Psycho

Submitted by Alan Marsden on Sun, 12/05/2019 - 08:15

I have recently watched Alfred Hitchcock’s Pyscho. Originally released in 1960, a seemingly endless number of spin-offs, sequels and series from it have sprung. The shower scene’s iconic music adds suspense to a terrific section of the film in which a brutal murder takes place without subjecting the viewer to any gore- modern film makers might take note. So famous has the scene become, that it has inspired its own film called 78/52, which premiered at the 2017 London Film Festival. It takes its title from the 78 setups and 52 cuts used for which Janet Leigh is despatched in the shower. It lasts about 45 seconds but took seven days to film. I must have been one of only a handful of world citizens not to have already seen the film, but I’ll still not give away the plot, nor the identity of the person who paid a visit to the shower.

I can see the film creating a climate in which people with psychological problems, or ‘pyschos’, became feared and reviled as agents of danger and menace. Such a label allows ‘us’ to feel safe and distinct from ‘them’. Yet I wander if there is something psychotic in each of us. Even in the film, Marion Crane, the murder victim, foolishly steals $40,000 from her employer. It might not have been a violent act, but it was stupid and harmful with long-term consequences. I also look at some of the things I have done, which have been foolish, dangerous, selfish and harmful. As a race, we create beautiful art, lavish buildings, amazing engineering and everything else. Yet the Lord Jesus taught in Mark 7:21-23: "For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed the evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, deeds of coveting and wickedness, as well as deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride and foolishness." The consequence of the Fall is that each one of us behaves in harmful, irrational and psychotic ways, killing what we love and loving that which kills..

Paul tells the Romans in 12:2: And be not conformed to this world: but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

At the resurrection, our bodies are renewed; at our conversions, our spirits. Our minds are being renewed now.