I didn't see PSYCHO in its first release. I was ten, and my parents would not have allowed it, though, honestly, I don't even remember that we were all that aware of it then.
My first time was a re-release some three years later, and like BK, I had acquired the tie-in paperback and read it prior to that. So I knew the basic gist of things. But that hadn't prepared me for the genius of Alfred Hitchcock, because I was excited but unnerved throughout. I was fine through the murders and all, but I daresay the Mrs. Bates moment kept me awake for the next three nights. Loved it in spite of that, of course, and it's been a very special movie to me since.
EDIT: This was of interest to me, so I checked the release dates to see what was going on in my family's lives at that time. It looks like the wide release was in September 1960. We were still living in Columbus but we had just recently decided to move to Florida, which happened at the end of that month. So that explains to my satisfaction why such a well publicized film would have gone more or less unnoticed by us. Or at least by my parents, who wouldn't have had much of an interest in that kind of thriller anyway.
