History Main / BewareTheMindReader

One of the PsychicPowers is to [[MindReading read minds of other people]]. As the mind is pretty much said to be the safest, most private place one has, mind reading can thus be said as a violation of said privacy. AndThatsTerrible.

See also ForgotAboutTheMindReader, the comedy version of this. SubTrope of BadPowersBadPeople. Compare InvisibleJerkass for another potentially nasty power. Contrast MindOverManners when mind readers realize the trappings of this trope and become polite people who used their powers responsibly.

* At the end of ''Manga/{{Arachnid}}'', the Organization's Boss is revealed to be a telepath. Specifically, [[spoiler:the "Yoriko" who Alice fought tooth and nail to protect never actually existed and had been acting in accordance with Alice's thoughts to go from a horrible bully to an irreplaceable friend in the span of a month. That she is a mind ''[[CompellingVoice controller]]'' as well and is responsible for the deaths of Alice's parents doesn't help matters.]]

* Mao of ''Franchise/CodeGeass'' has a [[MagicalEye Geass]] that lets him read minds. Unfortunately, [[PowerIncontinence he can't control it]], and thus he's driven mad from the ordeal and became a PsychopathicManchild.

* ''{{Fanfic/Luminosity}}'':
** Bella’s initial reaction to learning about Edward’s power. She's extremely relieved to learn that it [[PsychicBlockDefense doesn't work on her]].
--->'''Bella:''' ''What in the name of everything decent and sane is he doing around people?''
--->'''Alice:''' Bella! Bella, please! Calm down! It's not as bad as you think!
--->'''Bella:''' How could ''reading minds'' be anything other than a ''flagrant and unconscionable'' violation of privacy that everyone around him has every reason to expect?
** A lot of the tension of the first book comes from the need for Bella to hide things from people who ''are'' vulnerable to mind-reading, to keep her plans safe from [[BigBrotherIsWatching the mind-reading Volturi leader Aro]].

* The technological level of ''Literature/TheCulture'' in the [[Creator/IainBanks Ian M. Banks]] novels is so high that the super-intelligent {{Artificial Intelligence}}s, known as "Minds", are capable of reading the minds of humans, thanks to effectors that are used on humans to basically do a mind probe that has the nasty side effect of a MindRape. So their general consensus is not to do it unless it's ''absolutely'' necessary. One Mind (The Grey Area) was especially... "pragmatic" in this way, to the point all of its peer minds started calling it Meat Fucker rather than their proper name.
* In Creator/MarionZimmerBradley's ''Literature/{{Darkover}}'' series, the noble caste (referred to as "Comyn") have telepathy as one of their defining features, along with red hair. A society where most of the people (at least those who appear in the books) have telepathy has led to interesting social rules like 'Do not enter another's mind without permission' and if one accidentally 'hears' something they weren't meant to, it is considered polite not to mention it. So the trope is addressed and defied.

* Creator/KatherineKurtz's ''Literature/{{Deryni}}'' have a full range of telepathy from an empathic sensing of emotions through Truth Reading (detecting if someone is telling a lie) through compelling them to speak the truth and all the way up to total MindControl. The good guys tend to reserve MindControl for maintaining the {{Masquerade}}; the bad guys (and girls) have no such compunctions.
* In ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles''. Invading the mind of a human--that is, reading minds and mind control --is against wizard law, but transmitting one's own thoughts is legal.

* One of the ''Franchise/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'''s entries references an entire planet of beings who were cursed with telepathy. Everyone on their entire planet could hear every thought in every other mind on the planet, whether they wanted to or not, which quickly threatened to drive them bonkers from information overload and/or sheer boredom. They solved this by adopting the habit of constantly talking loud enough to drown out the constant, unwanted incoming mental transmissions.

* ''Literature/Moon1985'': Jonathan Childes's dormant [[PsychicPowers extrasensory insights]], awoken by a similarly able SerialKiller, [[ForcedToWatch forcibly attune]] Childes to postmortem mutilations - which draws him to the killer's attention. There follows an indiscriminately murderous campaign to get Childes's attention.
* "Literature/WhoGoesThere" has an alien with {{Telepathy}} and VoluntaryShapeshifting abilities. It uses them to copy both the minds and bodies of its victims before performing a KillAndReplace on them.

* In Daphne Du Maurier's ''Literature/{{Trilby}}'', Svengali is a manipulative and sociopathic character who uses his knowledge of hypnotism to get inside the minds of characters and force them into acts they would not otherwise commit. His prescience often borders on (and is mistaken for) mind-reading.
* A ''Literature/WaysideSchool'' book introduces a new teacher named Wendy Nogard who has the ability to read minds, and uses this to perfect effect to be an ExactWords BitchInSheepsClothing. For example, Nogard promises to not give homework if somebody solves a problem she set, and uses her powers to search for the one kid that is not capable of solving it and makes him go to the blackboard. She also uses this to sow distrust amongst the other students.
* ''Literature/TheVoyageOfTheSpaceBeagle''. Riim society is stagnant because everyone can read everyone else's mind. As a result, they can't cope with change well, like the existence of extraterrestrial life. Their attempt to telepathically communicate with the ''Space Beagle'', although non-hostile, also [[HatePlague throws the crew into chaos]].

* The 1973 TV romantic comedy ''The Girl With Something Extra'' was built around this trope: John Burton discovers that his new wife Sally can read his mind. This news compels John to police his thoughts, lest Sally quiz him about them.
* The sixth episode of ''Ghost Story'' is "Alter Ego," and concerns a grade school boy convalescing at home who is visited by an EvilCounterpart ''doppelganger''. The only way the boy can rid himself of his nemesis is to defeat him in a game of chess, but the duplicate can read the boy's mind to know his strategy.

** This is a DiscussedTrope in the ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' episode "[[Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS5E10Counterpoint Counterpoint]]". Its main plot is centred around a xenophobic empire, the Devore Imperium, that very strongly believes in this trope, to the point that while they do agree on letting Voyager pass through their territory, they do regular inspections ''solely'' to check for any telepath on board (Voyager pretends the telepaths on their crew complement had been killed in action getting to Devore space and puts the telepaths on the ship into transport buffer stasis during any inspections), and Janeway has several conversations with the chief inspector on the justifications for the Devore attitude (naturally, both Janeway and the episode comes down on the side that it ''isn't'' given the many examples to the contrary in the Federation, Starfleet, on Voyager specifically and even amongst her friends).

* {{GURPS Psionics}} has an entire Disadvantage for this; a specific subcategory of Social Stigma for known Telepaths, in addition to whatever Social Stigma any other and all kinds of Psychics already have in the campaign setting.

[[folder:Web Original]]
* ''Website/SCPFoundation''. [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-1527 SCP-1527 ("Our Bellmaker, Our Radiant Skies")]]. The large crustaceans summoned by the Bell have a kind of telepathy that can be disrupted by radio jamming. They can use it to telepathically attack human beings at a range of up to 50 meters and cause effects such as confusion, inducing suggestibility, implanting compulsions, and leaving messages in their minds.

->'''Kashyk:''' Captain, do you trust me? \\
'''Janeway:''' Not for a second.\\
'''Kashyk:''' Exactly, and why should you? Trust has to be earned. It's gradual, and yet it's the foundation of every relationship, professional and personal. It's also a concept alien to the telepathic races. Why take someone at their word when you can simply read their mind?
-->-- ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'', "[[Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS5E10Counterpoint Counterpoint]]"

* in ''Fanfic/SacrificeRavenshell'', Rockwell ends up outing that Donnie's attraction to April is, on some level, reciprocated.

* ''Literature/Moon1985'': Jonathan Childes's dormant [[PsychicPowers extrasensory insights]], awoken by a similarly able SerialKiller, is ForcedToWatch postmortem mutilations - which draws him to the killer's attention. There follows an indiscriminately murderous campaign to get Childes's attention.

** The ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' episode "[[Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS4E10RandomThoughts Random Thoughts]]" centers on an alien world populated by a telepathic race who have banned aggressive thought. It turns out that there is an underground black market of sorts where aggressive emotions are sold like drugs. This causes a few mishaps, including a woman getting murdered.

** The ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' episode "[[Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS5E10Counterpoint Counterpoint]]" centers on an alien world populated by a telepathic race who have banned aggressive thought. It turns out that there is an underground black market of sorts where aggressive emotions are sold like drugs. This causes a few mishaps, including a woman getting murdered.

One of the PsychicPowers is to [[MindReading read minds of other people]]. As the mind is pretty much said to be the safest, most private place one has, mind reading can thus be said as the violation of said privacy. AndThatsTerrible.

This trope is when a work portrays the practices of mind reading as bad, for the reasons above. Typically this leads to the society enforcing rules for limitations and prohibitions of mind reading characters, or, in darker societies, leads to persecutions, slaughter and trafficking of mind readers. In this case, mind readers have a chance to be sympathetic as much as to be actual nasty people.

If a mind reader is heroic, they may still be a shady person or be deemed as such in universe.

See also ForgotAboutTheMindReader, the comedy version of this. SubTrope of BadPowersBadPeople. Compare InvisibleJerkass for another potentially nasty power. Contrast MindOverManners when mind readers realize the trappings of this trope and becomes a polite person who used their powers responsibly.

* In the end of ''Manga/{{Arachnid}}'', the Organization's Boss is revealed to be a telepath. Specifically, [[spoiler:the "Yoriko" who Alice fought tooth and nail to protect never actually existed and had been acting in accordance with Alice's thoughts to go from a horrible bully to a irreplaceable friend in the span of a month. That she is a mind ''[[CompellingVoice controller]]'' as well and is responsible for the deaths of Alice's parents doesn't help matters.]]

* Haruka Kotoura from ''Manga/KotouraSan'' is a fifteen-year old telepath who can't turn her ability off. As a child her [[InnocentlyInsensitive naturally naive personality]] causes her to simply blurt out sensitive information. This causes her to be labelled as a compulsive liar, to drive her friends and classmates away, and to cause her parent's divorce. However in high school she is finally able to meet Manabe, someone who is transparent, honest, and not scared of her ability.

* ''Manga/YuGiOh'': Maximillion Pegasus/Pegasus J. Crawford's Millennium Eye allows him to read the minds of anyone he comes in contact with. [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveSupernaturalPowers He uses this ability to blatant cheat at Duel Monsters]], knowing every card in his opponents hand and what their strategies are.

* The technological level of ''Literature/TheCulture'' in the [[Creator/IainBanks Ian M. Banks]] novels is so high that the super-intelligent {{Artificial Intelligence}}s, known as "Minds", are capable of reading the minds of humans, thanks to effectors that are used on on humans to basically do a mind probe that has the nasty side effect of a MindRape. So their general consensus is not to do it unless it's ''absolutely'' necessary. One Mind (The Grey Area) was especially... "pragmatic" in this way, to the point all of its peer minds started calling it Meat Fucker rather than their proper name.
* In Creator/MarionZimmerBradley's ''Literature/{{Darkover}}'' series, the noble caste (referred to as "Comyn"), have telepathy as one of their defining features, along with red hair. With a society where most of the people (at least those who appear in the books) have telepathy has led to interesting social rules like 'Do not enter another's mind without permission' and if one accidentally 'hears' something they weren't meant to, it is considered polite not to mention it. So the trope is addressed and defied.

* In ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles''. Invading the mind of a human--that is, reading minds and mindcontrol --is against wizard law, but transmitting one's own thoughts is legal.

* ''Literature/HiveMind2016'' has the Nosies, which are believed to be telepaths, but aren't. Nosies are generally strongly disliked, and the sight of them almost-universally leads to people chanting multiplication tables as PsychicStatic.
* ''Literature/InConquestBorn'' centers on a conflict between a race of [[GeneticAdaptation genetic aquisitionists]] trying to master telepathy and thier mortal enemies, a ProudWarriorRace society that considers psychic powers counter to everything they believe in.
* The ''Literature/InCryptid'' series features the AlwaysChaoticEvil species known as Cuckoos. Cuckoos are telepathic allowing them to read the minds of others. There also evil monsters who love to prey on humans. They use there mental abilities to ingrate themselves in the lives of there prey, by making them belive that they were always there. They then create cause chaos for those hapless victims often leading to death and pandemonium.

* In Daphne Du Maurier's ''Literature/{{Trilby}}'', Svengali is a manipulative and sociopathic character who uses his knowledge of hypnotism to get inside the minds of characters and force them into acts they would not otherwise commit. His prescience often borders on, and is mistaken for, mind-reading.

* ''Literature/TheVoyageOfTheSpaceBeagle''. Riim society is stagnant because everyone can read everyone else's mind. As a result they can't cope with change well, like the existence of extraterrestrial life. Their attempt to telepathically communicate with the ''Space Beagle'', although non-hostile, also [[HatePlague throws the crew into chaos]].

* Psykers in general in ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'' (though not all of them can read minds). The ones that aren't possessed by Chaos are either completely insane or in the UncannyValley (their curse, to basically have all the demons of the Warp hammering on their minds so they can invade the material realm, is simply unfathomable by normal people, so neither psykers nor ordinary humans can really relate to the other). The Navigators are even worse, they're a particular breed of psyker that can see into the Warp, at the cost of being blind and a ThirdEye that automatically kills anyone they looks at. Literature/CiaphasCain, THE HERO OF THE IMPERIUM, describes them as thinking of {{Muggles}} as little better than orks with table manners... and those are the ones making an effort to be nice.

* ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid'' has Psycho Mantis, a depraved unrepentant serial killer with psychic powers up the wazoo, including mind reading, which he actively restrains with his mask due to his disgust at humanity. It's quite evident the only reason he's even with Liquid is because he wants to kill lots of people.

* Mewtwo in ''Webcomic/AwkwardZombie'' is seen using his psychic powers to induce embarassing nightmares in other people.

* ''Website/SCPFoundation''. [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-1527 SCP-1527 ("Our Bellmaker, Our Radiant Skies")]]. The large crustaceans summoned by the Bell have a kind of telepathy that can be disrupted by radio jamming. They can use it to telepathically attack human beings at a range of up to 50 meters and cause effects such as confusion, inducing suggestibility, implanting compulsions and leaving messages in their minds.

* ''Series/BabylonFive'' has the Psi Corps, which house most of humanity's psionic-capable humans. The Psi Corps constantly act as if they're superior to humanity, and recurring character Alfred Bester loves to be a {{Troll}} to everybody and everything that gets in the way of his assignment. It is mentioned later on that the formation of the Psi Corps was done ''because'' of this mentality, which makes all that followed a SelfFulfillingProphecy.

-->-- ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'', "Counterpoint"

* In "Literature/ItsAGoodLife" three year old Anthony is a RealityWarper who can read thoughts, so you better be thinking good thoughts at all times.
* Creator/JohnWCampbell's short story "Who Goes There?" has an alien with {{Telepathy}} and VoluntaryShapeshifter abilities. It uses them to copy both the minds and bodies of its victims before performing a KillAndReplace on them.

* ''Series/BabylonFive'' had the Psi Corps, which housed most of humanity's psionic-capable humans. The Psi Corps constantly act as if they were superior to humanity, and recurring character Alfred Bester loves to be a {{Troll}} to everybody and everything that gets in the way of his assignment. It is mentioned later on that the formation of the Psi Corps was done ''because'' of this mentality, which makes all that followed a SelfFulfillingProphecy.

* ''Franchise/StarTrek''
** ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' has the people of Talos 4 lure the ''Enterprise'' to their world with a distress signal, then capture and cage Captain Christopher Pike, hoping to compel him with psionic illusions into siring a slave race for the Talosians. Because the Talosians are mind readers, they can easily project illusions based on what their target is thinking.
** In an episode of ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' a guest character objects to Troi (a Betazoid, which is a species of mind-readers) being involved in a treaty negotiation. Troi explains that because she's only half Betazoid she can't read minds, just sense emotions. Troi's mother, Lwaxana, is fully Betazoid and she falls into the "comic annoyance" category (although she would be annoying even ''without'' the ability to read minds).
** A ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' episode centered on an alien world populated by a telepathic race who have banned aggressive thought. It turns out that there is an underground black market of sorts where aggressive emotions are sold like drugs. This causes a few mishaps, including a woman getting murdered.

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' episode "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS3E7TreehouseOfHorrorII Treehouse of Horror II]]'' Bart can read minds, and is generally omnipotent, and holds the town in terror.

* A ''Literature/WaysideSchool'' book introduces a new teacher who has the ability to read minds, and uses this to perfect effect to be an ExactWords BitchInSheepsClothing. For example, she promises to not give homework if somebody solves a problem she set, and uses her powers to search for the one kid that is not capable of solving it and makes him go to the blackboard. She also uses this to sow distrust amongst the other students.