thought, but many use this same technique in their everyday lives. This tool is the ability to tactically represent oneself to others by manipulating his or her actions. There are several components that can be identified that the main character and others use throughout the movie. The main character has these dark and disturbing thoughts while hiding it when appropriate, with a few errors present in his behavior. In American Psycho, there are many instances in which the main character, Patrick Bateman, uses impression management in order to present
When in-face, a person is playing his character as according to plan. When he deviates from this, this is called an out-of-face moment. During situations like this, there are certain reactions that keep the process going smoothly. An observer might correct the mistake and move on with the conversation or he might ignore it and continue on. These reactions are called tact and non-observance, respectively. Non-observance is when someone ignores a deviation from the expected behavior of a situation. Tact is when a this deviation is corrected so the person who made the mistake can correct his or herself. There is an increasing frequency in which Bateman comes out-of-face. At the beginning of the movie, he visits a club and tries to buy a drink with a coupon or ticket that is no longer valid. The bartender states that he needs cash so he hands it to her. When she is turned around, he says he is going to kill her and play around in her blood. The bartender does not say anything and this could possibly be non-observance, but it is also possible that she did not hear him. At the end of the movie, Bateman goes on a killing spree throughout the city and evades the police. On the phone in his office, he confesses to his lawyer that he has killed many other people and that he needs his help. His lawyer says that Bateman should stop playing around, but he is actually being serious. Later, he comes across his lawyer when he is out to lunch with some business partners and spots his lawyer. Bateman breaks down and his lawyer tells him to pull himself together and continues about his business. Tact has just been displayed by the lawyer because he is correcting Bateman’s actions that do not belong in the setting. Bateman’s backstage character is very much different from the professional character that he attempts to give