The film studies the duality of human nature and discusses the depravity and immorality of the 1950s. Feminist film critics often claim that it is about a “prototype of extremely violent attacks against women”. Psycho focuses on the all-consuming nature of Norma Bates and her influence on her son as an individual and a lover. It can be argued that Norman would not be the criminal he is without his mother's methods of control. Through Norman's impersonations, "go tell her she won't appease her horrible appetite with my food...or my son" allows us, as the audience, to form a judgment on Mrs. Bates' character. Through the repetition of “my,” we can observe her possessive nature and verbal abuse towards Norman. Although Norman killed her ten years ago, Norma Bates has a huge impact on his life. Although the mother is not present in the film, the symbolic role of the "absent" mother is more powerful, as she continually reminds us of the maternal domination of the adult's infantile unconscious. In Psycho, Hitchcock crosses the fine line between neurosis and psychosis to reveal the total domination of the protagonist by the hallucinatory illusions of the “Oedipal world ».