History Main / CyberneticsEatYourSoul

* Downplayed in ''VideoGame/DaemonXMachina'': the player character can receive a variety of cybernetic augmentations, from ArtificialLimbs to ElectronicEyes, with higher-tier augmentations making them appear more machine than human. These upgrades, however, have no bearing on the story.

* Deliberately left without a clear answer in ''VideoGame/CivilizationBeyondEarth''. Supremacy affinity, which specializes in cybernetics and gradually improves it, receives exactly this perception from the adherents of Harmony and, [[TranshumanTreachery especially]], Purity. And although they may fully correspond to such an assessment, Supremacy's [[AlternativeCharacterInterpretation final interpretation tends to vary greatly]]. However, they are not unique in this respect. Any of the affinities can be located absolutely anywhere on the ShadesOfConflict scale, despite the fact that all of them, regardless of their ideals, are inclined to end their ideological path on the positions of inveterate [[TheFundamentalist Fundamentalists]] and [[KnightTemplar Knights Templar]]. Therefore, in one game, Supremacy will symbolize [[ScienceHero a beacon of progress, enlightenment, and independence of mankind]], and in another - an artificial HiveMind that is not interested in anything other than [[TheAssimilator forcibly absorbing everyone else into its network]]. Of course, these are not all possible variations.

** ''TabletopGame/{{Eberron}}'' had grafts, whom depending on the type take various toll on the body. Almost always resulted in constitution loss. Some grafts, called symbiotes, are also AlwaysChaoticEvil and will try to make you AxCrazy by constantly speaking suggestions to your mind.
*** [[MinMaxing But who cares about that if you have the right build?]] (To the point: Abusing fiendish symbiotes, cloning, and damage-sharing effects created a build that [[ReadingsAreOffTheScale required a new mathematical notation to write down how much damage it did]].)

* Played with in ''VideoGame/{{Stray}}'': On the one hand, RobotBuddy B-12 has lost their memories and sense of self due to [[spoiler:uploading their brain into the robots' virtual network to save themselves from an apocalyptic plague]], such that they had completely forgotten that they [[spoiler:used to be human]]. On the other, they still retain their emotions and capacity for empathy, more so as their companion the Cat leads them toward regaining those same memories.

* In ''ComicBook/NobleCauses'', Rusty Noble's body was horribly mangled in an accident, and his brain was transferred into a robotic body. He struggled with his humanity for years, and eventually seemed to just give up; he started talking in a robotic monotone, without contractions, and with clipped, clinical sentences. [[spoiler:Turns out he was faking -- this happened not long after a couple of serious personal tragedies. He decided to hide his emotions by pretending he didn't have any, but on the inside he was feeling more depressed than ever. Ultimately a subversion, as Rusty never lost his ability to relate to human emotions, he just ''wished'' he had.]]

** Inverted by Luke Skywalker at the end of ''Film/{{Return of the Jedi}}'', where staring at his cybernetic hand points out all too clearly what he would have become if he finished off Vader. Cybernetics ''saved'' his soul.

** Or are they? [[spoiler: During the "Psycho Killer" questline you are tasked with bringing down a number of cyberpsychos, all of whom turn out to have other explanations for their rampages beyond chroming, such as drug abuse, untreated PTSD, job loss, deaths of loved ones, religious mania.... It is generally implied that while chroming was definitely not good for any of these peoples' mental health, "cyberpsychosis" is a blanket term for a wide range of social and mental health issues, most of which are at most tangentially related to cybernetics. The term has then been horrendously over-applied by lazy corp-owned media outlets, and the only reason these cases get the amount of attention they do is how destructive these heavily chromed individuals can be compared to your common-or-garden school shooter.]] Cyberware resistance was brought back in version 2.0 of the game, so it remains to be seen how much of this interpretation is canon, and how much it is CDPR covering for the fact that cyberpsychosis wasn't implemented in the original release of the game.

* The ''VideoGame/StarFox'' series has the Aparoids, who are an {{Expy}} of ''Franchise/StarTrek'''s Borg, as the main villains of ''VideoGame/StarFoxAssault''.

** ZigZagged once more as it's implied that the various characters in ''Edgerunners'' are driven to cyberpsychosis mainly due to life events and associated trauma. [[spoiler:Maine is implied to be motivated by the death of Sasha, while it has been explained by the series creator that David's cyberpsychosis was a result of losing all of his support pillars throughout the course of the series (in addition to the PTSD of killing an innocent woman[[note]]though the fact he killed her ''because'' he was already beginning to disassociate kind of makes it a chicken or egg kind of deal[[/note]]). His high tolerance for cybernetics itself was rooted in the fact that he had a particularly caring upbringing in the hellscape that is Night City, with a caring mother who only wanted the best for him.]]

** IP Creator Mike Pondsmith [[https://www.reddit.com/r/LowSodiumCyberpunk/comments/xklzsx/comment/ipffmf4/ in a comment on Reddit]] once explained that he partially based cyberpsychosis off anabolic steroid addiction - with the psychosis episodes being comparable to roid rage - with a psychological element based on how able an individual is to shrug off stress and mental hardship. He also confirmed that Johnny Silverhand [[https://www.reddit.com/r/LowSodiumCyberpunk/comments/xklzsx/comment/irb6mqi/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3 suffered from cyberpsychosis on some level due to his cybernetic limb]] and blamed his worst impulses on his titular hand. Pondsmith goes on to say that Johnny's unstable and rage-filled nature meant that his presence in V's mind [[InsanityImmunity made V a lot more resistant to Cyberpsychosis]] since he's already partially a Cyberpsycho himself.

In many popular {{cyberpunk}} TabletopGames, cybernetic implants cause "humanity loss", reducing your social traits and essentially making cyberware into a form of BodyHorror. Too many implants may [[SenseLossSadness reduce your character to catatonia]] or (far more often) AxCrazy [[PsychoSerum on steroids]]. If these settings also feature PsychicPowers or FunctionalMagic, cyberware often reduces your ability to use those as well. This trope usually accompanies [[BrokenAesop the broken lesson]] that ''only'' cyberware inflicts humanity loss -- sure, getting that ArmCannon will dehumanize you, but not [[MoralEventHorizon deliberately committing actual atrocities]], getting hooked on [[DrugsAreBad hard drugs]], learning BlackMagic, having a mental illness that is not fictional, or other expected sources of insanity. It also becomes silly when RidiculouslyHumanRobots exist in the same setting and yet are depicted as more... um... [[ShapedLikeItself human]].

* Subverted in ''Manga/{{Cyborg 009}}'', where Albert/004 is the one in the Cyborg Team with more machine parts (due to having almost half his body torn in an explosion), but is one of the most developed characters in the whole series. Somewhat played straight, too, since he constantly worries about the possibility of [[WhatMeasureIsANonHuman losing his humanity as time passes or about people seeing him as a monster]], and at least two episode ("Tears of Steel" and [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin "Man or Machine?")]] are fully dedicated to his struggles.

In many popular {{cyberpunk}} TabletopGames, cybernetic implants cause "humanity loss", reducing your social traits and essentially making cyberware into a form of BodyHorror. Too many implants may [[SenseLossSadness reduce your character to catatonia]] or (far more often) AxCrazy [[PsychoSerum on steroids]]. If these settings also feature PsychicPowers or FunctionalMagic, cyberware often reduces your ability to use those as well. This trope usually accompanies the broken lesson that ''only'' cyberware inflicts humanity loss -- sure, getting that ArmCannon will dehumanize you, but not [[MoralEventHorizon deliberately committing actual atrocities]], getting hooked on [[DrugsAreBad hard drugs]], learning BlackMagic, having a mental illness that is not fictional, or other expected sources of insanity. It also becomes silly when RidiculouslyHumanRobots exist in the same setting and yet are depicted as more... um... [[ShapedLikeItself human]].

** At one point in ''ComicBook/NewAvengers'', the cybernetics just plain eat him, overwriting his body and mind for a few issues, turning him into Girl Ultron.

* ''Comicbook/AllStarSquadron'''s Robotman, who in the main series struggles with maintaining his humanity while being a brain placed inside a robotic body, eventually loses his humanity after the war ended in ''[[ComicBook/TheGoldenAge JSA: The Golden Age]]''. In mainstream DC continuity, his brain was planted into the preserved body of his associate Chuck Grayson years later, making him human again.
* The ''ComicBook/DoomPatrol'''s Robotman is a different person with similar issues, who once checks himself into a mental hospital as a result. Despite this, he is often the sanest and most level-headed member of the team. As the team is a DysfunctionJunction, that isn't very difficult.
* The "Big Wheel" issue of ''ComicBook/GlobalFrequency'' had a half-dead soldier who'd been basically turned into a walking killing machine by cybernetic alterations. Then he saw his reflection and decided to live up to the role.
** And one of the members of the team sent to kill him before he could spread his killing spree was a partial cyborg who emphasized to her teammates the BodyHorror inherent even in just the grinding, inhuman feel of an artificial arm (and the anchoring necessary to keep it from ripping off her shoulder). The arm disgusts her -- she looks in the mirror every day and vomits because of that thing. TheGovernment, being TooDumbToLive, they provide all the RequiredSecondaryPowers to keep their {{Super Soldier}}s alive, but they don't give a damn about keeping them ''sane''. Their "enhancile" can't even speak normally. [[AndIMustScream And He Must Scream.]]
--->'''Member 436''': ''Try to imagine. You're a multiple amputee who's been flayed alive. You can't feel your own heartbeat. You can't feel yourself breathe. You can feel metal rubbing against your muscles and organs. And you don't recognize the man in the mirror.''
** [[CombatSadomasochist Killing gave him sexual pleasure.]] This was HARD-WIRED IN.
* The Guardians of the Universe got tired of the little issues that kept popping up with the Franchise/GreenLantern Corps, and decided to "improve" upon them by inventing the Alpha Lanterns, elite volunteers converted into cyborgs via Manhunter tech. The big problem was that the connection to the Book of Oa the conversion hardwired into the volunteers turned them into puppets. The Guardians were so happy they could get what they thought was a Lantern's flexibility with a Manhunter's zeal blinded them to the fact they were less than either due to their willpower being deadened by the programming. And that was before they were shown, ''forcefully'', that they weren't the only ones who could control said puppets...

** The Alphas are ''nothing'' compared to the Third Army, who take this tropes to apocalyptic extremes. Imagine the Alpha Lanterns, but turn them into horrifying, zombielike beings that exist only to kill or assimilate anything that feels emotion. That's the Third Army. And the worst part? [[spoiler:The Guardians made them, intending for them to replace the Green Lantern Corps wholesale.]]
* Hank Henshaw, AKA Cyborg Franchise/{{Superman}}, looks like a straight example, but it's a bit more complicated. Originally part of a pastiche of the ComicBook/FantasticFour GoneHorriblyWrong, he was turned into an energy being/ghost that could possess machinery after his body decayed away. It wasn't until he was rejected by his wife and wandered around space for a while that he became a hardcore villain (and even more hardcore DeathSeeker). So, this is more a case of [[{{Pun}} his soul eating cybernetics]]. He eventually found himself in a clique with the [[ComicBook/CrisisOnInfiniteEarths Anti-Monitor]] and [[ComicBook/InfiniteCrisis Superboy Prime]], both of whom had every intention of destroying everything that existed, including him. It didn't stick, much to his regret.
* After becoming a {{Technopath}} thanks to the Extremis process, [[ComicBook/IronMan Tony Stark's]] friends and colleagues start to suspect this. Turns out the information overload is just making him a little loopy - the rest is his own normal paranoia and borderline-masochistic work ethic cranked up to 11, thanks to his new efficiency. [[spoiler: And Skrulls, but you find that out later.]]
** And at one point the cybernetics just plain eat him, overwriting his body and mind for a few issues, turning him into Girl Ultron.
** It's now an {{inver|tedTrope}}sion, thanks to said [[spoiler:Anal Skrull]] Tony losing his Extremis powers; he's now a shell of his former self.
** Played straight in the [[WhatIf non-canon]] ''ComicBook/IronMan: Rapture'' mini-series that had Tony implanting himself with a new heart after his heart attack. [[spoiler: He ends up getting addicted to cyber enhancements and locks himself in his lab for a week, before revealing himself as a cyberbeing named 'Stark 2.0''. His brain implants have developed a separate consciousness and taken over his body, leaving him fighting a BattleInTheCenterOfTheMind.]]
* Hart Whitcraft was afraid of this happening after receiving an artificial heart in the Acclaim version of ''ComicBook/MagnusRobotFighter''. [[spoiler: The series, and entire line, ends before we can find out.]]
* The Creator/MarvelComics superhero ComicBook/{{Deathlok}} got revived as a cyborg to be used as a soldier. He's now stuck with a computer linked to his brain that is constantly encouraging him to be a cold-blooded pragmatist instead of a decent human being, and it's a constant struggle of wills for him to override it. His daughter Death Locket, from ''ComicBook/AvengersArena'', is a subversion. She usually has complete control, but technopaths are able to shut down her human half and control her via her cybernetics.
* The world of ''ComicBook/{{Mosely}}'' had people with cybernetic upgrades to the point of having little kids having superpowerful upgrades.

* Played straight ''and'' subverted in ''ComicBook/SonicTheHedgehogArchieComics'' series; the roboticization process used by Dr. Robotnik/Eggman normally results in a loss of free will, while the cybernetic enhancements of the Dark Legion actually ''don't'' result in a significant change of personality (though it's still considered by the mainstream public to be "unnatural"), and their status as "evil" is more from their methods of fighting for their right to continue their lifestyle, than the lifestyle itself. "Legionization" (pre-Super Genesis Wave)/"Cyberization" (post-Super Genesis Wave) are similar in the sense that the cybernetics contain a fail-safe as insurance against potential insurrection or insubordination, but pre-SGW, this failsafe was potentially lethal, since the cybernetics contained difficult-if-not-impossible-to-remove explosives, while post-SGW, this fail-safe simply paralyzed the victim's ''entire body'', while leaving them conscious and aware ''the whole time''. The only instance of a Legionization sapping the soul of the original victim was that of former GUN Commander Hugo Brass, who underwent extensive brainwashing before the cybernetic surgery. The original roboticization process didn't do this since its inventor, ''Sonic's uncle'', invented it to save the lives of people whose bodies were too far gone. The loss of free will was something Eggman added. Also, prior to becoming Dr. Robotnik (and before he discovered Roboticization), Julian Kintobor already had an alternate means of enslavement on deck: turning victims into cyborgs (a potential forerunner to DEL Legionization, since this process was experimental), with Monkey Khan (a Sun Wukong expy), the only surviving/successful victim of this.
* ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'': Alistair Smythe, one of the many villains to build the Spider-Slayer robots, was at least a borderline case. After using cybernetics to become "the Ultimate Spider-Slayer" (as he called himself) he became a megalomaniac with somewhat of a god complex. He was a little more lucid in subsequent appearances, but still somewhat mad, his desire for revenge against Spider-Man and J. Jonah Jameson becoming a dangerous obsession that [[spoiler:eventually leads to his death at the hands of Comicbook/SuperiorSpiderMan]].
* ComicBook/{{Cyborg}} (Victor Stone) of the ''Comicbook/TeenTitans'' played with this trope. While Victor is normally portrayed with a very forceful personality (he started out as quite an angry guy whose anger mostly stemmed from being a cyborg), he has been rebuilt and reinterpreted multiple times over the years. There have been versions of the character where it was implied that Cyborg was a full machine using what was left of Victor, but had no soul or personality; but these versions were very much the exception. Played completely straight, however, with the case of Grid, Cyborg's EvilCounterpart in the Crime Syndicate. When he first appeared in the ''ComicBook/ForeverEvil2013'' storyline he co-opted Cyborg's body and it was teased that he, like the other Crime Syndicate members, was an evil alternate Vic. Later it was revealed that Grid was not only not an alternate Vic, but "he" was [[NotEvenHuman never even human]] at all.
* [[MeaningfulName Circuit Breaker]] from the original [[ComicBook/TheTransformersMarvel Marvel Transformers comics]] is this. Originally a humble, loyal, and cheerful woman, after a raid by the Decepticons leaves her crippled, she has cybernetic circuitry implanted onto her skin to allow her to walk, fly, and manipulate electricity. She also becomes a violent sociopath with no regard for the Transformers' factions or the actions of any individual Transformer, blaming all of them for her current state and believing that the best course of action is to kill all of them. [[NiceJobBreakingItHero She actually ends up helping the Decepticons more through her constant obsession with the violent destruction of all Transformers]], since the Decepticons take advantage of her predictable blind response and the Autobots are a bit HonorBeforeReason in this instance. The point of whether her psychosis is stronger before or after she goes through with her cybernetic implants is up for debate.

* Subverted in ''ComicBook/{{Transmetropolitan}}'', where one issue is dedicated to the concept of "foglets": humans that have turned themselves into clouds of nanomachines. When Channon's former boyfriend Ziang decides to join them, she thinks that this trope is in full effect and reacts like Ziang's going to kill himself. Spider, knowing better, gets them invited to Ziang's downloading. While Spider practically had to drag Channon there, she changes her mind when she meets Tico, who is charming, well-adjusted and unmistakably human.
** Then played straight in another issue when Spider describes "mechanics": synthetic drugs that can be taken both by humans and by [[ArtificialIntelligence AIs]]. Both get high, and in the meantime the AI gets control of your DNA...and promptly starts turning bits of you mechanical.
* ''Franchise/WonderWoman'':
** While there are usually factors in play beyond just the cybernetics most of the Silver Swans were decent people before their augmentations, and turned super villain with them.

* ''Franchise/XMen'':
** The Prime Sentinels are like this. While other types of Sentinels are stock MechaMooks, Primes are something of a cybernetic ManchurianAgent, as they are humans who have had {{Nanomachines}} integrated into their bodies. When programming kicks in, they morph into armored beings with powerful weapons systems, and become, much like any other Sentinel, anti-mutant killing machines, with their former personalities seemingly deleted. This was confirmed when ComicBook/{{Rogue}} tried to use her personality absorption power on one, only to find there was nothing left for her to drain. (However, [[Characters/XMen2000sMembers Karima Shapandar]] was indeed cured, possibly because she was a prototype.)

* In ''Literature/AlienInASmallTown,'' Thrym Scyllaschild eventually allows aliens to turn him into a virtually immortal cyborg who is always happy. [[GettingSmiliesPaintedOnYourSoul Always. Happy.]] And yet on some level he realizes he desperately misses feeling ''other things,'' but he can't quite muster the strength of will to have the change undone. It's not clear that it ''can'' be completely undone. Oh, and his new bionic form looks like a giant, cotton candy pink spider. And he's so happy about it! At least he's pretty sure he is.

* In the ''TabletopGame/BattleTech'' novel ''Operation Excalibur'', one character, whose husband recently had a limb replaced, mused that the sex the night before proved that cybernetic limbs at least don't remove a person's tenderness or passion, and thinks that the only people who tend to go coldly murderous when they have cybernetic prosthetics installed are people who tended towards that sort of behavior anyway.

* In ''Literature/BehindBlueEyes'' by Anna Mocikat, it is {{Justified|Trope}} as the Guardian Angels' cybernetics are designed to make it easier to control their minds via brainwashing. They're designed to be an InternalDeathSquad that eliminates all dissent to the Olympias Corporation after all.

* ''Cyborg'' by Creator/MartinCaidin: Steve Austin fears this is going to happen to him after he becomes a cyborg. It almost happens literally in the NumberedSequel ''Cyborg IV'', when he's sent back into space as the pilot of an experimental combat spacecraft. The spacecraft is operated via a direct BrainComputerInterface, which is so powerful that when it's at full strength Austin no longer exists as an independent entity. He and the spacecraft are one. Since it's an experimental prototype being used only as an emergency measure, no one knows what will happen when the interface is turned off.

* In the ''Franchise/DoctorWhoExpandedUniverse'' novel ''The Silent Stars Go By'', the "Transhumans" are psychotic cyborgs [[spoiler: who intend to eat their descendents once the planet has been terraformed for them]].

* Creator/WalterJonWilliams's ''Hardwired'' plays a variation of this trope; a person who replaces too much of their brain-matter with implants becomes "white-brained", detached from the world and other people, obsessed with mathematical abstractions, and losing much of their emotions in the process. However, it only happens to those who are inclined towards abstract thinking to begin with - those who use their cybernetic implants to interact with physical objects like vehicles, and expand their abilities in the realms of physical talent like martial arts rarely suffer from these effects.
* In ''To Hold Infinity'' by John Meaney, the plexcores with which the inhabitants of Fulgor augment their brains don't eat your soul so much as change it into something rather inhuman. The antagonist of the book is a hundred times more augmented than his peers, ultimately [[spoiler: enabling him to survive death, in a fashion, and become a mind-eating planet-conquering godlike being]]. He maintains much of his human emotion, but has a tendency to [[AGodAmI consider other humans as obstructions or prey]].

* Max Barry's ''Literature/MachineMan'' addresses this with Dr. Charles Neumann. After [[spoiler: becoming a ManInTheMachine, he begins talking to his artificial parts and referring to himself as "we". He gets better... Sort of]].

* The Stalkers (AKA the Resurrected Men) in the ''Literature/MortalEngines'' books were cyborg soldiers that were "resurrected" using Old Tech. The Lord Mayor of London manages to have the tech reverse-engineered from Shrike, who is a partial aversion to this trope.

* Creator/CLMoore's "Literature/NoWomanBorn": The deceased starlet Deirdre is brought back to life in a robotic body. Her builder, Maltzer, regrets doing so and is convinced she will eventually lose her humanity. Deirdre, however, is thrilled to be alive again and ignores his exclamations of worry. It's only when [[spoiler:he threatens suicide]] that she admits she ''does'' have doubts about her retaining her humanity, and her voice turns just a little more metallic in the final line.

* ''Literature/QuantumGravity'': Lila worries that this will happen. In something of a twist, it's not that she's worried about her human parts being replaced by more mechanical ones (at first), it's that her organic and inorganic parts are slowly integrating--she's told her AI and her brain will stop being separate soon. [[spoiler:And then the magic metalloid fleshoid ''stuff'' starts growing to encompass more of her body, and she frets even more because she is losing all of her human body.]]
* Zigzagged somewhat by the ''Literature/RevelationSpace'' universe.

** In ''Literature/DiamondDogs'', the central characters are made more and more alien by cybernetic means, but again, becoming alien (or rather, able to ''think'' in a sufficiently alien way as to solve the increasingly lethal puzzles they are presented with) is what they set out to do in the first place, again arguing a continuity of personality despite the radical modification of form - up to a point, anyway. Unfortunately they recruited a cyberneticist whose dedication to his art is extreme, to say the least.

* In Creator/CordwainerSmith's famous debut short story, ''Literature/ScannersLiveInVain,'' this is a major theme. Due to a mysterious effect that interplanetary space has on the human body, causing physical agony and eventually a suicidal compulsion, anyone who goes into space must either be in [[HumanPopsicle cold sleep]], or have their sensory nerves severed so that they have no senses but the eyes, in which case their bodies must be regulated and monitored by implants. This is mostly done to "Habermen," convicts who have been sentenced to a FateWorseThanDeath[[note]]a running theme with Smith[[/note]], but because Habermen must be monitored, there is a small group of elite pilots, officers and engineers who undergo the same procedure, called the "Scanners." When a scientist discovers a way to travel safely in space without undergoing this procedure, the assembly of Scanners, whose cannot become hot-blooded or otherwise feel emotions viscerally, vote to assassinate him. Meanwhile, the hero, who is temporarily "cranched" (able to feel normal sensations) is outraged, declares the others to be "zombies," and vows to save the scientist. Part of the moral of the story is that the cold logic of the head must be regulated by the body. [[spoiler:Unlike many examples of this trope, it turns out the severing process can be reversed, "restoring" the soul.]]
* Tanner Sack, a secondary protagonist in ''The Scar'' and all-around nice guy voluntarily undergoes Remaking to become more amphibious, as his new home is a floating city.
* Going into "Nanoshock" and becoming "Necrotech" is a very real danger in K.C. Alexander's ''[=SINless=]'' books. All humans have an extensive amount of nanites and many will have further bionics, with cybernetics enthusiasts really pushing the boundaries. Unfortunately humans have a limited "tech threshold", after which the body can't handle all this energy-intensive hardware and shuts down. Plus even if are you well below the tech threshold, if the nanites in your body exhaust their energy supply then they will start to break down the host body for energy. This is going in to "Nanoshock" and if the person dies, the corpse becomes animated by the nanites and the resulting [[ArtificialZombie high-tech zombie]] becomes known as "Necrotech".
* Grigari nano-cybernetics do this in the ''Franchise/StarTrek'' novel ''Literature/StarTrekFederation'', although it doesn't affect the personality so much as the stuff below it - essentially {{Flanderiz|ation}}ing the user. Also, the guy whose soul was being eaten was a psychotic [[ANaziByAnyOtherName Optimum agent]] obsessed with Zefram Cochrane and a physically impossible "warp bomb", so it's quite possible everyone would have been better off if it ''did'' take out the emotions.
* The Choblik race introduced in the Literature/StarTrekNovelVerse are an {{inver|tedTrope}}sion. They were originally reasonably intelligent woodland creatures before a race of unknown Builders [[UpliftedAnimal installed their implants, giving them sapience]]. Upgrades throughout childhood and adolescence are celebrated rites of passage in their culture. Choblik crewmember Torvig Bu-kar-nguv of the [[Literature/StarTrekTitan Titan]] initially doesn't understand why everyone fears the Borg so much. In ''Literature/StarTrekDestiny'' the full implications hit him and he's horrified. This trope, and thus the Borg, are essentially the anti-Choblik, their most primal horror.
* Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse:
** Ton Phanan of Wraith Squadron was a doctor before [[EmergencyTransformation losing a leg and half of his face]] during the Battle of Endor. It's debatable whether the cybernetics specifically or his highly-visible injuries are more to blame, but nonetheless Phanan became increasingly cynical and depressed, [[StepfordSmiler hiding in snark]]. [[WordOfGod The author]] is on record as saying that although Phanan feared death and struggled against it, deep down he didn't want to live.
---> '''Phanan:''' There's no mechanical replacement for a future, Face. And every time I take a hit, and they have to cut away another part of me and replace it with machinery because I'm allergic to bacta, every time that happens I seem to be a little further away from the young doctor who had a future. He can't come back, Face. Not all of him is here anymore.
** In one novel [[spoiler: Tenel Ka]] loses an arm. She refuses to replace it cybernetically due to family values. Luke supports her decision and explains that while ''he'' prefers to have his arm replaced, he always keeps in mind this is a step in direction of Vader - "half human, half machine".
** Also one argument why Vader was irredeemable was that he was "more machine than man".
*** The comic ''ComicBook/StarWarsLegacy'' plays with this. An Imperial Knight was badly wounded so they gave her a "Vader" Life Support system. One of the healers was worry about making another Vader, however the other pointed out that Vader turned evil ''before'' being put in his suit. [[spoiler: She's still mostly the same, but since she was fine with dying before and now can't touch anything without feeling pain she's ''pissed.'']]

** Dengar was forcibly turned into a cyborg by the Empire. In the process, they removed all the emotional centers of his brain they didn't feel would be useful for their purposes -- no love, kindness, etc. He is intellectually aware of what an emotional cripple he is now, and ''wants'' to feel nice things again.
* ''[[Literature/CouncilWars There Will Be Dragons]]'' has a mother appalled at the prospect of her teenage daughter uploading herself into an A.I., not because the uploading process is inherently flawed, but because she's so young. The upload will emulate her brain as it is ''now,'' so her brain will never have the chance to undergo the physical maturation processes of adolescence, and she will remain neurologically (and, it is implied, emotionally) a flighty teenager for the rest of her very long life.
* In Sasya Fox's ''Literature/{{Theta}}'' the preeminent religion on Jale's homeworld believes that if you lose any parts of your body in life you lack them in the afterlife as well. She's not religious but still a little disturbed when one of her crew (from a more "pragmatic" culture) decides to replace his crippled arm with a prosthesis instead of waiting for them to find a hospital that might be able to salvage it.
* The Tin Woodsman from ''Literature/TheWonderfulWizardOfOz'' claims to be an example of this, since he ''literally'' has no heart--or any other organs, for that matter. The Wicked Witch of the East {{curse}}d him to repeatedly accidentally injure himself with his axe, so eventually his whole body (including his chest, where his heart used to be) had to be replaced with tin. Now he's just a thinking, moving suit of metal with no internal organs at all, but [[TinMan any idiot can see that he doesn't need a physical heart to have a spiritual heart]]. When he accidentally crushes a bug beneath his foot on the Yellow Brick Road, he cries so hard that his jaw rusts shut.

* ''Radio/JohnFinnemoresSouvenirProgramme:'' One storyteller sketch has him approached by the Prime Minister to put Queen Victoria's brain in a robot body. The storyteller points out this will happen, then adds he's not going to refuse, he's just saying. Sure enough, Robo-Vic goes on an insane rampage, slicing people in half with giant novelty scissors.

** Alternatively, the theory of "embodied cognition" (explained more fully in ''[[http://discovermagazine.com/2013/june/12-where-do-thoughts-occur Discover Magazine]]'') suggests that any change to the body will also change the thought process, since cognition does not only happen in the brain but throughout your anatomy. If that is indeed the case replacing body parts with cybernetics will almost certainly change someone's outlook. The jury is still out on exactly ''how'' it will change, but there is some evidence (outlined by ''[[http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20141205-the-man-with-two-hearts BBC Future]]'') that cybernetics that alter the awareness of what your body is doing may reduce empathy and intuition. If someone could be completely robbed of both through cybernetic enhancement they could certainly appear to have lost their soul.

*** The [[SkeleBot Necrons]] got hit by this when the C'tan convinced them to [[BrainUploading upload themselves into undying metal bodies]]. The millennia spent in stasis, or [[CameBackWrong the damage to their psyche sustained after heavy repairs]], has driven some Necrons insane, or reduced others to {{Empty Shell}}s. In some cases, the "common-born" soldiers' mind transferal process was deliberately sabotaged by their Lords to make them mindlessly obedient. Though it was actually the C'tan themselves who literally ate the Necrontyr souls during the transformations.

* ''LetsPlay/NewLifeSMP'': ZigZaggingTrope depending on perspective.

* In ''Film/BackToTheFuturePartII'', Marty is warned that the cyborg asshole Griff "has a few short circuits in his bionic implants." (In fairness to this trope, though, Griff ''does'' descend from a long line of bullying {{Jerkass}}es, so it's quite debatable how much - if any - of his Jerkassness can be blamed on cybernetics.)

* Alistair Smythe, one of the many ''Franchise/SpiderMan'' villains to build the Spider-Slayer robots, was at least a borderline case. After using cybernetics to become "the Ultimate Spider-Slayer" (as he called himself) he became a megalomaniac with somewhat of a god complex. He was a little more lucid in subsequent appearances, but still somewhat mad, his desire for revenge against Spider-Man and J. Jonah Jameson becoming a dangerous obsession that [[spoiler:eventually leads to his death at the hands of Comicbook/SuperiorSpiderMan]].

* ''Anime/EighthMan'' has cyborgs who routinely run rampant because the cybernetic link to the nervous system along with the massive boost in strength unhinges most people's minds. Eight Man, being a ({{Bishonen}}) PhlebotinumRebel with "good cybernetics" is able to escape these effects and battle the evil MegaCorp producing them.

* In the ''Anime/AfroSamurai'' movie, Sio implies that this has happened to Kuma, saying that he's been repaired so many times, there's hardly any human left at all, just a mindless "samurai doll."
** [[spoiler:He later proves her wrong, by giving up his life in defense of Afro during the battle with his clone/cyborg father (who might be another example of this trope).]]
** In the series he's pretty AxCrazy after becoming a teddy-bear Vader [[spoiler: although this might be because he blames Afro for everything bad that happened to them]].

** Or are they? [[spoiler: During the "Psycho Killer" questline you are tasked with bringing down a number of cyberpsychos, all of whom turn out to have other explanations for their rampages beyond chroming, such as drug abuse, untreated PTSD, job loss, deaths of loved ones, religious mania.... It is generally implied that while chroming was definitely not good for any of these peoples' mental health, "cyberpsychosis" is a blanket term for a wide range of social and mental health issues, most of which are at most tangentially related to cybernetics. The term has then been horrendously over-applied by lazy corp-owned media outlets, and the only reason these cases get the amount of attention they do is how destructive these heavily chromed individuals can be compared to your common-or-garden school shooter.]]

** ''TabletopGame/DarkHeresy'':
*** A literal take on this trope are the Obliviates, who are cyborgs implanted with a device called an "Oblivion Volitor", a Heretek device that actually destroys the soul, turning the unfortunate into a zombie-like creature.
*** According to the adventure "Light of Reason", the Adeptus Mechanicus's practice of replacing parts of their brain with cybernetics erodes their immortal souls. In the case of the extremist faction called The Brotherhood of Steel this makes their members unable to feel the danger of the warp phenomena, even when these fill all others with dread, but it also give them some protection against being directly subjugated by the powers of Chaos.
** In ''TabletopGame/{{Necromunda}}'', this trope is averted by the majority of Pit Slaves who have retained their humanity despite the great number of bionic replacements that have been forced upon them. Servitors, lobotomised and programmed cyborgs that have to be programmed to perform tasks, are the only members of a [[SlaveLiberation Pit Slave gang]] who have had their humanity stripped from them by the cyberization process.
* In the mecha RPG ''TabletopGame/GiantGuardianGeneration'', being a Cyborg means you take a penalty to Empathy rolls, as well as Awareness rolls that involve diplomacy and deceit. In other words, Cybernetics don't so much Eat Your Soul as Make You Bad at Socializing.

* Played straight ''and'' subverted in ''ComicBook/SonicTheHedgehogArchieComics'' series; the roboticization process used by Dr. Robotnik/Eggman normally results in a loss of free will, while the cybernetic enhancements of the Dark Legion actually ''don't'' result in a significant change of personality (though it's still considered by the mainstream public to be "unnatural"), and their status as "evil" is more from their methods of fighting for their right to continue their lifestyle, than the lifestyle itself. The original roboticization process didn't do this since its inventor, ''Sonic's uncle'', invented it to save the lives of people whose bodies were too far gone. The loss of free will was something Eggman added.

** The ''VideoGame/DarkForcesSaga'' has robotic Darktroopers; supplemental material mentions that the [[http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Phase_Zero_Dark_Trooper prototypes]] were aging veteran clone troopers who had around seventy percent of their bodies replaced with cybernetics. Combining the weight of their experience with stronger, faster, more damage-resistant bodies made them extremely effective in combat, but [[CloningBlues no one had consulted them beforehand]]. That's why the project switched its focus to droid troopers - droids don't gape in horror at [[WhatHaveIBecome what they have become]] and [[DrivenToSuicide kill themselves]] or just [[SuicideByCop act really recklessly in battle]], wasting good credits and tech.