History Literature / MindToMind

** Creator/RALafferty's "Literature/ThroughOtherEyes": A scientist who's spent his entire life wondering whether everyone experiences things the same way he does--whether what he calls red really looks to others like what he calls blue, whether roses smell as sweet, and so on. He builds a [[MindReadingMachine machine to translate the thoughts in one mind to another]], and uses it on a woman he considers himself to be in love with. Through it, he learns that she sees the world as a place of vileness and horror; that (as she herself later says) every time a bird flies by she thinks of what's gurgling in its stomach--and she [[NightmareFetishist glories in it]]. [[spoiler:Later on, she absolutely ''smashes'' him mentally by convincing him he has the worse worldview--her world is twistedly beautiful, and his is [[MeasuringTheMarigolds utterly dead, lacking in any sort of romance or wonder]]. At the story's close, he's almost ready to sell the device to the public--but first, he's modifying it so it lies to the user, [[DownplayedTrope making the subject's thoughts seem less different than they really are]], because true understanding is just too horrible.]]

* MindReadingMachine: Creator/RALafferty's "Literature/ThroughOtherEyes": A scientist invents a machine that allows two characters to share perceptions, allowing for an answer if red looks the same time him as it does to you. The first version is [[AMindIsATerribleThingToRead frighteningly clear in the contrast]], so he scales back the clarity in the production model.

* "Literature/TheMindworm", by Creator/CMKornbluth (1950)

* ConvenientlyCoherentThoughts: Creator/CMKornbluth's "Literature/TheMindworm": When the telepathic title character picks up thoughts, they're almost always the standard "stream of consciousness", and it can trawl through dozens of thought-trains at once, with FunetikAksents and run-on sentences in the middle of thoughts.
* EmotionEater: Creator/CMKornbluth's "Literature/TheMindworm": A mutant human who fed off the feelings of others, killing them in the process. He deliberately tried to induce strong emotions in his victims so he could get a full meal. Too bad for him that [[spoiler:when he starts preying on a community of recent Eastern European immigrants, they find the old ways of dispatching vampires work just fine.]]
* FunetikAksent: Creator/CMKornbluth's "Literature/TheMindworm": A variety of accents appear, mostly variations of low-class speech patterns. "Dat tam vooman" instead of "that damn woman", "trink visky chin" instead of "drink whiskey gin", "inna mush" instead of "into mush", "gemmun that's fo sho'", instead of "gentleman, that's for sure".
* HungryMenace: Creator/CMKornbluth's "Literature/TheMindworm": The titular Mindworm is an EmotionEater, and feeding on strong human emotions drains their victims to death.

* TotallyNotAWerewolf: Creator/CMKornbluth's "Literature/TheMindworm": The titular Mindworm is a rare mutant human who needs to [[EmotionEater feed on strong emotions]]. When it starts feeding on people in a small rural community mostly settled by Eastern European immigrants, they assume it is a vampire [[spoiler:and kill it with a stake through the heart and scythe through the throat]].

This ScienceFiction GenreAnthology was originally published in 1971,by Creator/RobertSilverberg. The focus is on PsychicPowers, as implied by the title.

* FunetikAksents: Creator/CMKornbluth's "Literature/TheMindworm": A variety of accents appear, mostly variations of low-class speech patterns. "Dat tam vooman" instead of "that damn woman", "trink visky chin" instead of "drink whiskey gin", "inna mush" instead of "into mush", "gemmun that's fo sho'", instead of "gentleman, that's for sure".