# Looking for an SF story **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** books-writing-myths\ **Created:** [April 22, 2026, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-an-sf-story/1029501 "2026-04-22T21:38:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![xtenkfarpl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/c2a13f/32.png) [@xtenkfarpl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xtenkfarpl)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2026, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-an-sf-story/1029501/1 "2026-04-22T21:38:52Z")
Short story, I think. Probably between 1955 and 1970? People have two separate personalities: an ‘uber’ and an ‘alter’ (probably not the actual terms in the story?) which alternate. Maybe daily or weekly? The two are not supposed to be aware of each other. But in the story case the ‘alter’ is breaking or bleeding through into the ‘uber’ personality and causing behavior problems. So the ‘alter’ has to be surgically erased. The story as I remember is from the POV of the ‘alter’ who is to be destroyed. Other points: 1. **Everyone has two alternating personalities as a normal condition** 2. They are **supposed to be completely unaware of each other** 3. **Bleed-through** between them is a _pathology_ 4. The “under” personality is **erased in a clinical procedure** 5. Scene involves **medical students observing** 6. **First-person POV of the personality about to be erased** 7. Likely **1955–1970** , pre-computer tech (electrodes/drugs) Also it is necessary for the ‘alter/under’ personality to be terrified to make the procedure work properly. Sounds a bit Philip K Dick, but I don’t think it was him? Does this ring any bells? ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2026, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-an-sf-story/1029501/2 "2026-04-22T21:45:19Z")
we have a whole guy for this, but I forgot his handle ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2026, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-an-sf-story/1029501/3 "2026-04-22T21:46:05Z")
oh wait, I can take this one: > **[A Scanner Darkly (film)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Scanner_Darkly_(film))** > > A Scanner Darkly is a 2006 American adult animated science fiction thriller film written and directed by Richard Linklater, based on the 1977 novel by Philip K. Dick. The film tells the story of identity and deception in a near-future dystopia constantly under intrusive high-tech police surveillance in the midst of a drug addiction epidemic. > The film was shot digitally and then animated using interpolated rotoscope, an animation technique in which animators trace over the original footage fra... ---
**Author:** ![ParallelLines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/parallellines/32/3575_2.png) [@ParallelLines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParallelLines)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2026, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-an-sf-story/1029501/4 "2026-04-22T21:48:12Z")
This thread is the one I think @HMS_Irruncible is referring to. > [@Ask the guy who is pretty good at SF Story Identification](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417): > > Hi there. It’s been just about 4 years since I signed onto the SDMB, but I’m back. A few weeks back I helped out in this thread [Help me find this Science Fiction short story - Cafe Society - Straight Dope Message Board](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=476861) with a story identification (by emailing the answer to Wendell). If you’ve got a story you’d like me to try to identify for you, give a description (include a rough idea of when you read it, and as many details as you remember) and I’ll give it my best shot. Andy ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2026, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-an-sf-story/1029501/5 "2026-04-22T21:49:09Z")
Or… “Join Now” by Robert Sheckley writing as Finn O’Donovan > **[Galaxy v17n02 (1958 12) : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet...](https://archive.org/details/Galaxy_v17n02_1958-12/page/n1/mode/2up)** > > (Contents information excerpted from The Internet Speculative Fiction Database)Art:Join Now by GoodmanJoin Now \[2\] by GoodmanJoin Now \[2\] by GoodmanNightmare... ---
**Author:** ![xtenkfarpl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/c2a13f/32.png) [@xtenkfarpl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xtenkfarpl)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2026, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-an-sf-story/1029501/6 "2026-04-22T21:49:42Z")
> [@HMS\_Irruncible](#): > > oh wait, I can take this one: Thanks for a shot, but I don’t think that’s quite it. Doesn’t exactly line up with what I remember. And I rather have the impression that the story was a bit earlier than 1977? ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2026, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-an-sf-story/1029501/7 "2026-04-22T22:09:25Z")
Beyond Bedlam by Wyman Guin? > **[Novella Review: “Beyond Bedlam” by Wyman Guin](https://sffremembrance.com/2023/08/31/novella-review-beyond-bedlam-by-wyman-guin/)** > > (Cover by Ed Emshwiller. Galaxy, August 1951.) Who Goes There? Well, we’ve been bamboozled again. I was gonna write a review of A. Merritt’s 1932 novel The Dwellers in the Mirage, but I… ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2026, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-an-sf-story/1029501/8 "2026-04-22T22:57:15Z")
Here’s a link to the text of [Beyond Bedlam](https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/51842/pg51842-images.html) This quote may settle the matter: > “Today’s assignment in Pharmacy History is, ‘Schizophrenia since the Ancient Pre-pharmacy days.’” Mary took enough breath to get into the first paragraph. > > “Schizophrenia is where two or more personalities live in the same brain. The ancients of the 20th Century actually looked upon schizophrenia as a disease! Everyone felt it was very shameful to have a schizophrenic person in the family, and, since children lived right with the same parents who had borne them, it was very bad. If you were a schizophrenic child in the 20th Century, you would be locked up behind bars and people would call you—” > > Mary blushed and stumbled over the daring word—“crazy.” “The ancients locked up strong ego groups right along with weak ones. Today we would lock up those ancient people.” > > * * * > > The class agreed silently. > > "But there were more and more schizophrenics to lock up. By 1950 the _prisons_ and hospitals were so full of schizophrenic people that the ancients did not have room left to lock up any more. They were beginning to see that soon everyone would be schizophrenic. > > "Of course, in the 20th Century, the schizophrenic people were almost as helpless and ‘crazy’ as the ancient Modern men. Naturally they did not fight wars and lead the silly life of the Moderns, but without proper drugs they couldn’t control their Ego-shiftability. The personalities in a brain would always be fighting each other. One personality would cut the body or hurt it or make it filthy, so that when the other personality took over the body, it would have to suffer. No, the schizophrenic people of the 20th Century were almost as ‘crazy’ as the ancient Moderns. > > "But then the drugs were invented one by one and the schizophrenic people of the 20th Century were freed of their troubles. With the drugs the personalities of each body were able to live side by side in harmony at last. It turned out that many schizophrenic people, called overendowed personalities, simply had so many talents and viewpoints that it took two or more personalities to handle everything. > > "The drugs worked so well that the ancients had to let millions of schizophrenic people out from behind the bars of ‘crazy’ houses. That was the Great Emancipation of the 1990s. From then on, schizophrenic people had trouble only when they criminally didn’t take their drugs. Usually, there are two egos in a schizophrenic person—the hyperalter, or prime ego, and the hypoalter, the alternate ego. There often were more than two, but the Medicorps makes us take our drugs so that won’t happen to us. > > “At last someone realized that if everyone took the new drugs, the great wars would stop. At the World Congress of 1997, laws were passed to make everyone take the drugs. There were many fights over this because some people wanted to stay Modern and fight wars. The Medicorps was organized and told to kill anyone who wouldn’t take their drugs as prescribed. Now the laws are enforced and everybody takes the drugs and the **hyperalter and hypoalter** are each allowed to have the body for an ego-shift of five days…” ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2026, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-an-sf-story/1029501/9 "2026-04-22T23:24:48Z")
Reported, in hopes of getting the block quote fixed ---
**Author:** ![ParallelLines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/parallellines/32/3575_2.png) [@ParallelLines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParallelLines)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2026, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-an-sf-story/1029501/10 "2026-04-23T01:12:55Z")
What’s nice is that the link @Andy_L provided was to a Project Gutenberg edition. > This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at [www.gutenberg.org](https://www.gutenberg.org/). If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook. So it’s a copyright lapsed, free to read book. One of the reasons I mention it is because I donate to the Project from time to time, and it’s a great resource for works that would be otherwise hard to find, especially in a more reader-friendly format. ---
**Author:** ![xtenkfarpl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/c2a13f/32.png) [@xtenkfarpl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xtenkfarpl)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2026, 10:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-an-sf-story/1029501/11 "2026-04-23T10:10:22Z")
Ah yes. That’s the one. Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2026, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-an-sf-story/1029501/12 "2026-04-23T12:42:44Z")
Excellent! Glad to help ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2026, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-an-sf-story/1029501/13 "2026-04-23T16:18:09Z")
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