American Psycho Sociological Analysis

American Psycho is a film that explores the sanity, or rather lack thereof that pertains to a business man named Patrick Bateman residing in New York. Patrick is cinematically introduced by putting his vanity on display. He is initially viewed as a man with a high emphasis and appreciation for his appearance which is often deemed to be unusual and feminine for men. While it could be thought that he has a strong sense of masculinity, it is not the case and is proven so after the film documents his planned but brutal outbursts against the homeless, animals, associates and women. Fueled by abstract and violent narcissism, Patrick is clearly a blatant psychopath. That in itself is the conflict, the separation of self which is an inherent separation

While all sociological terms are often applied to various subjective situations, these terms are consistently applicable and present universally throughout all societies. Ethnocentrism is a somewhat hypocritical process of analyzing another culture. It is considered to be a fraudulent observation due to the fact that ethnocentrism is based off of judging a foreign culture by the standards of ones own culture. Cultural relativism on the other hand, is a principle in correlation to the observation of ideals pertaining to a culture. In this film, many characters are ethnocentric, however one is a prime example. Patrick embodies ethnocentrism and this is made clear during a scene where he interacts with a homeless man before he kills him. The way Patrick speaks with the homeless man displays his ethnocentrism by how he compares his status to the man, tells him to get a job and harshly speaks of his stature. Patrick, a man with privilege, cannot even begin to fathom the hardships and adversity the homeless man has faced and simply sees him as a burden to society. This is an example of ethnocentrism because Patrick is applying the standards of a privileged life to an unprivileged one. An example of cultural relativism would be the sex workers. They are cultural relativists because while they deem certain things to be moral from their cultural standpoint, others view their acts as immoral. Since morals are not always universal and are often interpretable to different societies, the sex workers seem to have a solid grasp on their morals and societies