Psychology

Entry updated 26 August 2024. Tagged: Theme.

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The science of the mind is sufficiently different from the physical sciences for its discoveries and hypotheses to set very different problems and offer very different opportunities to the writer of speculative fiction. Psychology still carries a considerable burden of pseudoscientific conjecture even if one sets aside its close and problematic relationship with parapsychology (seeESP;Psi Powers); a case in point may bePsychoanalysis and the Occult (anth1953) edited by George Devereux (1908-1985; later a distinguished ethnopsychiatrist), which is dedicated to the reconciliation of the Freudian death instinct andTelepathy. The absence of convenient models of the mind (whether based on physical analogy or purely mathematical) means that the mind remains much more mercurial and mysterious than the atom or the Universe, in spite of the fact that introspection appears to be a simple and safe source of data.

A great deal of fiction which attempts to explore the mysteries of mind lies on the borderline between sf andMainstream fiction, an early example of an exploratory use of psychology seen as a discipline being "The Man That Killed His Neighbors" (11 June 1847The Anti-Slavery Bugle) by Lydia Maria Child (1802-1880), whose protagonist applies what would become known as operant conditioning to control those around him; though almost certainly written in ignorance of this tale, B FSkinner'sWalden Two (1948) casts a positive light on the use of behavioural psychology as aCultural Engineering tool. Authors ofDystopias andUtopias have had frequent recourse to models of engineering, assaulting or espousing the subject from within. Early sf writers, on the other hand (seeAnti-Intellectualism in SF), tended to focus on disciplines like psychology from without (seeGothic SF;Scientific Errors), showing far more interest in the abnormal than in the normative.

Studies of both normal and abnormal psychology are in general easier to assimilate, and may be accommodated within the province of the traditional novel of character, even if their insights are derived from scientific constructs like psychoanalysis. There is a whole school of modern novelists, their work generally reckoned to be a long way removed from sf, whose self-defined task has been to capture the "stream of consciousness" – a psychological hypothesis we owe to the philosopher William James (1842-1910), not to his writer brother Henry. Studies of obsession, alienation and various forms of insanity are by no means uncommon in contemporary fiction, and even the most exaggerated – e.g., many studies of "dual personality" – seem perfectly acceptable as "realistic" novels. It is not until a notion of this kind is taken to bizarre extremes, as in Stanley GWeinbaum's dual-personality taleThe Dark Other (1950), that the story becomes unmistakably sf. Even stories replete with the jargon of supposedly scientific psychoanalysis, like Thomas BaileyAldrich'sThe Queen of Sheba (1877) and S GuyEndore's classic Freudian murder mysteryMethinks the Lady (1945), are intrinsically mundane, although Endore's study of the psychological syndrome of lycanthropy,The Werewolf of Paris (1933), is normally considered aFantasy. There is a certain irony in the fact that the subgenre of psychological speculative fiction which is most easily claimed for sf is the class of stories dealing with mesmerism andHypnosis – because these are sufficiently disreputable to be evidently fantastic! Thus a story like Edgar AllanPoe's "The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar" (December 1845American Whig Review) invites classification as sf not so much because it mimics the form of a scientific report but because the mesmerized (seeHypnosis) hero's immunity to decay is so obviously impossible. Stories of delusional neurosis or vivid hallucination which become very bizarre – e.g., Sir RonaldFraser'sThe Flower Phantoms (1926) – are more conveniently classed as visionary fantasy than as sf, because of rather than in spite of the fact that their "impossible" events are entirely subjective, even though scientific theories like Freud's psychoanalysis may have been used to generate the substance of the fantasies.

Early exercises in speculative psychology which uncontroversially belong to sf are those in which someinvention, usually aMachine or aDrug, is invoked as a literary device to exert specific control over the substance of the psyche (although it is arguable that all such devices are based on philosophical errors concerning the nature of mental phenomena). The origins of psychological sf thus lie in such stories as EdwardBellamy'sDr Heidenhoff's Process (1880), about a technology of selective amnesia (seeMemory Edit), Robert LouisStevenson'sStrange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886), about a drug which separates the principle of evil from that of good (or the id from the superego, as the Freudian reader is bound to interpret it), Richard Slee and Cornelia AtwoodPratt'sDr Berkeley's Discovery (1899), about a method of "photographing" memories, WalterBesant's "The Memory Cell" (inFor Britain's Soldiers, anth1900, ed C J CutcliffeHyne), again dealing with selective amnesia, and VincentHarper's materialist polemicThe Mortgage on the Brain (1905), about an electrical method of personality-modification (seeIdentity).

The early sfPulp magazines featured numerous devices of these and related types, and HugoGernsback's recruitment of the practising psychiatrist David HKeller did not result in any conspicuous sophistication of pulp sf's handling of psychological matters. Keller's most notable stories extrapolating psychological theory – the remarkable Freudian erotic fantasyThe Eternal Conflict (1939) and "The Abyss" (inThe Solitary Hunters and The Abyss, coll1948), which tracks events following the release of a drug which destroys inhibitions – were too risqué for pulp publication. The theme of "The Abyss" is featured also in VincentMcHugh's libidinous comedyI Am Thinking of My Darling (1943), which anticipated counterculture-inspired LSD fantasies like WilliamTenn's "Did Your Coffee Taste Funny this Morning?" (January 1967Cavalier; vt "The Lemon-Green Spaghetti-Loud Dynamite-Dribble Day" inThe Square Root of Man, coll1968) and Brian WAldiss'sBarefoot in the Head (fixup1969), rather than endorsing the view shared by Freud and Keller that repression of our more vicious urges is the necessary price we pay for society and civilization. Other notable sf stories which side with Keller in their suspicion of the unfettered id are JeromeBixby's "It's aGood Life" (inStar Science Fiction Stories 2, anth1953, ed FrederikPohl) and James KMorrow'sThe Wine of Violence (1981).

The most impressive psychological study to appear in the pulps was not in an sf magazine but inUnknown; this was L RonHubbard's classicFear (July 1940Unknown;1957), about a man who loses a slice of his life by repression and is tortured by the "demons" of guilt. Material from the story was transplanted into Hubbard's substitute psychotherapy,Dianetics, which later became part of the dogma ofScientology; dianetic theory is much in evidence in the stories collected inOle Doc Methuselah (stories October 1947-January 1950Astounding as by René Lafayette; coll of linked stories1970). It is a fairly common ploy in sf stories to useAmnesiac heroes whose memories eventually turn out to be magnificently bizarre; examples are H PLovecraft's "The Shadow Out of Time" (cut June 1936Astounding; restored inThe Outsider and Others, coll1939), L PDavies'sThe Shadow Before (1970) and KeithLaumer'sThe Infinite Cage (1972).

One of the most famous pulp sf stories, IsaacAsimov's "Nightfall" (September 1941Astounding), deals with the psychology of revelation – a subject dealt with in a less pessimistic fashion in other stories ofConceptual Breakthrough. Asimov's more significant contribution to psychological sf, however, is theImaginary Science of robopsychology, which he invented for the stories inI, Robot (1940-1950 var mags; coll1950), many of which feature robopsychologist Susan Calvin in confrontation with practical and theoretical problems arising from the Three Laws forming the basis of robotic ethics. Robopsychology remained an essential element in Asimov'sRobot stories, especially such philosophically inclined ones as "– That Thou Art Mindful of Him!" (May 1974F&SF) and "The Bicentennial Man" (inStellar #2, anth1976, ed Judy-Lynndel Rey).

Technologically assisted journeys into the hypotheticalInner Space of the human mind became increasingly common in post-World War Two sf. The hero of "Dreams are Sacred" (September 1948Astounding) by PeterPhillips has to entice a catatonic dreamer back to the real world by disrupting his fantasy world (seeDream Hacking). Other such journeys are featured in "The Mental Assassins" (May 1950Fantastic Adventures) by Gregg Conrad (RogPhillips), "City of the Tiger" (1958Science Fantasy #32) by JohnBrunner, "Descent into the Maelstrom" (April 1961Fantastic) by Daniel FGalouye, "The Girl in His Mind" (April 1963Worlds of Tomorrow) by Robert FYoung,Mindplayers (1987) by PatCadigan,The Night Mayor (1989) by KimNewman andQueen of Angels (1990) by GregBear. Several of the above-named stories extrapolate the idea of "telepathic psychiatry" with considerable intelligence; the Brunner story became the basis of the pioneering novelThe Whole Man (stories 1958, 1959Science Fantasy; fixup1964; vtTelepathist1965). Another fine novel on the same theme isThe Dream Master (1966) by RogerZelazny; dreams are taken very seriously in ConnieWillis'sLincoln's Dreams (1987).

JohnBrunner's numerous essays in psychological sf also include a notable story about a reality-distortingDrug,The Gaudy Shadows (June 1960Science Fantasy; exp1971), and a psychiatric case-study,Quicksand (1967); both belong to categories of sf story which became very abundant in the 1960s. Several other post-World War Two writers have shown a consistent interest in psychology. AlfredBester produced, among others, the quasi-Freudian vignette, "The Devil's Invention" (August 1950Astounding; vt "Oddy and Id" inThe Best Science-Fiction Stories: 1951, anth1951, ed Everett FBleiler & T EDikty), a classic novel about a psychotic murderer who eventually undergoes psychic demolition and reconstitution,The Demolished Man (January-March 1952Galaxy;1953), and a remarkable study of "psychotic projection" and confusedIdentity, "Fondly Fahrenheit" (August 1954F&SF). Most of TheodoreSturgeon's sf consists of psychological studies of loneliness, angst and alienation, often resolved by the quasi-transcendental curative power of love; a few examples selected from a great many are the bitter study of prejudice, "The World Well Lost" (June 1953Universe), the painful study of megalomania, "Mr. Costello, Hero" (December 1953Galaxy), and the classic novels of literal psychic reintegration,More Than Human (fixup1953) andThe Cosmic Rape (1958). RayBradbury has written a number of neat stories turning on the vagaries of child psychology, most notably the ironic "Zero Hour" (Fall 1947Planet Stories) and "The World the Children Made" (23 September 1950Saturday Evening Post; vt "The Veldt" inThe Illustrated Man, coll1951), although most of his work in this nostalgic vein is pure fantasy.

Very many of Philip KDick's sf stories are concerned with false worldviews of various kinds – and, indeed, with the possibility that reality is intrinsically subjective;Eye in the Sky (1957) features a series ofParallel Worlds incarnating the characters' neurotic worldviews, whileThe Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch (1965) was the first of a sequence of novels dealing with reality-warpingDrugs, which eventually culminated in the deeply embittered black comedyA Scanner Darkly (1977). Several of Dick's novels deal with schizophrenia (in the true clinical meaning rather than the vulgar sense embodied in such split-personality stories as WymanGuin's "Beyond Bedlam" [August 1951Galaxy]), includingMartian Time-Slip (August-December 1963Worlds of Tomorrow as "All We Marsmen"; exp1964) andWe Can Build You (November 1969-January 1970Amazing as "A. Lincoln, Simulacrum"; text restored1972), whileClans of the Alphane Moon (1964) features the full panoply of neuroses.Paranoia and schizophrenia are sufficiently widespread in modern sf to warrant a separate entry in this book, but mention may be made here of the paranoid fantasies in which Barry NMalzberg has specialized to great effect; different sf situations become archetypes of paranoid delusion inOverlay (1972),Beyond Apollo (1972),The Day of the Burning (1974) andThe Gamesman (1975), and even Freud cannot cope with the situations which confront him inThe Remaking of Sigmund Freud (1985). Sf situations are used in much the same way to construct exaggerated models of alienation in a number of stories by RobertSilverberg, includingThorns (1967),The Man in the Maze (1969) andDying Inside (1972). Other writers who consistently extrapolate psychological syndromes into situations, landscapes and world-designs include J GBallard, in virtually all his work, and Philip JoséFarmer, whose early short stories – including the Oedipus-complex fantasy "Mother" (April 1953Thrilling Wonder) and "Rastignac the Devil" (May 1954Fantastic Universe) – were pioneering exercises in this vein.

The use of sf to address such psychological questions as the problem ofIdentity – as in AlgisBudrys's excellentWho? (April 1955Fantastic Universe; exp1958) orSilverberg'sThe Second Trip (1972) – is often closely related to mainstream work; in this instance, to such stories as to such stories as MarcelAymé'sThe Second Face (1941; trans1951), DavidEly'sSeconds (1963) – filmed asSeconds (1966) – and KōbōAbe'sTanin no Kao (1964; trans asThe Face of Another1966). Variants on the sf/mainstream borderline include skin-colour-change fantasies (seeRace in SF), such as ChrisStratton'sChange of Mind (1969) – novelizingChange of Mind (1969) – and the filmWatermelon Man (1970); and sex-change fantasies, such asSeason of the Witch (1968) by Hank Stine (see Jean MarieStine),I Will Fear No Evil (July-December 1970Galaxy;1970) by Robert AHeinlein,The Passion of New Eve (1977) by AngelaCarter, and various JackChalker novels such asThe Identity Matrix (1982).

The processes of mind control involved in "brainwashing" – which play a key part in GeorgeOrwell'sNineteen Eighty-Four (1949) and which have become a standard element inDystopian fiction – bestride the same borderline; exemplary works includeThe Manchurian Candidate (1959) by RichardCondon,A Clockwork Orange (1962) by AnthonyBurgess andThe Mind Benders (1963) by JamesKennaway. The Condon and Burgess novels were famously filmed asTheManchurian Candidate (1962) andAClockwork Orange (1971). Control through electronic brain implants features inTheMind Snatchers (1972; vtThe Happiness Cage; vtThe Demon Within) and MichaelCrichton'sThe Terminal Man (1972), filmed asTheTerminal Man (1974). KingsleyAmis's "Something Strange" (25 November 1960Spectator; July 1961) and WilliamSleator'sYoung-AdultHouse of Stairs (1974) describe sinister experiments in behavioural conditioning; another such experiment, less plausible but more gruesome, is central to the filmDead Kids (1981; vtStrange Behavior). Sf writers have also come up with wild variants which attempt to clarify the moral and philosophical questions involved; examples includeThe Ring (1968) by PiersAnthony and Robert EMargroff andThe Barons of Behavior (1972) by TomPurdom.

Psychological themes of considerable interest where sf has a monopoly include: the augmentation ofIntelligence (which see), as featured in PoulAnderson'sBrain Wave (1954), DanielKeyes'sFlowers for Algernon (April 1959F&SF; exp1966) and Thomas MDisch'sCamp Concentration (July-October 1967New Worlds;1968); stories of contagious psychosis (seeMeme) like GregoryBenford'sDeeper than the Darkness (1970; rev vt asThe Stars in Shroud1978) and JackDann'sThe Man Who Melted (1984); and stories dealing with the recording of emotional experiences for replaying by consumers, including LeeHarding's "All My Yesterdays" (June 1963Science Fantasy) and D GCompton'sSynthajoy (1972).

The last story is a variant of the more common notion that memories, and perhaps knowledge, might be transferred from one mind to another (seeIdentity Transfer;Memory Edit;Upload), a theme featured in CurtSiodmak'sHauser's Memory (1968) and various films by him, A Evan Vogt'sFuture Glitter (1973; vtTyranopolis1977) and James EGunn'sThe Dreamers (fixup1980). Another related theme is that of recording and marketing dreams, a notion elaborately developed in IsaacAsimov's "Dreaming Is a Private Thing" (28 May 1955Saturday Review; exp December 1955F&SF), Chelsea QuinnYarbro'sHyacinths (1983), James KMorrow'sThe Continent of Lies (1984) and Diana WynneJones's "Carol Oneir's Hundredth Dream" (inDragons and Dreams, anth1986, ed JaneYolen, Martin HGreenberg and Charles GWaugh).

Despite the profligacy of sf writers in devising machines andDrugs as facilitating devices, the actual progress of experimental and physiological psychology has had very little impact on sf by comparison with the more abstract and theoretical side of the science, perhaps because of the kind of repugnance displayed in "The Psychologist Who Wouldn't Do Awful Things to Rats" (inNew Dimensions 6, anth1976, ed RobertSilverberg) by JamesTiptree Jr – herself a psychologist, and better qualified than most to draw upon that inspiration. The heroic analyst selected by JeremyLeven's computer-incarnatedSatan (1982) to solve the problem of evil is similarly horrified by the gruesome activities of his experimentally inclined colleagues. The psychological implications of theories inLinguistics have had more impact, notably in Samuel RDelany'sBabel-17 (1966) and IanWatson'sThe Embedding (1973).

In the late twentieth century, public awareness of various neurological conditions was increased by a number of popular-science works: probably the best are those of UK-born neurologist Oliver Sacks (1933-2015), includingThe Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat (coll1985). Sacks's title essay, dealing with visual agnosia or recognition failure, is speculatively developed in terms ofGender recognition by RaphaelCarter in "Congenital Agenesis of Gender Ideation" (inStarlight 2, anth1998, ed PatrickNielsen Hayden). The tics and bad language associated with Tourette's syndrome are made deliberately contagious as part of aMad Scientist's scheme in GregBear's/ <Slant> (1997). Autistic concentration and difficulty with "normal" human relationships are likewise deliberately induced, as "Focus", in VernorVinge'sA Deepness in the Sky (1999); a kind of induced autism is also central to CordwainerSmith's much earlier "Scanners Live in Vain" (January 1950Fantasy Book #6). KarenRipley'sSlow World trilogy, opening withThe Persistence of Memory (1993), effectively employs autism as a metaphor; ElizabethMoon drew on her own experience of raising an autistic adopted son to create the engaging savant narrator ofSpeed of Dark (2002; vtThe Speed of Dark2003). Ultra-intense magnetic fields in theAlien installation of PeterWatts'sBlindsight (2006) produce bizarre neurological effects, such as one character's temporary conviction that she is dead, does not exist (Cotard's syndrome).

Mention must also be made of a group of stories dealing with the psychology of sf itself in a rather alarmingly cynical fashion. The pioneer was RobertLindner's 1954 essay "The Jet-Propelled Couch: The Story of Kirk" (December 1954-January 1955Harper's Magazine; inThe Fifty-Minute Hour: A Collection of True Psychoanalytic Tales, coll1955; vtThe Jet-Propelled Couch and Other True Psychoanalytic Tales1955), about a psychiatrist's encounter with a patient who believes he has a second existence as the hero of a series ofSpace Operas, a theme echoed by IainBanks inThe Bridge (1986), whereSword-and-Sorcery motifs obtrude into real life. NormanSpinrad'sThe Iron Dream (1972), in which Hitler channels his power-fantasies into pulp sf rather than politics, and Malzberg'sHerovit's World (1973) andGalaxies (1975) offer uncompromisingly harsh judgments about the consolations of sf, and at the time aroused considerable ire among sf fans. Some psychoanalytical literary criticism of well known sf works is even harsher – examples are C MKornbluth's "The Failure of the Science Fiction Novel as Social Criticism" (inThe Science Fiction Novel: Imagination and Social Criticism, anth1959, ed EarlKemp), Robert Plank's analysis of Robert AHeinlein'sStranger in a Strange Land (1961; text restored1990) in "Omnipotent Cannibals" (July 1971Riverside Quarterly; exp inRobert A Heinlein, anth1978, ed Joseph DOlander and Martin HGreenberg), and Thomas MDisch's analysis of the same author'sStarship Troopers (October-November 1959F&SF as "Starship Soldier";1959) in "The Embarrassments of Science Fiction" (inScience Fiction at Large, anth1976, ed PeterNicholls; vtExplorations of the Marvellous1978). The basic charge of all three essays is infantilism: together with the oft-quoted adage that theGolden Age of SF is twelve, they suggest that sf may appeal particularly strongly to people who cannot (yet) cope with reality, and to those condemned to remain existentially becalmed in psychological pre-adolescence forever. Spinrad'sThe Void Captain's Tale (1983) extrapolates the thesis that tales of the conquest of space are encoded sexual fantasies, and thatSpaceships are phallic symbols; the one in the story is propelled by a literal sexual drive. On the other hand, K WJeter'sDr Adder (1984) suggests that our deepSex fantasies are much more exotic and much sicker than anything which can routinely be found in sf. Given that no one really knows what secrets lurk in the shadowy recesses of the unconscious mind and how our imaginative fictions are shaped to flatter them, speculation on such matters will presumably continue to roam freely across the whole spectrum of possibilities.

Related theme anthologies includeIntroductory Psychology Through Science Fiction (anth1974; exp1977) edited by Martin HGreenberg, Harvey Katz and PatriciaWarrick;Hallucination Orbit: Psychology in Science Fiction (anth1983) edited by IsaacAsimov, Martin HGreenberg and Charles GWaugh;PsiFi: Psychological Theories and Science Fictions (anth1987) edited by Michele Benjamin and Jim Ridgway, with extensive commentary on the selected stories' implications; andPsychology: A Literary Introduction (anth2014) edited by Laura Kati Corlew and Charles GWaugh. [BS/DRL]

further reading

George Devereux, editor.Psychoanalysis and the Occult (New York: International Universities Press,1953) [nonfiction: anth: hb/nonpictorial]
Martin HGreenberg, Harvey Katz and PatriciaWarrick, editors.Introductory Psychology Through Science Fiction (Chicago, Illinois: Rand McNally,1974) with Harvey Katz and PatriciaWarrick [anth:Through Science Fiction: hb/Todd Sanders]
- Introductory Psychology Through Science Fiction – Second Edition (Chicago, Illinois: Rand McNally College Publishing,1977) with Harvey Katz and PatriciaWarrick [anth: exp vt of the above:Through Science Fiction: hb/Todd Sanders]
IsaacAsimov, Martin HGreenberg and Charles GWaugh, editors.Hallucination Orbit: Psychology in Science Fiction (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux,1983) [anth: hb/Christopher Burg]
Michele Benjamin and JimRidgway, editors.PsiFi: Psychological Theories and Science Fictions (Leicester, Leicestershire: The British Psychological Society,1987) [anth: stories with commentary: foreword by BobShaw: pb/Jeremy Thistlethwaite]
Laura Kati Corlew and Charles GWaugh, editors.Psychology: A Literary Introduction (South China, Maine: Sam Teddy Publishing,2014) [anth: pb/]