The history of cinema can be split into two categories: cinema preceding Psycho, and cinema following Psycho. With Psycho, the traditional form of story-telling in film was shattered and remade all while the film incidentally foreshadowed the shattering and remaking of traditional life in the West that would follow in the 1960s and later.

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Never before had a horror film actually attempted to rationalize the evil of its villain, but Psycho dedicated an entire scene to the purpose of dissecting the mind of Norman Bates in order to make sense of the violence; soon would the general public demand an explanation of the senseless violence that would arise in the 60s.

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Hitchcock took many risks in making Psycho related to censorship of cinema by the MPAA.  However, his broaching taboo aspects of film helped to pave the way to the cultural and sexual revolutions of the 1960s.