The Mind Parasites was published by Arthur Barker in 1967. The novel originated in a challenge from August Derleth, H.P. Lovecraft’s literary executor, who suggested that Wilson write a Lovecraftian novel. Wilson took the cosmic horror framework and filled it with his own philosophical content: the narrator, Professor Gilbert Austin, discovers that humanity has been host to parasitic entities — the Tsathogguans — that feed on consciousness, keeping human beings in a state of chronic underperformance. The parasites explain why human beings, who are capable of extraordinary feats of perception and will in moments of crisis, spend most of their lives in a state of dull automatism.
The novel is explicitly philosophical fiction — Wilson pauses the narrative regularly to discuss phenomenology, Husserl’s concept of intentionality, and his own theory of “Faculty X.” The plot involves Austin and a group of colleagues learning to combat the parasites through intensified consciousness — essentially, by learning to think more clearly and feel more intensely. The parasites can only survive in minds that are passive and unfocused; concentrated awareness destroys them.
As a novel, The Mind Parasites is uneven — Wilson was a better essayist than a fiction writer, and the characters are vehicles for ideas rather than fully realized people. But as a philosophical parable, it is Wilson’s clearest statement of his central thesis: human beings are operating far below their potential, the causes are internal rather than external, and the solution is an act of will.
Collecting The Mind Parasites
First edition (Arthur Barker, London, 1967): Cloth binding, dust jacket.
Market values:
- First edition, fine/fine: $150–$400
- Very good/very good: $50–$150
- Arkham House edition (1967): $80–$200