The Maternal Gaze and Fractured Subjectivity in Hitchcock's Psycho : A Lacanian Reading of Space, Voice, and the Return of the Repressed

Abstract

This article examines Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho (1960) through a Lacanian psychoanalytic framework, analyzing how the film's spatial organization, vocal dynamics, and visual strategies construct a fractured subjectivity that challenges traditional narrative cinema. By examining the interplay between the maternal voice, architectural spaces, and the voyeuristic gaze, this study demonstrates how Hitchcock's masterpiece functions as a cinematic exploration of the unconscious, where the repressed maternal figure returns to disrupt both Norman Bates's psyche and the spectator's comfortable position. The analysis reveals how the film's famous house/motel dichotomy serves as a spatial metaphor for the conscious/unconscious divide, while the omnipresent maternal voice operates as both Lacanian superego and the "Name-of-the-Father," ultimately destabilizing conventional gender roles and spectatorial identification.