Spoiler Alert
No Harm Done, by Jack Sharkey, 1961
A brilliant male doctor and a lovely female doctor decide to test a
ray intended to cure schizophrenia by technomagically reintegrating
the mind and body. (According to Sharkey, the main symptom of
schizophrenia is a catatonic stupor, whereby patients lose all
volition and only move in response to explicit commands.) They zap a patient with the ray, seemingly to no effect — however, what the
reader learns is that backsplash from the ray integrated the human
mind with a nearby carrot… and carrots can’t move. (Well, okay, via
a Herculean effort it manages to uproot itself by a fraction of an
inch.)
Tedious little vignette whose twist ending is less interesting than
the portrayal of gender relations and medical ethics which the author took for granted.