History Main / AMindisaTerribleThingtoRead

* A {{downplayed}} example in ''Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureDiamondIsUnbreakable'': When famous manga artist Rohan Kishibe finds out that two of his teenage fans, Koichi and Hazamada, have tracked down where he lives, he uses his [[FightingSpirit Stand]] Heaven's Door to read their minds, hoping to find new material for his manga ''[[ShowWithinAShow Pink Dark Boy]]''. Upon reading Hazamada's mind and finding out that (among other things) he attempted to rape a classmate and chickened out, Rohan is thoroughly revulsed.

* ''TabletopGame/LeviathanTheTempest'': The eponymous Leviathans are {{Eldritch Abomination}}s straight out of Lovecraft, with tremendous psionic might. Needless to say, trying to read their minds has a serious risk of backfiring and leaving the telepath mad or [[TheRenfield a Beloved]]

* ''ComicBook/{{Irredeemable}}''. Survivor promises amnesty to any supervillain who helps rebuild the world after the damage Plutonian has inflicted. To make sure their HeelFaceTurn is genuine, he has telepath Burrows look into their heads. The one vision we see involves a swarm of rats tearing Burrows apart and forcing their way down his throat. Later Survivor tells Burrows to look into a supervillain's head and predict his next move. [[NothingIsScarier We don't know what he saw]], but it makes Burrows flee the room and hang himself.
* In an issue of ''ComicBook/JLA1997'', the Star Conqueror has 99% of Earth's population locked in a deep sleep, trapped in a dream where they serve it. As the Conqueror has [[StarfishAliens evolutionary similarities to marine life]], ComicBook/{{Aquaman}} tries to use his telepathy on it. He starts to go mad the deeper he goes, mumbling things about how small and meaningless an ocean is compared to the bottomless depths of the cosmos, until the other Leaguers snap him out of it. This seems to be Creator/GrantMorrison's rejoinder to the "Aquaman could mind-control [[Literature/CthulhuMythos Cthulhu]]" meme.
* Happens to ComicBook/MartianManhunter once or twice in various continuities. Like the time he met a thing called IT and nearly went into a coma. Or the time he read Superman's mind when he was controlled by Mageddon and nearly went into a coma. Or the time he read the mind of a nihilistic teenager and had to leave the planet in order to perform a Martian psychic cleansing ritual.

* ''ComicBook/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy'':
** ''ComicBook/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy2008'': Mantis winds up reading the mind of a Zom, an undead cyborg created by the Badoon. She's horrified to discover there's still some of the original being's mind left.

* While Franchise/{{Superman}} is not a mind reader, the ''Redemption'' storyline reveals that he faced similar squicks due to his [[SuperSenses enhanced hearing]] during church, as he could hear the mumblings and whispers of the problems of various people. Because of this, he stopped going to church with his adoptive parents.
* Madison in ''Wandering Star''. Cassie quotes Madison in describing what it's like to be psychic: "It's like being locked alone in a room. Next door they begin to kill someone. You can hear everything. The screams. The sobs. The pleading. And you can't do a thing. All you can do is listen."
* ''Franchise/WonderWoman'':

** In ''The Next Generation'' novel "Q-in-Law" Deanna Troi is revealed to be somewhat envious of her mother due to her abilities to errect telepathic shields that eliminated telepathic background noise. While Deanna was able to errect similar shields, her lesser telepathic abilities made errecting such shields something of an effort for her.

** In the ''''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' novel "Metamorphisis", in an alternate timeline the mercenary Sdan - who was a mixed species individual with some Vulcan ancestry - remarked that even before Surak's reforms most Vulcans were reluctant to kill others as it would mean feeling the thoughts, pain, and fear the other would feel before dying.

** In the ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' novel "Q-in-Law" Deanna Troi is revealed to be somewhat envious of her mother due to her abilities to errect telepathic shields that eliminated telepathic background noise. While Deanna was able to errect similar shields, her lesser telepathic abilities made errecting such shields something of an effort for her.

* The subject of Music/PeterGabriel's "Here Comes The Flood". The inspiration was from a dream Gabriel had where "the psychic barriers which normally prevent us from seeing into each others’ thoughts had been completely eroded producing a mental flood. Those that had been used to having their innermost thoughts exposed would handle this torrent and those inclined to concealment would drown in it.”

* ''ComicBook/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy'': Mantis winds up reading the mind of a Zom, an undead cyborg created by the Badoon. She's horrified to discover there's still some of the original being's mind left.

* In ''Mephisto In Onyx'', Rudy Pairis is a telepath who has yet to encounter a mind that doesn't make him want to vomit. Unfortunately, he frequently finds himself in situations where he is tempted to reach out and touch some mind. The story gets rolling when a friend he can't turn down asks him to read the mind of a convicted serial killer to prove him innocent. It doesn't go well from there.

* The protagonist of [[Creator/RobertSilverberg Robert Silverberg's]] ''Dying Inside'' can read other people's minds, and he is unable to function in society because of it.
* The young-adult book "the lies they tell" tells the story of a young girl who develops telepathic abilities after a blow to the head. She has some upsetting experiences, but eventually learns how to block out thoughts, and manages to discover a corrupt politician's dastardly plot.

* The main character's wife in ''Frameshift'' by Robert J. Sawyer can read minds due to a frameshift mutation. She developed a dislike of men because of the disgusting things they think about doing to her, and married the protagonist partially because he thinks in his first language (French), and she can't understand his thoughts.

* In ''Literature//GracelingRealm'', mind readers tend to be terribly lonely and unhappy people as a result of this.
* A short story in the magazine ''Teen Ink'' had this as the premise.

* In Creator/TimothyZahn's ''Distant Friends'' series, telepaths coming closer than 20 miles apart experience insanity, identity confusion, and pain. If they continue approaching each other, the strain kills them. Two of these telepaths have fallen in love. One of the two commissions a gizmo that blocks the telepathy so that he can be with his beloved; unfortunately, the inventor turns out to be a villain, tricks him into a chase ending at the beloved's house, then holds the telepathic pair hostage by threatening to turn off the machine.

* The fanart of ''LetsPlay/TwitchPlaysPokemonRed'' [[http://25.media.tumblr.com/07a92b24f91b56fda8a15e84505b3645/tumblr_n1hwosBvSV1su6eopo6_1280.gif depicts the]] [[http://imgur.com/5SXZ7Rd unpleasantness]] of reading a MindHive.

** In ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidVThePhantomPain'', it's shown to have been even worse for him, as he read the minds of [[AlreadyMetEveryone Naked Snake, Venom Snake, and Colonel Volgin]] with their malice and lust for revenge wreaking havoc on his psyche and turning him into an EmotionEater.

* In ''VideoGame/FragileDreamsFarewellRuinsOfTheMoon'', [[BigBad Shin]] tries to [[KillEmAll end what's left of humanity]] because of this. [[spoiler: However, at the very end it's revealed that the experiment which granted him the ability to pick up on the selfishness and hatred in the human psyche was flawed and incomplete. He loses the will to fight upon realizing that [[CuteGhostGirl Sai]] [[ThePowerOfLove loved him deeply]], he simply didn't sense it.]]

* ''ComicBook/{{Irredeemable}}''. Survivor promises amnesty to any supervillain who helps rebuild the world after the damage Plutonian has inflicted. To make sure their HeelFaceTurn is genuine, he has telepath Burrows look into their heads. The one vision we see involves a swarm of rats tearing Burrows apart and forcing their way down his throat. Later Survivor tells Burrows to look into a supervillain's head and predict his next move. [[NothingIsScarier We don't know what he saw]], but Burrows flees the room and hangs himself.

* ''ComicBook/{{Irredeemable}}''. Survivor promises amnesty to any supervillain who helps rebuild the world after the damage Plutonian has inflicted. To make sure their HeelFaceTurn is genuine, he has telepath Burrows look into their heads. The one vision we see involves a swarm of rats tearing Burrows apart and forcing their way down his throat. Later Survivor tells Burrows to look into a supervillain's head and predict his next move. We don't know what he saw, but Burrows flees the room and hangs himself.

* In ''Series/MyHero'', George gains mind-reading powers, and is soon shocked at the twisted thoughts within the minds of the human race.

* Mindf██k from ''ComicBook/{{Empowered}}'' not only lives most of the time on a space station to avoid getting headaches from reading other people's minds, but admits being tired of reading the filthy minds of lunatics.
** And interestingly inverted in the way her telepathy scuppered her romance with [[spoiler: Sistah Spooky]]; instead of being unable to have a romance because she had full access to all her partner's most unpleasant thoughts (as is normal for this trope), her partner was too self-loathing to believe that anyone who could see through her facade would be capable of truly loving her. Mindf██k herself thinks the partner's mind is very sexy, and does deeply love the "beautiful mess" she is beneath her mask.

** In fan works, Satori is frequently portrayed as subject to this trope in other ways, getting easily frightened by violent thoughts or offended at [[DirtyMindReading dirty thoughts]], sometimes being PlayedForLaughs, others PlayedForDrama.
** ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOijbiGAT84&feature=related The girl who knew too much.]]''

* David Alleyne, aka Prodigy, telepathically downloads all the information from the minds of those around him. This ranges from technical knowledge like advanced science and magic, and extremely personal habits like sex activity and how someone prefers to wipe.

* In ''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty'' episode "Claw and Hoarder", after Jerry returns with a cat that can talk for unexplained reasons, Rick performs a mind-scan to learn its secret. Immediately both Rick and Jerry are disgusted and horrified by seeing the truth, demanding the cat leaves while the both of them continue freaking out.

* Similarly, Level Up has [[https://youtu.be/3uW166yY7D4 a short in one of their literal Pokemon moves videos. Medicham uses Mind Reader on Mr Mime and learns Mr Mime’s Google search history.