Telepathic pathology in Star Trek

Abstract

Psi is a term used by parapsychologists to refer to both extrasensory perception and psychokinesis, abilities that have never been proven to exist. Telepathy is a form of psi, the direct communication of thoughts from one mind to another. In Star Trek, various kinds of telepathy have been displayed, often as unique alien properties. Star Trek has not only explored the possibility of the existence of telepathy, but also its logical corollary, the possibility of coexistent pathology. This essay will describe these fictional conditions from a medical perspective and will demonstrate that telepathic disease is depicted as working at longer distances than conventional (even air-borne) diseases. This imaginary medium is shown to communicate neuroses or psychoses to others via direct, mind-to-mind transfer, to one individual or to multitudes in epidemic proportions, often at distances that would require the equivalent of electromagnetic radiation as a mode of transmission. Since science fiction purports to be the handmaiden of the sciences, Star Trek treats these disorders with their own internal and therefore plausible logic in a convincing display of legitimacy, boldly taking us where no known diseases have gone before.