Much of the criticism on Ellis’s American Psycho regards it as the manifestation of white male anxiety against racial and sexual minorities: Its misogynic violence reflects a resentful sentiment of “pomophobia” against Others (Storey 57), in which a sense of victimization creates “a paranoid crisis [... ] against equality and diversification” (Schoene 380). Contrary to the general understanding of American Psycho as a sympathetic response to white male crisis in contemporary American society, I will show that the text aims to criticize the crisis theory. Its critical impulse culminates in questioning the category of white male. It is an ideological space that any white male, regardless of his classial status or social privilege, can appropriate by calling himself a social victim. As white male identity becomes a kind of “empty signifier” detached from specific inequalities, white maleness in the novel turns into an identity constructed entirely by negativity: It is articulated only through the negative definition of white males as “non-Others.” Examining its treatment of white male identity as fiction, I will argue that American Psycho is less an ideological reproduction of white male crisis than an attempt to satirize it. The need for Others in articulating white male identity is implicated at the very beginning of the novel. In a taxi with Bateman, Price describes the privileged status of white male yuppies as such: “‘[S]ociety cannot afford to lose me. I’m an asset.’ Price calms down, continues to stare out the cab’s dirty window, probably at the word FEAR sprayed in red graffiti” (3). Price’s self-proclaimed confidence as a social “asset” is quickly offset by “fear,” which is based on his belief that America is hopelessly contaminated by racial/sexual/classial Others. It has deteriorated into “a sty” of “trash, garbage, disease” teeming with “beggars,” “dyke,” and “transvestites” (4–5), and the only protection given to him is a fragile “dirty window.” Most of these Others are depicted to have bodies either damaged or abnormal. African Americans are “strangled,” homosexuals are “dropping like flies” with AIDS, and women such as “surrogate mothers” embody an artificial (thus abnormal) combination of female bodies with technology (4). The damaged bodies of Others symbolize a source of

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白人男性危机及其不满：重温埃利斯的美国心理

对埃利斯的《美国心理》的大部分批评都认为它是白人男性对种族和性少数群体的焦虑的表现：其厌恶女性的暴力反映了一种对他人的“恐惧症”（第 57 层）的怨恨情绪，其中一种受害感创造了“一种偏执的危机 [... ] 反对平等和多样化”（Schoene 380）。与将美国精神病人普遍理解为当代美国社会对白人男性危机的同情反应相反，我将表明该文本旨在批评危机理论。它的批判冲动最终以质疑白人男性的类别而告终。这是一个意识形态空间，任何白人男性，无论其阶级地位或社会特权如何，都可以通过称自己为社会受害者来占有。随着白人男性身份成为一种脱离特定不平等的“空性能指”，小说中的白人男性身份变成了一种完全由否定性构建的身份：只有通过将白人男性定义为“非他者”的否定性定义才能表达出来。审查其将白人男性身份视为小说的处理方式，我将争辩说，《美国精神病人》与其说是对白人男性危机的意识形态再现，不如说是对其进行讽刺的尝试。小说一开始就暗示需要其他人来表达白人男性身份。在与贝特曼的出租车上，普莱斯描述了白人男性雅皮士的特权地位：“'[S] 社会不能失去我。我是资产。普莱斯冷静下来，继续盯着驾驶室脏兮兮的车窗外，可能是看到了红色涂鸦中喷出的“恐惧”一词”（3）。普莱斯自称为社会“资产”的信心很快被“恐惧”所抵消，这是基于他相信美国无可救药地被种族/性/阶级他人污染的信念。它已经恶化为“垃圾、垃圾、疾病”的“猪圈”，到处都是“乞丐”、“堤坝”和“易装癖者”（4-5），给他的唯一保护是脆弱的“肮脏的窗户”。 ” 这些其他人中的大多数被描绘成身体受损或异常。非裔美国人被“勒死”，同性恋者因艾滋病而“像苍蝇一样坠落”，“代孕妈妈”等女性体现了女性身体与技术的人工（因此异常）结合 (4)。他人受损的身体象征着源头 ”这是基于他的信念，即美国已无可救药地受到种族/性/阶级他人的污染。它已经恶化为“垃圾、垃圾、疾病”的“猪圈”，到处都是“乞丐”、“堤坝”和“易装癖者”（4-5），给他的唯一保护是脆弱的“肮脏的窗户”。 ” 这些其他人中的大多数被描绘成身体受损或异常。非裔美国人被“勒死”，同性恋者因艾滋病而“像苍蝇一样坠落”，“代孕妈妈”等女性体现了女性身体与技术的人工（因此异常）结合 (4)。他人受损的身体象征着源头 ”这是基于他的信念，即美国已无可救药地受到种族/性/阶级他人的污染。它已经恶化为“垃圾、垃圾、疾病”的“猪圈”，到处都是“乞丐”、“堤坝”和“易装癖者”（4-5），给他的唯一保护是脆弱的“肮脏的窗户”。 ” 这些其他人中的大多数被描绘成身体受损或异常。非裔美国人被“勒死”，同性恋者因艾滋病而“像苍蝇一样坠落”，“代孕妈妈”等女性体现了女性身体与技术的人工（因此异常）结合 (4)。他人受损的身体象征着源头 “这些其他人中的大多数被描绘成身体受损或异常。非裔美国人被“勒死”，同性恋者因艾滋病而“像苍蝇一样坠落”，“代孕妈妈”等女性体现了女性身体与技术的人工（因此异常）结合 (4)。他人受损的身体象征着源头 “这些其他人中的大多数被描绘成身体受损或异常。非裔美国人被“勒死”，同性恋者因艾滋病而“像苍蝇一样坠落”，“代孕妈妈”等女性体现了女性身体与技术的人工（因此异常）结合 (4)。他人受损的身体象征着源头