“
Why do all men seem to think they need to rescue a woman? Are we not capable of rescuing our damn selves? Why do I need to be rescued? I don’t need a man to rescue me, and I certainly don’t need no wallbanging, Purina-fucking, listening-at-my-wall-like-a-goddamn-psycho coming over here to rescue me! You got that, mister?
”
”
Alice Clayton (Wallbanger (Cocktail, #1))
“
Yeah, well, to hear you talk, most men should come with warning labels. (She lifted her hands up to frame her next statement.) Attention, please, Psycho Alert. Me, he-man, am prone to nasty mood swings, lengthy pouts, and possess the ability to tell a woman the truth about her weight without warning. (Selena)
”
”
Sherrilyn Kenyon (Fantasy Lover (Hunter Legends, #1))
“
Rationally, it didn’t matter, and I was a bad bitch who didn’t need a man. Irrationally, I was a woman who just wanted to get railed and told I was pretty.
”
”
Jasmine Mas (Psycho Fae (Cruel Shifterverse, #2))
“
I honestly think you’re the most insane and infuriating woman I’ve ever met. I knew from the moment you gave me a tour of my own goddamn apartment that you were a special brand of psycho.
”
”
Whitney G. (Turbulence (Turbulence, #1))
“
My epiphany has been that none of you deserve me. You can look. You can fantasize. Like I've had to. Try to bring home a woman, and I'll make farting noises while wearing a dolphin costume and acting like I'm humping each of you. See how long you can hold an erection then.
”
”
Kristy Cunning (Four Psychos (The Dark Side, #1))
“
I want to watch it again tonight even though I know I won't have enough time to masturbate over the scene where the woman is getting drilled to death by a power drill since I have a date with Courtney at seven-thirty at Cafe Luxembourg.
”
”
Bret Easton Ellis (American Psycho)
“
Being a fiction writer is really like being an actor, because if you're going to write convincingly it has to sound right and play right. The only way that works is to emotionally and technically act out and see the scene you're in.
There's no better job in the world, because when I sit down at that computer I'm the world's best forensics expert, if that's what I'm writing about that day. Or I'm some crazed psycho running down a dark alley.
Or I'm a gorgeous woman looking to find a man that night. Whatever! But I'm all of those things, every day. How can you beat that?
”
”
Ridley Pearson
“
Then she did see it there - just a face, peering through the curtains, hanging in midair like a mask. A head-scarf concealed the hair and the glassy eyes stared inhumanly, but it wasn’t a mask, it couldn’t be. The skin had been powdered dead-white and two hectic spots of rouge centered on the cheekbones. It wasn’t a mask. It was the face of a crazy old woman. Mary started to scream, and then the curtains parted further and a hand appeared, holding a butcher’s knife. It was the knife that, a moment later, cut off her scream.
And her head.
”
”
Robert Bloch (Psycho (Psycho, #1))
“
Psycho? The woman's senile. We had to stop at about thirty gas stations on the way over here. Finally I got tired of getting out of the car and showing her which was the Men's and which was the Women's, so I let her pick them herself. I worked out a system. The law of averages. I laid money on her and she came out about fifty-fifty.
”
”
John Kennedy Toole (A Confederacy of Dunces)
“
The point is, we can’t enjoy a woman, unless we enjoy her together. It’s part of the bond. None of us have ever had a woman on our own.” “So if you were a boy band, you’d be One Erection,” I state, rambling because they have me nervous.
”
”
Kristy Cunning (Four Psychos (The Dark Side, #1))
“
Je suis ce que je suis.” – Death
“Is that a spell?” – Nick
“It’s French, Nick. Means ‘I am what I am.’ Sheez, kid. Get educated. Read a book. I promise you it’s not painful.” – Death
“I would definitely argue that. Have you seen my summer reading list? It’s nothing but girl books about them getting body parts and girl things I don’t want to discuss in class with my female English teacher. Maybe in the boys’ locker room and maybe with a coach, but not with a woman teacher in front of other girls who already won’t go out with me. Or worse, they’re about how bad all of us men reek and how we need to be taken out and shot ‘cause we’re an affront to all social and natural orders. Again – thanks, Teach. Give the girls even more reason to kick us down when we talk to one. Not like it’s not hard enough to get up the nerve to ask one out. Can you say inappropriate content? And then they tell me my manga’s bad. Riiight…Is it too much to ask that we have one book, just one, on the required reading list that says, ‘Hey, girls. Guys are fun and we’re okay. Really. We’re not all mean psycho-killing, bloodsucking animals. Most of us are pretty darn decent, and if you’ll just give us a chance, you’ll find out we’re not so bad.’” – Nick
”
”
Sherrilyn Kenyon (Invincible (Chronicles of Nick, #2))
“
Lila closed her mouth, but the scream continued. It was the insane scream of an hysterical woman, and it came from the throat of Norman Bates.
”
”
Robert Bloch (Psycho (Psycho, #1))
“
While walking back to the highway I stop, choke back a sob, my throat tightens. "I just want to..." Facing the skyline, through all the baby talk, I murmur, "keep the game going." As I stand, frozen in position, an old woman emerges behind a Threepenny Opera poster at a deserted bus stop and she's homeless and begging, hobbling over, her face covered with sores that look like bugs, holding out a shaking red hand. "Oh will you please go away?" I sigh. She tells me to get a haircut.
”
”
Bret Easton Ellis (American Psycho)
“
If Los Angeles is a woman reclining billboard model and the San Fernando Valley is her teenybopper sister, then New York is their cousin. Her hair is dyed autumn red or aubergine or Egyptian henna, depending on her mood. Her skin is pale as frost and she wears beautiful Jil Sander suits and Prada pumps on which she walks faster than a speeding taxi (when it is caught in rush hour, that is). Her lips are some unlikely shade of copper or violet, courtesy of her local MAC drag queen makeup consultant. She is always carrying bags of clothes, bouquets of roses, take-out Chinese containers, or bagels. Museum tags fill her pockets and purses, along with perfume samples and invitations to art gallery openings. When she is walking to work, to ward off bums or psychos, her face resembles the Statue of Liberty, but at home in her candlelit, dove-colored apartment, the stony look fades away and she smiles like the sterling roses she has brought for herself to make up for the fact that she is single and her feet are sore.
”
”
Francesca Lia Block (I Was a Teenage Fairy)
“
You are a petty, selfish, manipulative, disciplined psycho bitch—’
‘You are a man,’ I say. ‘You are an average, lazy, boring, cowardly, woman-fearing man.”.
”
”
Gillian Flynn (Gone Girl)
“
What's the difference between a woman and a psycho? A woman you can see coming a mile away (both on the streets and in the bedroom)....a psycho....she takes her time to spread her satanical, thorned-wings of feminine injustice until HOLY FUCK WE'RE GONNA NEED A BIGGER BOAT....
.....although actually, there really is no difference, now that I think about it.
”
”
Dave Matthes
“
What a brave little psycho she was. What a reckless woman. What a fierce and sensitive warrior.
”
”
C.D. Reiss (King of Code)
“
I have two kills to plan, a boyfriend to see, and a best friend to un-piss off. And not in that order. I’m just the typical American woman. Or is it the typical American Psycho?
”
”
S.T. Abby (The Risk (Mindf*ck, #1))
“
I'm just a typical American woman.
Or is it the typical American Psycho?
”
”
S.T. Abby (The Risk (Mindf*ck, #1))
“
One day, you were a child with hopes and dreams, and the next day, you were a woman who needed her emotional support bird.
”
”
Jasmine Mas (Psycho Gods (Cruel Shifterverse #6))
“
Like a mature, independent woman, I slid to the ground and hyperventilated.
”
”
Jasmine Mas (Psycho Fae (Cruel Shifterverse, #2))
“
Jeb dragged a protesting Anita toward a rapidly approaching sheriff’s
four-wheel drive. Blood dribbled through her fingers covering a gunshot
wound on her arm. “Lady, I’ve never raised a hand to a woman in my life,
but you are sorely testing my limits.”
Chloe sympathized. If there was one thing she hated it was a
condescending psycho bitch with bad taste in sweaters.
”
”
Fiona Archer (Chloe's Double Draw (King's Bluff, Wyoming #1))
“
I rerent Body Double because I want to watch it again tonight even though I know I won’t have enough time to masturbate over the scene where the woman is getting drilled to death by a power drill since
”
”
Bret Easton Ellis (American Psycho (Vintage Contemporaries))
“
Because I questioned myself and my sanity and what I was doing wrong in this situation. Because of course I feared that I might be overreacting, overemotional, oversensitive, weak, playing victim, crying wolf, blowing things out of proportion, making things up. Because generations of women have heard that they’re irrational, melodramatic, neurotic, hysterical, hormonal, psycho, fragile, and bossy. Because girls are coached out of the womb to be nonconfrontational, solicitous, deferential, demure, nurturing, to be tuned in to others, and to shrink and shut up. Because speaking up for myself was not how I learned English. Because I’m fluent in Apology, in Question Mark, in Giggle, in Bowing Down, in Self-Sacrifice. Because slightly more than half of the population is regularly told that what happens doesn’t or that it isn’t the big deal we’re making it into. Because your mothers, sisters, and daughters are routinely second-guessed, blown off, discredited, denigrated, besmirched, belittled, patronized, mocked, shamed, gaslit, insulted, bullied, harassed, threatened, punished, propositioned, and groped, and challenged on what they say. Because when a woman challenges a man, then the facts are automatically in dispute, as is the speaker, and the speaker’s license to speak. Because as women we are told to view and value ourselves in terms of how men view and value us, which is to say, for our sexuality and agreeability. Because it was drilled in until it turned subconscious and became unbearable need: don’t make it about you; put yourself second or last; disregard your feelings but not another’s; disbelieve your perceptions whenever the opportunity presents itself; run and rerun everything by yourself before verbalizing it—put it in perspective, interrogate it: Do you sound nuts? Does this make you look bad? Are you holding his interest? Are you being considerate? Fair? Sweet? Because stifling trauma is just good manners. Because when others serially talk down to you, assume authority over you, try to talk you out of your own feelings and tell you who you are; when you’re not taken seriously or listened to in countless daily interactions—then you may learn to accept it, to expect it, to agree with the critics and the haters and the beloveds, and to sign off on it with total silence. Because they’re coming from a good place. Because everywhere from late-night TV talk shows to thought-leading periodicals to Hollywood to Silicon Valley to Wall Street to Congress and the current administration, women are drastically underrepresented or absent, missing from the popular imagination and public heart. Because although I questioned myself, I didn’t question who controls the narrative, the show, the engineering, or the fantasy, nor to whom it’s catered. Because to mention certain things, like “patriarchy,” is to be dubbed a “feminazi,” which discourages its mention, and whatever goes unmentioned gets a pass, a pass that condones what it isn’t nice to mention, lest we come off as reactionary or shrill.
”
”
Roxane Gay (Not That Bad: Dispatches from Rape Culture)
“
It will surely become one of the most talked-about books in the industry, and when it does, my name will be ruined forever. I will always be the writer who stole Athena Liu’s legacy. The psycho, jealous, racist white woman who stole the Asian girl’s work.
”
”
R.F. Kuang (Yellowface)
“
It is necessary to realize that the most sacrosanct article of sexual politics in the period, the Victorian doctrine of chivalrous protection and its familiar protestations of respect, rests upon the tacit assumption, a cleverly expeditious bit of humbug, that all women were "ladies"—namely members of that fraction of the upper classes and bourgeoisie which treated women to expressions of elaborate concern, while permitting them no legal or personal freedom. The psycho-political tacit here is a pretense that the indolence and luxury of the upper-class woman’s role in what Veblen called “vicarious consumption” was the happy lot of all women. The efficacy of this maneuver depends on dividing women by class and persuading the privileged that they live in an indulgence they scarcely deserve... To succeed, both the sexual revolution and the Woman's Movement which led it would have to unmask chivalry and expose its courtesies as subtle manipulation.
”
”
Kate Millett (Sexual Politics)
“
never wanted a woman to be mine before,” he murmurs gruffly. “Never wanted a woman to be ours. Until I met you.
”
”
Eva Ashwood (Beautiful Devils (Filthy Wicked Psychos, #2))
“
They couldn’t handle me—few could. I had the body of a large bird, mind of a lunatic, and personality of a divorced middle-aged woman with a shopping addiction. I was perfect.
”
”
Jasmine Mas (Psycho Gods (Cruel Shifterverse, #6))
“
I'm just the typical American woman. Or is it the typical American psycho?
”
”
S.T. Abby
“
I guess romance is dead, but then again, he probably doesn't know how to seduce a woman the old-fashioned way.
”
”
Steph Macca (Wickedly Sweet (Wickedly Psychos Collection, #1))
“
my epiphany has been that none of you deserve me. You can look. You can fantasize. Like I’ve had to. Try to bring home a woman, and I’ll make farting noises while wearing a dolphin costume and acting like I’m humping each of you. See how long you can hold an erection then,” I carry on, feeling a little proud of that threat as they all eye me like the psychotic girl in the room.
”
”
Kristy Cunning (Four Psychos (The Dark Side, #1))
“
I didn’t want to pry, yet I wanted to know how this frosted-blond petite woman murdered her sister and where in her body she was storing the two sandwiches she had just demolished. She couldn’t have weighed more than one hundred pounds and she was about five-foot-six. This woman/ killer was a testament to my theory that the crazier you are, the more calories you burn. That’s why psychos are always so skinny.
”
”
Chelsea Handler (Are You There, Vodka? It's Me, Chelsea)
“
He said them slowly, like he hated every word and was forcing each one between his teeth. “I’m marrying Siren.” From the bed, and the tiny frail woman in it, came a croak, barely louder than a whisper but full of fury. “Like hell you will.
”
”
Elle Thorpe (It Ends With Violence (Saint View Psychos, #3))
“
my epiphany has been that none of you deserve me. You can look. You can fantasize. Like I’ve had to. Try to bring home a woman, and I’ll make farting noises while wearing a dolphin costume and acting like I’m humping each of you. See how long you can hold an erection then,
”
”
Kristy Cunning (Four Psychos (The Dark Side, #1))
“
Many people have called me insane, a sadist, or a psycho. Each name is only a word labeling my addiction of sexual torture. The same demon pressing at me every night before I go to sleep. All of the visions of having my way with a woman and treating her like my sex puppet.
”
”
Adam Reese (Deadly Dominance (Triple D #1))
“
back in the middle ages
they burned unruly women at the stake
and out of the ashes of their bones and flesh
rose the Enlightenment and Reason fresh
and the white men declared
there's no such thing as witches
they're just crazy psycho-bitches
but we certainly can't let them run free
lock 'em up and throw away the key
yeah they said: lock 'em up and throw away the key
cause there's nothing scarier than a woman mad and/or
aware of her own magic
tragic how much violence is done
in the name of science
to ensure our silence
in Victorian times they located suffering in our uterus
in the blood in the soft internal organs
took our pain our righteous rage
they called it 'hysteria'
and then Dr. Freud ignored women's horror stories
herstories of abuse and rape and
took a justified hatred of the penis and called it
envy (he sold more books that way)
”
”
Leah Harris
“
We all know it. We're modelled from trash. Junkies, prostitutes, winos, tramps. Convicts, maybe, just so long as they aren‟t psychos. That's what we come from. We all know it, so why don't we say it? A woman like that? Come on. Yeah, right, Tommy. A bit of fun. Let's have a bit of fun pretending.
”
”
Kazuo Ishiguro (Never Let Me Go)
“
Hi, Commander. On the anniversary of what you did, I just wanted to say thank you. This is my daughter, Dalycia. I don’t know if you remember me or not, but I’m the woman you saved from that psycho, and this is the daughter I had six weeks later. Say hi, Dalycia. (Woman)
Hi, Commander. Thank you for saving my mommy and me. I drew this for you to say thank you. See, it’s you saving us, and we’re all happy ‘cause we’re alive and the bad man isn’t. (Dalycia)
(All of a sudden, he snarled in outrage and threw the frame against the wall, shattering it into a thousand pieces.)
Adron! (Livia)
What? Did you think showing me that shit would make all of this okay? Did you think I’d look at them, then cry and say how grateful I am they live while I’m trapped like this? What about the children I wanted to have, Livia? I can’t even have sex without spending a month in the hospital, or dying from it. All I want is five fucking seconds where I’m not trying to breathe through absolute agony. Five seconds where I can move and not ache to the marrow of my bones. I’m only thirty-five years old, and all I have to look forward to is a future where I’ll slowly, painfully disintegrate into an invalid who can’t even wipe his own ass. Do you really think I’m okay with being dependent on you or anyone else? I was an assassin, and now I have less mobility than a withered-up hundred-year-old man. I’m nothing but a worthless piece of shit who should have died that night. And them telling me how grateful they are doesn’t make this okay with me. It never will. (Adron)
”
”
Sherrilyn Kenyon (In Other Worlds (The League: Nemesis Rising, #3.5; Were-Hunter, #0.5; The League: Nemesis Legacy, #2))
“
My wife was crazy. I was married to a crazy woman. It's every asshole's mantra: I married a psycho bitch. But I got a small, nasty bite of gratification: I really did marry a genuine, bona fide psycho bitch. Nick, meet your wife: the world's foremost mindfucker. I was not as big an asshole as I'd thought. An asshole, yes, but not on a grandiose scale.
”
”
Gillian Flynn (Gone Girl)
“
In the last day and a half since the end of the competition, each of the kings had cornered me and begged for forgiveness while also insulting me.
They were aggressively sorry.
Emphasis on the aggressive part.
Of course, I’d done what any gracious woman would do when they faced a suffering male who was finally taking accountability for his actions.
I pretended I couldn’t hear them speaking.
The method was mostly a success.
”
”
Jasmine Mas (Psycho Devils (Cruel Shifterverse, #5))
“
The truth that frees us into health and happiness might be likened to a beautiful woman with a dozen ardent suitors. She asks, "Do you love me above all else, or are you merely seeking a new thrill?" Or, "Will you be faithful to me in spite of temptations?" Or, "Do you want me for myself, or merely to prove how persuasive you are?" The man who gives the right answers will hear the truth respond. She never fails the man who pursues her with ardent sincerity and affection. When he places her before all else, she willingly comes to him.
”
”
Vernon Howard (Psycho-Pictography: The New Way to Use the Miracle Power of Your Mind)
“
women are socially conditioned to believe that they need a man in their life pretty much as soon as they become adults, whereas men are programmed to sow their wild oats and spread their options. Unfortunately while he’s terrified of missing out, his friends all drop off the radar and settle down, and after a while he becomes the odd one out, clinging to his bachelorhood and claiming that he hasn’t met the ‘right’ woman yet and that they’re all ‘psychos’ or ‘too needy’. At some point he’ll likely have a midlife crisis and panic himself into his version of commitment to some poor woman who thinks she’s hit the jackpot.
”
”
Natalie Lue (Mr Unavailable & The Fallback Girl)
“
Come on, Ree, get a grip, I told myself. Something was going on…this was more than simply a reaction to the August humidity. I was having some kind of nervous psycho sweat attack--think Albert Brooks in Broadcast News--and I was being held captive by my perspiration in the upstairs bathroom of Marlboro Man’s grandmother’s house in the middle of his cousin’s wedding reception. I felt the waistband of my skirt stick to my skin. Oh, God…I was in trouble. Desperate, I stripped off my skirt and the stifling control-top panty hose I’d made the mistake of wearing; they peeled off my legs like a soggy banana skin. And there I stood, naked and clammy, my auburn bangs becoming more waterlogged by the minute. So this is it, I thought. This is hell.
”
”
Ree Drummond (The Pioneer Woman: Black Heels to Tractor Wheels)
“
Good women don't have bad things happen to them- in order to be raped, I need first to be made into this caricature of a bad woman. This male psycho-sexual logic looks at penetration as punishment. This is the rape that disciplines, the rape that penalizes me for the life I have presumably led. This is the rape that tames, the rape that puts me on the path of being a good wife. This is the rape whose aim is to inspire regret in me. This is the rape whose aim is to make me understand that my husband can do with my body as he pleases. This is rape as ownership. This rape contains rage against all the men who may have touched me, against all the men who touch me, against all the men who may have desired me. This nightly rape comes with a one-point agenda: she must derive no pleasure from sex. And yet, whenever he takes me against my will, he taunts me for enjoying it. In his ironclad logic: I am a whore, so I can be raped; I let myself be raped, so I am a whore.
”
”
Meena Kandasamy (When I Hit You: Or, A Portrait of the Writer as a Young Wife)
“
A sob pops in my throat. I choke it, and look around for a harmless visual distraction, but all I see is a stocky young woman with a baby, a few seats up. The baby is pulling the woman's hair, and she is faking this look of terror.
'Oh no', she says, 'How can you do that to mommy?'
She pretends to bawl, but the baby laughs and gurgles like a psycho, and pulls even harder. I'm witnessing a fresh knife being laid into a brand-new soul. A training dagger. A maternity blade. Here's his mom quietly opening up the control incision, completely innocent in her dumbness to the world.
'Oh no, you've killed Mommy, Mommy's gone!' She plays dead.
The little guy giggles for a minute, but only that long. Then he senses something's wrong. She ain't waking up. He killed her, she abandoned him, just like that, over a pull of hair. He pokes her with his finger, he gets ready to bawl. And there you have it: he takes the handle into his own tiny hands and pulls in his first blade, right up to the hilt. Just to bring her back. And sure enough, with the splash of his first tear, she wakes right up.
'Ha, ha, I'm still here! Ha, ha it's Mommy!'
Ha, ha, that's the Scheme of Things.
”
”
D.B.C. Pierre (Vernon God Little)
“
Go grab one of those little baskets over there,” I said to Connor as I pointed by the door.
“You aren’t seriously buying that much, are you?”
“Ok Mr. Black, if you must know the truth, it’s my PMS time.”
He took a step back and put his hands up, “Whoa, enough said.”
I grinned as I picked up a bag of Fritos, Cheetos, a Hersey bar(king size), a Twix bar, a small pack of chocolate donuts, 3 cans of coke, a bag of tiny twist pretzels and a jar of Nutella. Connor looked in the basket and then at me with a horrified look on his face.
“Hey, you’re the one who wanted to take me on this road trip. I’m just trying to keep the peace because without these foods for a woman at that time of the month,” I waved my hand. “Well, you don’t really want to know.”
I put the basket on the counter. The cashier overheard our conversation, she looked at Connor and said, “Trust her; we girls are two sheets short of psycho when it comes to our special little time.”
He just stood there and looked at both of us, speechless, as she rang up the food. She gave me the total, and I looked at Connor.
He looked at me in confusion, “Really? You want me to pay for this crap?”
The cashier leaned over the counter and looked him straight in the eyes, “Remember, 2 sheets short of psycho.”
He pulled out his wallet and paid as he was mumbling under his breath. He took the bag and headed out. I looked at the cashier and high fived her, “Thank you.
”
”
Sandi Lynn (Forever Black (Forever, #1))
“
Consider: Anyone can turn his hand to anything. This sounds very simple, but its psychological effects are incalculable. The fact that everyone between seventeen and thirty-five or so is liable to be (as Nim put it) “tied down to childbearing,” implies that no one is quite so thoroughly “tied down” here as women, elsewhere, are likely to be—psychologically or physically. Burden and privilege are shared out pretty equally; everybody has the same risk to run or choice to make. Therefore nobody here is quite so free as a free male anywhere else. Consider: A child has no psycho-sexual relationship to his mother and father. There is no myth of Oedipus on Winter. Consider: There is no unconsenting sex, no rape. As with most mammals other than man, coitus can be performed only by mutual invitation and consent; otherwise it is not possible. Seduction certainly is possible, but it must have to be awfully well timed. Consider: There is no division of humanity into strong and weak halves, protective/protected, dominant/submissive, owner/chattel, active/passive. In fact the whole tendency to dualism that pervades human thinking may be found to be lessened, or changed, on Winter. The following must go into my finished Directives: when you meet a Gethenian you cannot and must not do what a bisexual naturally does, which is to cast him in the role of Man or Woman, while adopting towards him a corresponding role dependent on your expectations of the patterned or possible interactions between persons of the same or the opposite sex. Our entire pattern of sociosexual interaction is nonexistent here. They cannot play the game. They do not see one another as men or women. This is almost impossible for our imagination to accept. What is the first question we ask about a newborn baby? Yet you cannot think of a Gethenian as “it.” They are not neuters. They are potentials, or integrals. Lacking the Karhidish “human pronoun” used for persons in somer, I must say “he,” for the same reasons as we used the masculine pronoun in referring to a transcendent god: it is less defined, less specific, than the neuter or the feminine. But the very use of the pronoun in my thoughts leads me continually to forget that the Karhider I am with is not a man, but a manwoman. The First Mobile, if one is sent, must be warned that unless he is very self-assured, or senile, his pride will suffer. A man wants his virility regarded, a woman wants her femininity appreciated, however indirect and subtle the indications of regard and appreciation. On Winter they will not exist. One is respected and judged only as a human being. It is an appalling experience. Back
”
”
Ursula K. Le Guin (The Left Hand of Darkness)
“
When we arrived at the wedding at Marlboro Man’s grandparents’ house, I gasped. People were absolutely everywhere: scurrying and mingling and sipping champagne and laughing on the lawn. Marlboro Man’s mother was the first person I saw. She was an elegant, statuesque vision in her brown linen dress, and she immediately greeted and welcomed me. “What a pretty suit,” she said as she gave me a warm hug. Score. Success. I felt better about life. After the ceremony, I’d meet Cousin T., Cousin H., Cousin K., Cousin D., and more aunts, uncles, and acquaintances than I ever could have counted. Each family member was more gracious and welcoming than the one before, and it didn’t take long before I felt right at home. This was going well. This was going really, really well.
It was hot, though, and humid, and suddenly my lightweight wool suit didn’t feel so lightweight anymore. I was deep in conversation with a group of ladies--smiling and laughing and making small talk--when a trickle of perspiration made its way slowly down my back. I tried to ignore it, tried to will the tiny stream of perspiration away, but one trickle soon turned into two, and two turned into four. Concerned, I casually excused myself from the conversation and disappeared into the air-conditioned house. I needed to cool off.
I found an upstairs bathroom away from the party, and under normal circumstances I would have taken time to admire its charming vintage pedestal sinks and pink hexagonal tile. But the sweat profusely dripping from all pores of my body was too distracting. Soon, I feared, my jacket would be drenched. Seeing no other option, I unbuttoned my jacket and removed it, hanging it on the hook on the back of the bathroom door as I frantically looked around the bathroom for an absorbent towel. None existed. I found the air vent on the ceiling, and stood on the toilet to allow the air-conditioning to blast cool air on my face.
Come on, Ree, get a grip, I told myself. Something was going on…this was more than simply a reaction to the August humidity. I was having some kind of nervous psycho sweat attack--think Albert Brooks in Broadcast News--and I was being held captive by my perspiration in the upstairs bathroom of Marlboro Man’s grandmother’s house in the middle of his cousin’s wedding reception. I felt the waistband of my skirt stick to my skin. Oh, God…I was in trouble. Desperate, I stripped off my skirt and the stifling control-top panty hose I’d made the mistake of wearing; they peeled off my legs like a soggy banana skin. And there I stood, naked and clammy, my auburn bangs becoming more waterlogged by the minute. So this is it, I thought. This is hell. I was in the throes of a case of diaphoresis the likes of which I’d never known. And it had to be on the night of my grand entrance into Marlboro Man’s family. Of course, it just had to be. I looked in the mirror, shaking my head as anxiety continued to seep from my pores, taking my makeup and perfumed body cream along with it.
Suddenly, I heard the knock at the bathroom door.
“Yes? Just a minute…yes?” I scrambled and grabbed my wet control tops.
“Hey, you…are you all right in there?”
God help me. It was Marlboro Man.
”
”
Ree Drummond (The Pioneer Woman: Black Heels to Tractor Wheels)
“
I wanted to devise a torture device that made Celia ride until she died. Or better yet, start my own class: Psycho Cycle. It’d be the ideal workout for today’s woman: half the class has to get away from crazed killers (spoiler alert: they die), and the rest of us come out looking like Kaia Gerber. Million-dollar idea.
”
”
Amina Akhtar (#FashionVictim)
“
Two other applicants were talking in the corner of the room. Normally Hope would’ve disregarded the distant chatter, but she had distinctly heard the phrase “Krom’s Canyon.” She swiveled her head to look at them. A fairly good-looking guy in a shirt-and-tie combination just casual enough to look much better than any truly formal clothes ever could was talking with a woman who was working her hardest to look like she was radiating a sexy librarian vibe by accident. “The way you had to work back and forth across the bridges with limited cover, taking out psychos blocking your path while the turret at the end of the canyon tried to gun you down, was just epic. It’s probably my favorite map in the entire series, even though it’s in my least favorite of the games. The writing was just so much better from two onward, though around five it started losing steam again.” Borderlands, Hope thought. They’re talking about the Borderlands games. Why can’t I be over there, talking games with them, instead of being stuck with, um, Bill Murray in Caddyshack. What was that character’s name? Carl something? Hmm. Well, I bet I know who’ll know.
”
”
Scott Meyer (Run Program)
“
Two other applicants were talking in the corner of the room. Normally Hope would’ve disregarded the distant chatter, but she had distinctly heard the phrase “Krom’s Canyon.” She swiveled her head to look at them. A fairly good-looking guy in a shirt-and-tie combination just casual enough to look much better than any truly formal clothes ever could was talking with a woman who was working her hardest to look like she was radiating a sexy librarian vibe by accident. “The way you had to work back and forth across the bridges with limited cover, taking out psychos blocking your path while the turret at the end of the canyon tried to gun you down, was just epic. It’s probably my favorite map in the entire series, even though it’s in my least favorite of the games. The writing was just so much better from two onward, though around five it started losing steam again.” Borderlands, Hope thought. They’re talking about the Borderlands games. Why can’t I be over there, talking games with them.
”
”
Scott Meyer (Run Program)
“
There is something missing now...in me...since I've come out of my coma. There is a hole in me, empty and hungry to be filled."
"Well, I am not a psychologist or a psychiatrist or any of the other psychos. In point of fact, I've been told on more than one occasion that I have a terrible bedside manner, that I am not compassionate, that I am distracted, abrupt, and condescending. So keep that in mind as I proceed, and take my advice with a grain of salt…I should also mention that I am also not a social worker, licensed or unlicensed…but what you describe is what everyone feels — everyone, all the time — according to my limited and anecdotal research. So take my advice: Forget about it. That hole is unfillable. Get on with your life. Go back to work. Get a hobby. Find a nice, achievable woman and settle down.
”
”
Charlie Kaufman (Antkind)
“
Sidetracked,” Jude butts in. “The point is, we can’t enjoy a woman, unless we enjoy her together. It’s part of the bond. None of us have ever had a woman on our own.” “So if you were a boy band, you’d be One Erection.
”
”
Kristy Cunning (Four Psychos & Three Trials (The Dark Side, #1-2))
“
You’re the most gorgeous woman beneath the sun and you don’t need no toad crown to prove it.
”
”
Caroline Peckham (Society of Psychos (Dead Men Walking, #2))
“
Niall fucked the virginity clean out of me then took me to Vegas to make an honest woman of me, once he realised what he’d done,
”
”
Caroline Peckham (Society of Psychos (Dead Men Walking, #2))
“
Niall fucked the virginity clean out of me then took me to Vegas to make an honest woman of me, once he realised what he’d done,” Brooklyn cooed and some deep, dark thing twisted in my chest as I looked between the ring on her hand and the heathen at her back. “What?” Mateo demanded angrily and I shoved myself to my feet as the anger in me began to rise once more. “You’re not making it sound all that romantic, love,” Niall corrected her. “It was more like I got myself an order from a higher purpose to claim you for my own once and for all and was powerless to resist it.
”
”
Caroline Peckham (Society of Psychos (Dead Men Walking, #2))
“
All smart women are crazy,” I once told an ex-boyfriend in a heated moment, in an attempt to depict his future options as split down the middle between easygoing dimwits and sharp women who were basically just me with different hairstyles. By “crazy,” I only meant “opinionated” and “moody” and “not always as pliant as one might hope.” I was translating my personality into language he might understand — he who used “psycho-chick” as a stand-in for “noncompliant female” and he whose idea of helpful counsel was “You’re too smart for your own good,” “my own good” presumably being some semivegetative state of acceptance which precluded uncomfortable discussions about our relationship.
Over the years, “crazy” became my own reductive shorthand for every complicated, strong-willed woman I met. “Crazy” summed up the good and the bad in me and in all of my friends. Whereas I might have started to recognize that we were no more crazy than anyone else in the world, instead I simply drew a larger and larger circle of crazy around us, lumping together anyone unafraid of confrontation, anyone who openly admitted her weaknesses, anyone who pursued agendas that might be out of step with the dominant cultural noise of the moment. “Crazy” became code for “interesting” and “courageous” and “worth knowing.” I was trying to have a sense of humor about myself and those around me, trying to make room for stubbornness and vulnerability and uncomfortable questions.
”
”
Heather Havrilesky (What If This Were Enough?: Essays)
“
We’ll talk about this later. My place as soon as you can make it.” Nodding, I let him shut my door, and I crank my car. I have two kills to plan, a boyfriend to see, and a best friend to un-piss off. And not in that order. I’m just the typical American woman. Or is it the typical American Psycho?
”
”
S.T. Abby (The Risk (Mindf*ck, #1))
“
Inazuma or Lightning Bolt is the fifth of the seven techniques. This involves a double-flying kick designed to shatter your opponent’s rib cage and spine. Keeping one’s balance when performing the movement is important, as attacking the head will result in death instead of lifelong paralyzation. “This woman was a psycho, just like all the rest,” Roy said, finally understanding why these techniques sounded so horrifically brutal.
”
”
Aaron Oster (Beast (Buryoku #10))
“
Their pointy fae ears twitched like they'd never heard a woman speak to a rat before. Uncultured pussies.
”
”
Jasmine Mas (Psycho Fae (Cruel Shifterverse, #2))
“
This woman/ killer was a testament to my theory that the crazier you are, the more calories you burn. That’s why psychos are always so skinny.
”
”
Anonymous
“
A Man Staying At Home All Day And Doing Nothing Could Be Worse Than A Psycho Woman.
”
”
Ahmed Ali Anjum
“
When she whirled to protest, he picked her up and took the stairs two at a time. The giggle as she clutched at him rang like music to his ears. “You’ll wear yourself out. It’s still two more flights.” “It’s you that needs to worry about stamina,” he growled. “It’s been more than three hundred years since I’ve had a woman.” “Thanks for the warning,” she whispered in his ear. “That means I better take care of you first so you’ve got time to recover for the main event.
”
”
Eve Langlais (A Demon and His Psycho (Welcome to Hell, #2))
“
I just want … her. In a thousand years—in a million—all I’ll ever want for the rest of my life is this psycho woman in my arms. Some people are born whole. I didn't realize that I wasn't one of them until I met her. Avalon is the other side of my fucked-up coin. The darker side to my already pitch-black moon.
”
”
Lucy Smoke (Natural Born Killers (Sick Boys, #3))
“
Is it the hormone treatment from that one night?” I blurted, proud to have remembered.
Baz busted out laughing. “They’re turning you into a woman?
”
”
Beatrix Hollow (Cute but Psycho (Verfallen Asylum, #1))
“
If I were talking to any other woman besides myself—especially someone like my little sister Heather—then I would tell her to get the fuck away from these guys, run as far and fast as she could. Stalking isn’t sexy. It’s fucked-up. And yet, when Cal holds out his glass for a refill of juice, my heart just melts for him and I know that even if he is a creepy psycho stalker, he’s my creepy psycho stalker.
”
”
C.M. Stunich (Victory at Prescott High (The Havoc Boys, #5))
“
Nodding, I let him shut my door, and I crank my car. I have two kills to plan, a boyfriend to see, and a best friend to un-piss off. And not in that order. I’m just the typical American woman. Or is it the typical American Psycho?
”
”
S.T. Abby (The Risk (Mindf*ck, #1))
“
Rationally, it didn't matter, and I was a bad bitch who didn't need a man. Irrationally, I was a woman who wanted to get railed and told I was pretty.
”
”
Jasmine Mas (Psycho Shifters (Cruel Shifterverse, #1))
“
Irrationally, I was a woman who just wanted to get railed and told I was pretty.
”
”
Jasmine Mas (Psycho Fae (Cruel Shifterverse, #2))
“
I told them I didn’t recognize the woman’s voice on that recording, but if you insist on spreading all these wild conspiracy theories, convincing the police that some psycho is out to kill me just so you have an excuse to keep the kids away from me, I’m going to get Guy involved and then I’m calling your sister.
”
”
Elle Cosimano (Finlay Donovan Knocks 'Em Dead (Finlay Donovan, #2))
“
I’m the worst thing a woman can be,” I tell him. “I’m done.
”
”
Lucy Smoke (Bloody Cruel Psycho (Sick Boys, #5))
“
There is no pure sensation of anything, not in feeling pain, not in tasting wine, and not in looking at art. All of our perceptions are contextually coded, and that contextual coding does not remain outside us in the environment but becomes a psycho-physiological reality within us
”
”
Siri Hustvedt (A Woman Looking at Men Looking at Women: Essays on Art, Sex, and the Mind)
“
I’m apparently a greedy woman, and I’m not apologizing for that.
”
”
Ames Mills (The Heart of Psychos: Part Two (Abbs Valley #7))
“
There’s never been a woman like Bridget, and there will never be another. She’s ours—mind, body, heart, and soul.
”
”
Ames Mills (The Heart of Psychos: Part Two (Abbs Valley #7))
“
Quite early the “first takes” were joined by other interpretations. The obviously obsessive character of some fascists cried out for psychoanalysis. Mussolini seemed only too ordinary, with his vain posturing, his notorious womanizing, his addiction to detailed work, his skill at short-term maneuvering, and his eventual loss of the big picture. Hitler was another matter. Were his Teppichfresser (“carpet eater”) scenes calculated bluffs or signs of madness? His secretiveness, hypochondria, narcissism, vengefulness, and megalomania were counterbalanced by a quick, retentive mind, a capacity to charm if he wanted to, and outstanding tactical cleverness. All efforts to psychoanalyze him have suffered from the inaccessibility of their subject, as well as from the unanswered question of why, if some fascist leaders were insane, their publics adored them and they functioned effectively for so long. In any event, the latest and most authoritative biographer of Hitler concludes rightly that one must dwell less on the Führer’s eccentricities than on the role the German public projected upon him and which he succeeded in filling until nearly the end.
Perhaps it is the fascist publics rather than their leaders who need psychoanalysis. Already in 1933 the dissident Freudian Wilhelm Reich concluded that the violent masculine fraternity characteristic of early fascism was the product of sexual repression. This theory is easy to undermine, however, by observing that sexual repression was probably no more severe in Germany and in Italy than in, say, Great Britain during the generation in which the fascist leaders and their followers came of age. This objection also applies to other psycho-historical explanations for fascism.
Explanations of fascism as psychotic appear in another form in films that cater to a prurient fascination with supposed fascist sexual perversion. These box-office successes make it even harder to grasp that fascist regimes functioned because great numbers of ordinary people accommodated to them in the ordinary business of daily life.
”
”
Robert O. Paxton (The Anatomy of Fascism)
“
There was a very interesting Australian study that looked at a number of women who had lumps suspicious for breast cancer, so they had to have biopsies. And they put these women through a psychological questionnaire before the results came back. And after the results came back, it turned out if a woman was emotionally isolated, that by itself did not increase the risk of that lump being cancerous. Similarly, if a woman was stressed, that by itself did not increase the risk of that lump being cancerous. But if a woman was stressed and emotionally isolated the risk of that lump being cancerous was nine times as great as the average. And the physicians and the scientists who did the study couldn't understand this because how do 0 and 0 add up to 9?
But if, for example, you were stressed right now, which means there are high levels of stress hormones in your body, cortisol and adrenaline, but a friend of you next to you said "hey, how are you feeling? Do you want to talk about it?", the stresses would go right down. But if you are emotionally isolated and you are stressed then your cortisol level will stay high for a long time and cortisol suppresses the immune system, which means that malignancies are more likely to develop.
Which means that cancer is not a disease of the individual. The development of cancer in the individual reflects a lifetime and history of relationships through family, culture and society. Which then might explain to us, for example, if you look at black Americans.. they are more likely to get prostrate cancer and more likely to die of it and not because of lack of medical care. And black women are more likely to die of breast cancer even if they have access to good medical care. Why is that? Well.. maybe there is something about being a minority in this particular culture, that it is so highly stressful, that it deranges the immune system. So is it an individual problem, again? Or is it a social problem?
So what I'm saying is that you can't separate the mind from the body and you can't separate the individual from the environment. And the only way of looking at human beings is a bio-psycho-social view, which is to say that the biology can't be separated from the psychology and that can't be separated from the social environment.
”
”
Gabor Maté
“
An old farmer said he quit tobacco for good one day when he discovered he had left his tobacco home and started to walk the two miles for it. On the way, he “saw” that he was being “used” in a humiliating way by a habit. He got mad, turned around, went back to the field, and never smoked again. Clarence Darrow, the famous attorney, said his success started the day that he “got mad” when he attempted to secure a mortgage to buy a house. Just as the transaction was about to be completed, the lender’s wife spoke up and said, “Don’t be a fool. He will never make enough money to pay it off.” Darrow himself had had serious doubts about the same thing. But something happened when he heard her remark. He became indignant, both at the woman and at himself, and determined he would be a success. A businessman friend of mine had a very similar experience. A failure at 40, he continually worried about “how things would come out,” about his own inadequacies, and whether or not he would be able to complete each business venture. Fearful and anxious, he was attempting to purchase some machinery on credit, when the seller’s wife objected. She did not believe he would ever be able to pay for the machinery. At first his hopes were dashed. But then he became indignant. Who was he to be pushed around like that? Who was he to skulk through the world, continually fearful of failure? The experience awakened “something” within him—some “new self”—and at once he saw that this woman’s remark, as well as his own opinion of himself, was an affront to this “something.” He had no money, no credit, and no way to accomplish what he wanted. But he found a way—and within three years he was more successful than he had ever dreamed of being—not in one business, but in three.
”
”
Maxwell Maltz (Psycho-Cybernetics: Updated and Expanded)
“
I’m just the typical American woman. Or is it the typical American Psycho?
”
”
S.T. Abby (The Risk (Mindf*ck, #1))
“
Owls belong to the night world" as Hitchcock pointed out; "they are watchers, and this appeals to Perkins's masochism. He knows the birds and he knows that they're watching him all the time. He can see his own guilt reflected in their knowing eyes." This explains other avian imagery: the crucial shot of Perkins knocking over a sketch of a bird when (in his "son personality") he discovers the body of Janet Leigh—the last "stuffed bird" is, aptly, a woman named Crane, who came from Phoenix (a city named for the mythic bird that returns from the dead); and why, when Perkins suggested candy, Hitchcock insisted it be candy corn, a confection that resembles the kernels pecked by chickens. (As will become clear, everything about Psycho points forward to and aesthetically necessitates Hitchcock's next feature film, The Birds.)
”
”
Donald Spoto (The Dark Side of Genius: The Life of Alfred Hitchcock)