I just finished American Psycho after seeing the movie a million times and I just realized I’ve missed the point entirely. It’s not a story of a murdering psychopath or a schizophrenic with delusions of mass murder. It is a story about repressed homosexuality in the 80s where homophobia and AIDS were running rampant especially in big cities. Gay sex in the 80s was actually lethal in some ways and these murders depicted are actually emotionless sex with his friends and strangers. I think he is actually in love with Louis but can’t be with him because fitting in to a homophobic world means more to him than human connection and his an affair with Courtney is his way of vicariously being with Louis. In fact Louis is the only person in the book who gets told and warned by Patrick that he will be killed if he gets closer. Patrick’s secretary also gets warned but in a more vague way. His contempt and resentment for women comes from the fact that he needs them to help hide his true self on top of being in a masculine world in where being seen as dependent on women at that time was seen as a weakness. The fact that he is very out in the open with a lot of the murders and how no one cared or believed him when he confessed just further shows that they were sexual encounters. The ones who didn’t care just didn’t care about sexual preferences but the ones who didn’t believe him couldn’t see past the beard he had made to pass as straight. He does a good job of fitting in and they can’t believe this macho man is gay so they don’t believe him. Also on a grosser note I noticed Patrick in all but one time ,could only reach orgasm in his victims mouths or anus’s but the one time he described climaxing in Courtneys vagina it was weak and barely happened make of that what you will. One final thing as I wrap up this wall of text is it just dawned on me that Patrick could be HIV positive and the murders is him knowingly passing it on which would explain his obsession with diet.
TLDR: Patrick is in the closet and the murders were sexual encounters.
Please let me know what you you think of my theory I’m ready to talk about this book
by Coolhandjones67