PSYCHOLOGY

   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 pseudo-scientific conjecture even if one sets aside its close and problematic relationship with parapsychology (ESP; PSI POWERS). 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 and MAINSTREAM fiction. Studies of both normal and abnormal psychology 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 ofobsession, 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 tobizarre extremes, as in Stanley G. WEINBAUM's dual-personality tale The Dark Other (1950), that the story becomes unmistakably sf. Even storiesreplete with the jargon of supposedly scientific psychoanalysis, like Thomas Bailey ALDRICH's The Queen of Sheba (1877) and S. Guy ENDORE'sclassic Freudian murder mystery Methinks the Lady (1945), are intrinsically mundane, although Endore's study of the psychological syndrome of lycanthropy, The Werewolf of Paris (1933), is normally considered a FANTASY. 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 and hypnosis - because these are sufficiently disreputable to be evidently fantastic! Thus a story like Edgar Allan POE's "The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar"(1845) invites classification as sf not so much because it mimics the form of a scientific report but because the mesmerised hero's immunity to decay is so obviously impossible. Stories of delusional neurosis or vivid hallucination which become very bizarre - e.g., Sir Ronald FRASER's The Flower Phantoms (1926) - are more conveniently classed as visionaryfantasy than as sf, because of rather than in spite of the fact that their "impossible" events are entirely subjective, even though scientifictheories 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 some invention, usually a MACHINE or a drug, 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 Edward BELLAMY's Dr Heidenhoff's Process (1880), about a technology of selective amnesia, Robert Louis STEVENSON's Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886), about a drug which separates the principleof evil from that of good (or the id from the superego, as the Freudian reader is bound to interpret it), Richard Slee and Cornelia Atwood PRATT's Dr Berkeley's Discovery (1899), about a method of "photographing"memories, Walter BESANT's "The Memory Cell" (1900), again dealing with selective amnesia, and Vincent HARPER's materialist polemic The Mortgage on the Brain (1905), about an electrical method of personality-modification.The early sf PULP MAGAZINES featured numerous devices of these and related types, and Hugo GERNSBACK's recruitment of the practising psychiatrist David H. KELLER did not result in any conspicuous sophistication of pulp sf's handling of psychological matters. Keller's most notable stories extrapolating psychological theory - theremarkable Freudian erotic fantasy The Eternal Conflict (1939) and "The Abyss" (1948), which tracks events following the release of a drug whichdestroys inhibitions - were too risque for pulp publication. The theme of "The Abyss" is featured also in Vincent MCHUGH's libidinous comedy I amThinking of My Darling (1943), which anticipated counterculture-inspired LSD fantasies like William TENN's "Did your Coffee Taste Funny this Morning?" (1967; vt "The Lemon-Green Spaghetti-Loud Dynamite-Dribble Day") and Brian W. ALDISS's Barefoot in the Head (fixup 1969), 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 theunfettered id are Jerome BIXBY's "It's a Good Life" (1953) and James K. MORROW's The Wine of Violence (1981).The most impressive psychologicalstudy to appear in the pulps was not in an sf magazine but in UNKNOWN; this was L. Ron HUBBARD's classic Fear (1940; 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 of SCIENTOLOGY; dianetic theory is much in evidence in the stories collectedin Ole Doc Methuselah (1947-50 as by Rene Lafayette; coll 1972). It is a fairly common ploy in sf stories to use amnesiac heroes whose memories eventually turn out to be magnificently bizarre; examples are H.P. LOVECRAFT's "The Shadow Out of Time" (cut 1936; restored 1939), L.P.DAVIES's The Shadow Before (1970) and Keith LAUMER's The Infinite Cage (1972).One of the most famous pulp sf stories, Isaac ASIMOV's "Nightfall" (1941), deals with the psychology of revelation - a subject dealt with in a less pessimistic fashion in other stories of CONCEPTUAL BREAKTHROUGH. Asimov's more significant contribution to psychological sf, however, isthe IMAGINARY SCIENCE of robopsychology, which he invented for the stories in I, ROBOT (1940-50; coll 1950), many of which feature robopsychologist Susan Calvin in confrontation with practical and theoretical problemsarising from the Three Laws forming the basis of robotic ethics. Robopsychology remained an essential element in Asimov's ROBOT stories,especially such philosophically inclined ones as "That Thou Art Mindful of Him" (1974) and "The Bicentennial Man" (1976).Technologically assistedjourneys into the hypothetical INNER SPACE of the human mind became increasingly common in post-WWII sf. The hero of "Dreams are Sacred" (1948) by Peter Phillips (1921-) has to entice a catatonic dreamer backto the real world by disrupting his fantasy world. Other such journeys are featured in "The Mental Assassins" (1950) by Gregg Conrad (Rog PHILLIPS), "City of the Tiger" (1958) by John BRUNNER, "Descent into the Maelstrom"(1961) by Daniel F. GALOUYE, "The Girl in his Mind" (1963) by Robert F. YOUNG, Mindplayers (1987) by Pat CADIGAN, The Night Mayor (1989) by Kim NEWMAN and Queen of Angels (1990) by Greg BEAR. Several of the above-named stories extrapolate the idea of "telepathic psychiatry" with considerable intelligence; the Brunner story became the basis of the pioneering novel THE WHOLE MAN (fixup 1964 US; vt Telepathist 1965 UK). Another fine novelon the same theme is THE DREAM MASTER (1966) by Roger ZELAZNY; dreams are taken very seriously in Connie WILLIS's Lincoln's Dreams (1987).Brunner's numerous essays in psychological sf also include a notable story about a reality-distorting drug, The Gaudy Shadows (1960; exp 1971), and a psychiatric case-study, Quicksand (1967); both belong to categories of sf story which became very abundant in the 1960s. Several other post-WWII writers have shown a consistent interest in psychology. Alfred BESTER produced, among others, the quasi-Freudian vignette, "The Devil's Invention" (1950; vt "Oddy and Id"), a classic novel about a psychoticmurderer who eventually undergoes psychic demolition and reconstitution, THE DEMOLISHED MAN (1953), and a remarkable study of confused identity,"Fondly Fahrenheit" (1954). Most of Theodore STURGEON's sf consists of psychological studies of loneliness, angst and alienation, often resolved by the quasitranscendental curative power of love; a few examples selected from a great many are the bitter study of prejudice, "The World Well Lost" (1953), the painful study of megalomania, "Mr Costello, Hero" (1953), andthe classic novels of literal psychic reintegration, MORE THAN HUMAN (fixup 1953) and The Cosmic Rape (1958). Ray BRADBURY has written a numberof neat stories turning on the vagaries of child psychology, most notably the ironic "Zero Hour" (1947) and "The World the Children Made" (1950; vt "The Veldt"), although most of his work in this nostalgic vein is purefantasy. Very many of Philip K. DICK'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 of ALTERNATE WORLDS incarnating neurotic worldviews, while THE THREE STIGMATA OF PALMER ELDRITCH (1965) was the first of a sequence ofnovels dealing with reality-warping drugs which eventually culminated in the deeply embittered black comedy A SCANNER DARKLY (1977). Several of Dick's novels deal with schizophrenia (in the true clinical meaning ratherthan the vulgar sense embodied in such split-personality stories as Wyman GUIN's "Beyond Bedlam" (1951)), including Martian Time-Slip (1964) and We Can Build You (1972), while Clans 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 N. MALZBERG has specialized to great effect; different sf situations becomearchetypes of paranoid delusion in Overlay (1972), Beyond Apollo (1972), The Day of the Burning (1974) and The Gamesman (1975), and even Freudcannot cope with the situations which confront him in THE REMAKING OF SIGMUND FREUD (1985). Sf situations are used in much the same way toconstruct exaggerated models of alienation in a number of stories by Robert SILVERBERG, including Thorns (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.G. BALLARD, in virtually all his work, and Philip Jose FARMER, whose early short stories - including the Oedipus-complex fantasy "Mother" (1953) and "Rastignac the Devil" (1954)-were pioneering exercises in thisvein.The use of sf to address such psychological questions as the problem of identity - as in Algis BUDRYS's excellent WHO? (1958) or Silverberg's The Second Trip (1972) - is often closely related to mainstream work; inthis instance, to such stories as Marcel AYME's The Second Face (1941; trans 1951), David ELY's Seconds (1963) - filmed as SECONDS (1966) - and Kobo ABE's Tanin no Kao (1964; trans as The Face of Another 1966 US).Variants on the sf/mainstream borderline include skin-colour-change fantasies, such as Chris Stratton's Change of Mind (1969) and the film Watermelon Man (1970), and sex-change fantasies, such as Hank STINE'sSeason of the Witch (1968) and Angela CARTER's The Passion of New Eve (1977). The processes of mind control involved in "brainwashing" - which play a key part in George ORWELL's NINETEEN EIGHTY-FOUR (1949) and which have become a standard element in DYSTOPIAN fiction - bestride the same borderline; exemplary works include A CLOCKWORK ORANGE (1962) by Anthony BURGESS and The Mind Benders (1963) by James KENNAWAY. Sf writers can,however, come up with wild variants which attempt to clarify the moral and philosophical questions involved; examples include The Ring (1968) by Piers ANTHONY and Robert E. MARGROFF and The Barons of Behavior (1972) byTom PURDOM. Psychological themes of considerable interest where sf has a monopoly include: the augmentation of INTELLIGENCE, as featured in Poul ANDERSON's Brain Wave (1954), Daniel KEYES's FLOWERS FOR ALGERNON (1959;exp 1966) and Thomas M. DISCH's CAMP CONCENTRATION (1968); psychotic plague stories like Gregory BENFORD's Deeper than the Darkness (1970; rev as The Stars in Shroud 1978) and Jack DANN's THE MAN WHO MELTED (1984); and stories dealing with the recording of emotional experiences for replaying by consumers, including Lee HARDING's "All My Yesterdays" (1963) and D.G. COMPTON's SYNTHAJOY (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, a theme featured in Curt SIODMAK's Hauser's Memory (1968) and various films by him, A.E. VAN VOGT's FutureGlitter (1973; vt Tyranopolis) and James E. GUNN's The Dreamers (fixup 1980). Another related theme is that of recording and marketing dreams, a notion elaborately developed in Chelsea Quinn YARBRO's Hyacinths (1983) and James K. Morrow's The Continent of Lies (1984).Despite the profligacy of sf writers in devising machines and drugs 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" (1976) by James TIPTREE Jr - herself a psychologist, and better qualified than most todraw upon that inspiration. The heroic analyst selected by Jeremy LEVEN's computer-incarnated Satan (1982) to solve the problem of evil is similarly horrified by the gruesome activities of his experimentally inclined colleagues. The psychological implications of theories in LINGUISTICS have had more impact, notably in Samuel R. DELANY's BABEL-17 (1966) and Ian WATSON's THE EMBEDDING (1973).Mention must also be made of a group ofstories dealing with the psychology of sf itself in a rather alarmingly cynical fashion. The pioneer was a story purporting to be an essay, Robert LINDNER's "The Jet-Propelled Couch" (1955), about a psychiatrist'sencounter with a patient who believes he has a second existence as the hero of a series of SPACE OPERAS, a theme echoed by Iain BANKS in The Bridge (1986), where SWORD-AND-SORCERY motifs obtrude into real life.Norman SPINRAD's The Iron Dream (1972), in which Hitler channels his power-fantasies into pulp sf rather than politics, and Malzberg's Herovit's World (1973) and GALAXIES (1975) offer uncompromisingly harshjudgments about the consolations of sf, and have aroused considerable ire among sf fans. Some psychoanalytical literary criticism of well known sf works is even harsher - examples are C.M. KORNBLUTH's "The Failure of the Science Fiction Novel as Social Criticism" (1959), Robert Plank's analysisof Robert A. HEINLEIN's STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND (1961) in "Omnipotent Cannibals" (1971), and Thomas M. DISCH's analysis of the same author'sSTARSHIP TROOPERS (1959) in "The Embarrassments of Science Fiction" in Science Fiction at Large (1976; vt Explorations of the Marvellous) ed Peter NICHOLLS. The basic charge of all three essays is infantilism: together with the oft-quoted adage that the GOLDEN AGE OF SF is 13, they suggest that sf may appeal particularly strongly to people who cannot (yet) cope with reality, and to those condemned to remain existentiallybecalmed in psychological pre-adolescence forever. Spinrad's The Void Captain's Tale (1983) extrapolates the thesis that tales of the conquestof space are encoded sexual fantasies, and that SPACESHIPS are phallic symbols; the one in the story is propelled by a literal sexual drive. On the other hand, K.W. JETER's Dr Adder (1984) suggests that our deep SEX 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.

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