Film Review Project

The aspects of Alfred Hitchcock 's film Psycho will be presented in this essay expounding on the use Hitchcock made on psychological aspects of the character Norman Bates . The macabre elements of the film are made more powerful by developing psychosis and his fundamental break from reality in becoming his mother whenever anything sexual in his life appears , as is the case with the voyeuristic shower scene involving Marion

Psycho develops the psychological aspect of paranoia . Paranoia was of the self is what led Norman to dress up as his dead mother

. When Norman and Marion are speaking and are surrounded by taxidermy animals and Bates says that a boy 's best friend is his mother , this is the key Hitchcock gives to the audience in to understand the forthcoming scenes of Bates ' psychosis

Norman 's psychological defaults are a compulsory habit in created in lieu of his reality that he wants but cannot have Marion /women , as White states , As the dream can express what the character cannot normally express consciously , the aberration elements of the dream can become confused with normal life providing a character with a way of doing what he wants to do while denying that he has done it or desires to do it (15

The psychosis of the film is exhibited in taxidermy and as Bates dressing up as his mother which lead to the idea of preservation , or escape from death . The garish reality for Norman is that he is insane but because of his split in personality he is unable to recognize his own insanity , thus , Psycho is a catch-22 . The mental diss in this film are thus categorized as multiple personality , as well as fear of facing reality , for Norman hides behind

his mother 's persona instead of relying on his own traits to survive

Work Cited

White , Dennis L (Spring 1971 . The Poetics of Horror More than Meets the Eye . Cinema Journal ' Vol .10 , No . 2 . pp1-18...