Mind of My Mind by Octavia Butler

Mind of My Mind is one of Butler's Patternist novels. Though not the first of the Patternist novels to be written, it is chronologically the first in the series.

Mind of My Mind is the story of Doro, an immortal being who is working on creating a race of telepaths. He is creating his race through selectively breeding with human women, then breeding with their more telepathic offspring.

Doro's children don't live well among humans, and although they are compelled to live near their families, they can't really live with their families. This problem has caused Doro to foster his offspring with non-telepathic families. Some of his stronger telepathic offspring have been able to control humans and create human families. They also sometimes use their telepathic abilities to control humans who work for them (as servants but also to make money.)

Doro's children go through a period of transition when they are coming into their telepathic power, during which time they need help and support, because they will suddenly begin receiving unfiltered thoughts from everyone around them. Mary is an important child to Doro, because he believes she will be a particularly strong telepath. Doro takes Mary to Karl, another strong telepath, for help during her transition.

Mary turns out to be the first "Patternmaster", and her struggles to build the Pattern and to survive Doro's manipulations make up the story of Mind of My Mind.