Flowers for Algernon Syndrome: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
[[File:
Characters are known by their personalities. [[It's What I Do|They are who they are.]] In a ''Flowers for Algernon'' story a character either:
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* Subverted in the ''[[Xanth]]'' novel ''Ogre, Ogre.'' Smash Ogre is made intelligent by an [[Incredibly Lame Pun|Eye Queue]] vine, drastically complicating his life. He later learned that this shouldn't have worked, since Eye Queue vines only give their "victims" [[Know-Nothing Know-It-All|the illusion of boosted intelligence.]] He eventually learns that the Eye Queue vine just [[Placebotinum Effect|provided him with an excuse]] to demonstrate that he was [[Magic Feather|smart all along]].
** A different Xanth novel further reveals that ogres aren't particularly stupid at all-their [[Hulk Speak]], low IQ, and lack of conventional manners are entirely based on the prejudices of others. If one lets go of the notion that ogres are stupid slobs who act like they were raised in someone else's stolen barn, one gains the capacity to see them behaving just like anyone else (which means that Xanthian prejudice is strong shit). One ogre gets the Flowers for Algernon treatment at least three times over the course of the book as the viewpoint character repeatedly forgets that ogres aren't as stupid as he's always been taught.
* Also subverted in the [[Isaac Asimov]] story "Lest We Remember". The protagonist, a middle-manager at a pharmaceutical company, receives an experimental treatment which gives him perfect memory; after it becomes inconvenient to his bosses, they try to administer an antidote. He resists and bangs his head in the scuffle, and then manages to convince
* In the second book of the ''[[Prydain Chronicles]]'', the main characters encounter [[The Wise Prince]] Adaon. Adaon has heightened senses, psychic dreams, is a [[Warrior Poet]] with keen insight into people, etc. When Adaon dies, he gives Taran (the teenage main character) a brooch of his, and Taran begins to experience some of the heightened senses and psychic dreams and visions, making him feel for the first time something like [[Heroic Wannabe|the hero he has always wanted to be]]. He does have to give it up though, and for a good reason: it's the only thing a trio of super powerful witches will trade for the [[Artifact of Doom]] that they are on a quest to destroy.
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* ''[[News Radio]]'', "Flowers for Matthew": Matthew drinks what he thinks is a intelligence-boosting drink and becomes smart through [[Magic Feather|the placebo effect]]. Paradoxically, his intelligence eventually drives him to understand that the drink has no actual chemical effect, at which point the placebo stops working on him and he rapidly returns to his original state.
** In an earlier episode Lisa thinks she's getting dumber, and Dave actually refers to her as Algernon.
* ''[[The Six Million Dollar Man]]''
* Referenced in ''[[Friends]]'' as a joke when they're deciding whether to go back to the [[Standardized Sitcom Housing|(marginally smaller)]] apartment.
{{quote|'''Chandler:''' We can't live there after living here! Didn't you ever read Flowers For Algernon?!}}
* ''[[Monk]]'', "Mr. Monk Takes His Medicine"
* ''[[Angel]]''
* ''[[Red Dwarf]]'': Rimmer gets a "mind patch" to raise his intelligence to genius-level so he can pass the entrance exam for a ship of super-genius holograms. Naturally, his brain rejects it. (But {{spoiler|he passes anyway, when his opponent forfeits.}})
** Rimmer also gains his self-confidence and self-respect back (externalised as dashing swordsmen) in the episode "Terrorform", but loses them again almost at once on finding out what his comrades really think of him.
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* Neurologist Dr. Oliver Sacks (''The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat'') has one chapter on "Witty Ticcy Ray", a man with severe Tourette's Syndrome who takes Haldol during the week to control his tics, but forgoes his medication on weekends where his condition actually enhances his wild jazz drumming.
** Also, his patients suffering from Sleeping Sickness for decades recovered after he gave them L-Dopa. He writes about them in his book [[Awakenings]] (later a movie starring [[Robin Williams]]). Unfortunately, as the patients developed resistance to the drug, its effects wore off and they all went back to sleep.
* People whose severe ADHD responds very well to medication can get something like this effect. While it doesn't change their personalities, it can make them so much less impulsive, and make it so much easier to concentrate, that they seem like completely different people while taking medication. But it's not all
* Bipolar disorder, too. Nobody's disputing that going manic and hallucinating that you're the Virgin Mary is a bad thing, but there's also no denying that being manic feels good and makes you very creative, outgoing, and generally more fun to be around (at least before you get paranoid or get the delusion you're invulnerable and kill yourself by accident...) People with bipolar disorder often miss their manias while they're on medication, and stopping medication can get really tempting.
** A lot of people have discovered that, despite the lack of enhanced creativity, they are far more productive while stabilised by medication. Why? Turtle beats the hare; being able to steadily work on things all the time gets more done than occasional hyperactive spurts (which get gradually more incoherent) followed by long periods of depression. Which makes the disorder an example of the trope done well.
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