Joss Whedon sums up, well, everything, in one paragraph.

That is one wicked smart dude.

Joss Whedon: Welcome to the Dollhouse Interview - Total Sci Fi:

"[Dollhouse is a] metaphor for everybody. If it isn’t, you’re missing something. The idea is, we all have certain assumptions about who we are, based on what we were told when we were little and what we think we’re supposed to do. And we have a lot of assumptions about what is good, and what about us is not good, and what’s sinful and what’s saintly, and we’re often wrong about all of them. Dollhouse is basically about breaking all that down and exploring it and finding out what it really means to be a human being."