There are no more barriers to cross. All I have in common with the uncontrollable and the insane, the vicious and the evil, all the mayhem I have caused and my utter indifference toward it I have now surpassed. My pain is constant and sharp, and I do not hope for a better world for anyone. In fact, I want my pain to be inflicted on others. I want no-one to escape. But even after admitting this, there is no catharsis, my punishment continues to elude me, and I gain no deeper knowledge of myself. No new knowledge can be extracted from my telling. This confession has meant nothing.
Confessions, generally, serve two purposes. The first, to confirm who committed the crime, and the second, to find out why. Yet when Bateman confesses, the latter objective is not achieved. He does not know why he does what he does. He knows that he is a sociopath. He knows that he is in pain, and that he likes inflicting pain on others, but his confessions give us no glimpses into his younger self, no hints at a childhood trauma. There is no explanation for what he does. He is not able to gain deeper self-knowledge and already has a great deal of self loathing. He can tell of what he did, but he cannot tell us why he did it, and he is not keeping the information to himself; he is just as lost for an explanation as the authorities are.
Bateman : Do you know what Ed Gein said about women?
Van Patten : Ed Gein? Maitre'd at Canal Bar?
Bateman : No. Serial killer, Wisconsin, in the fifties.
McDermott ; So what did Ed say?
Bateman : When I see a pretty girl walking down the street I think two things. One part of me wants to take her out and talk to her and be real nice and sweet and treat her right.
McDermott : And what did the other part think?
Bateman : What her head would look like on a platter.
This is a very illuminating conversation and it also shows the difference between the average person's frame of reference and Bateman's. Van Patten's frame of reference for people who come up in conversation is the staff at trendy clubs that they go to. Bateman's frame of reference is the Serial Killer Hall of Fame. He is surprised that others are not as familiar with Gein as he is.
His knowledge of Ed Gein is also something that might raise a red flag with profilers as many serial killers read about other serial killers, their interest being not so much academic or recreational but practical, using the crimes of others as a guideline or suggestion book for their own psychopathy. Bateman seems to like to taunt people with his knowledge of serial killers and the suggestion that he does not find them shocking, but amusing.
