Brain Bleach/Literature

""The Behinder flung itself on his shoulders. Then I knew why nobody's supposed to see one. I wish I hadn't. To this day I can see it, as plain as a fence at noon, and forever will I be able to see it. But talking about it's another matter. Thank you, I won't try.""
 * In J. R. R. Tolkien's The Silmarillion, the dragon Glaurung seems to posess very effective brain bleach, especially applied on Nienor.
 * In Breaking Dawn after Jacob sees Bella, he contemplates literally bleaching his brain to remove the image from his mind, deciding the potential for brain damage didn't outweigh his desire to forget everything.
 * In a Star Trek: New Frontier novel, after Calhoun and the bridge crew have been informed by a sentient computer that a level 3 diagnostic is like a head to toe gynecological exam, Soleta raises her hand and asks the captain for permission to forget she just heard that.
 * Done heartbreakingly in the Revenge of the Sith novelization, where Obi-Wan wishes he could tear his eyes out after seeing Anakin's Face Heel Turn (particularly, his ).
 * In Paths Not Taken, John Taylor intuits what disturbing source the Time Tower draws its power from. Having learned this, he says that he's seriously considering scrubbing out his frontal lobes with steel wool.
 * In the Magic: The Gathering novel Planeswalker, Phyrexian newt Xantcha tells something-close-to-omnipotent Planeswalker Urza that knowing the name of the Ineffable is something so terrible he ought to have it burnt out of his mind. So he does. Literally. With fire. In his mind.
 * Theon Greyjoy/Asha Greyjoy. Groping, near-sex. Poor Theon needs some Brain Bleach, stat!
 * In Unseen Academicals, Glenda views a stored memory at the Department of Post-Mortem Communications. The memory is three seconds long, and she spends the several seconds to follow trying to excise the previous three seconds from her own.
 * Played with in The Truth, when a Personal Dis-Organizer imp asks if it should erase its memory of events recorded for its previous owner. While holding a cotton-tipped swab to its ear.
 * The protagonist of Algernon Blackwood's "The Man Who Found Out" learned something so repellent from an ancient tablet that he literally had his brain bleached, demanding that a hypnotist eliminate the abhorrent knowledge via Laser-Guided Amnesia.
 * The Dresden Files the description of shagnasty. Unfortunately for Harry he'll never forget what it looked like.
 * In the Manly Wade Wellman story "The Desrick on Yandro", there's a creature called a Behinder. Nobody knows what it looks like, for it always attacks its victims from behind. John happens to be looking at Yandro when one makes its move: