Beyond Bedlam

"Beyond Bedlam" by Wyman Guin is a science fiction story set in a future where people manage multiple personalities, or egos, through drugs. A young woman named Mary Walden is learning to live in this world, where the way people view mental illness is very different from the past. The story begins with Mary in school, attending a class about switching between her egos, showing us right away how strange and complex her life is. Mary does an assignment about how people used to think about schizophrenia. This shows readers how much society has changed in its efforts to control human behavior, even making everyone take drugs to prevent conflicts between their different personalities. The main conflict develops as Mary struggles with her different selves, especially disliking one named Susan, and explores the challenges of finding her place in her family under these unusual circumstances; ultimately, everyone in her world faces the complicated reality of living among multiple selves, and she is merely one of many striving to find stability when their personality shifts at any given moment.