History FreudianExcuse / Literature

* The ''Franchise/StarTrekNovelVerse'' essentially uses this trope for whole societies. Few cultures in Franchise/StarTrek are "evil" by nature, but the traumas of their development often forge them into unpleasant antagonistic societies (an idea that may have started in ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' as the Founders' StartOfDarkness came from their desire to impose order and safety in a galaxy that persecuted them). Fear and hurt on a civilization-wide level, leading to a culture lashing out in aggression and conflict, is a staple theme, particularly in portrayals of the Cardassians and Klingons. In fact, whole ongoing sagas explore these two societies coming to terms with themselves and their deep-stated fears. The Tholians, Romulans and even Borg have also had their "Freudian excuses" explored. Greatly simplified, for Klingons it's the Hur'q invasion, for Cardassians the climatic catastrophe that nearly starved them, for Tholians oppression by the Shedai, for Romulans the difficulties of the exodus from Vulcan. As for the Borg, see ''Literature/StarTrekDestiny''.

* ''Literature/TheRavenTower'': Oskel and Okim were abandoned in infancy as a sacrifice to the Silent Forest, as many twins are in Vastai, and grew up as the subject of superstitious distrust and distain for being twins. Consequently, they're perfectly willing to [[spoiler:sell out Vastai and anyone in it]] for their own advancement.

* [[ArtifactOfDoom Crenshinibon]] from the ForgottenRealms was originally an extremely powerful and dangerous but nonsentient artifact. At one point it fell into the hands of a sultan who overestimated its power and relied entirely on the crystal towers it generated to protect his land from invasion. He realized too late that the more towers that are created they weaker they are, and his lands were overrun. At the moment of his death, his tormented spirit merged with the Crystal Shard, and at last Crenshinibon was complete. The insatiable desire for power and control that Crenshinibon forces upon its wielders is the twisted reflection of a sad man's regrets of failing to protect his people.

* ''Literature/MalazanBookOfTheFallen'' has the Crippled God, whose fall from the heavens did not do good things to his sanity. The fact that most of the pantheon has periodically gotten together and chained him up for, from his perspective, no real reason didn't help either. Even some of the characters in-series recognize that his wanton destruction of the world is more akin to someone lashing out in hurt and desperation, than an act of evil itself.

* ''Literature/{{Mavericks}} main protagonist, Jessica Napier, has her {{Jerkass}} tendencies implied to stem from her [[{{Tykebomb}} less than ideal]] childhood, her [[EvenEvilHasLovedOnes mostly loving]] [[EvilMatriarch but still villainous mother]] and Blackburn in general being a ViceCity that keeps kicking her in the teeth.

* In the short story collection ''The Further Adventures of the Joker'', [[SelfDemonstrating/TheJoker the eponymous Joker]] gets a story devoted to a snapshot of his childhood with an abusive father (''SMILE, I SAID!'') as the centerpiece. That, and killing small animals [[spoiler:and collecting the bones to make grotesque sculptures]]. Perhaps most notably, we get some insight into how his father got to where he is. Big surprise -- it involves ''his'' father.

** ''"I had a hard life. Hard for my parents, I mean. It wasn't that bad for me."'' - Drake Merwin.

** Draco Malfoy has the fairly obvious excuse of being raised by his family to be just as bigoted and elitist as them, but his deeper motivations change and deteriorate as he grows older and becomes more embroiled in [[spoiler: Voldemort's]] plans: [[spoiler: he is bitterly jealous of Harry Potter's Messianic status in the wizarding world, since in his mind, a half-blood wizard raised by Muggles isn't supposed to amount to anything. For that matter, neither is a Muggle-born witch or a pure-blood who doesn't care about blood purity. His early years at Hogwarts are spent trying to mirror or diminish Harry's life (ratting out the trio during the dragon incident, joining the Slytherin Quidditch team as a Seeker) with little benefit to himself, culminating in him being "chosen" to assassinate Dumbledore, a task he admits he was forced to accept on pain of death. His FreudianExcuse is continuously challenged and deconstructed by showing that being TheChosenOne is ''not'' a never-ending ticker tape parade regardless of your alignment, and that the elitist world of blood purity and Muggle subjugation Voldemort is working towards isn't feasible and achieving it will more than likely cost Malfoy his life, a price he almost paid twice as a Death Eater.

** Oh, it's worse than that: [[spoiler: Snape's only friend and love interest growing up was Lily Evans, but his poor lifestyle choices (hanging with would-be-Death Eaters and supporting their racist cause, even though that cause is racist against people like Lily) ended up pushing her away from him. Who'd she end up marrying? ''James Potter''. Harry is not only James' son, but the son of James ''and the woman Snape loved'', something Snape is always reminded of when looking at Harry (who has his father's face, but his mother's eyes.) To Snape's credit, Harry being Lily's son is also the reason he protects him, despite his bullying of him. Furthermore, he never blamed James for Lily, but blamed himself. This probably meant that even if Lily wasn't in the picture, Snape would still be TheResenter to James. ]]
** Invoked and consciously averted with Voldemort. His upbringing as an orphan was far from ideal, but others (most notably Harry himself) were brought up in worse conditions without using it as an excuse to become Wizard Hitler. And it's pretty clear he was just born a sociopath. In fact, he was the ''cause'' of most of the misery in the orphanage.

* Deconstructed in ''Literature/{{Lolita}}''- Humbert's reason for being a pedophile is very Freudian (at age 16 he was interrupted having sex with his 12-year old childhood sweetheart who died shortly afterward) and he [[GenreSavvy thinks about it in these terms]]. However, the author's point was that this is a poor excuse for his terrible actions.

* ''[[MillenniumTrilogy The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo]]'': After SerialKiller [[spoiler: Martin Vanger]]'s death, Mikael mentions how, given his ''extremely'' DarkAndTroubledPast, the boy "never had a chance". Cue [[BerserkButton absolute outrage]] from [[DarkActionGirl Lisbet]], claiming that [[SubvertedTrope childhood trauma doesn't excuse his actions as an adult]]. The fact that she herself experienced a TraumaCongaLine of her own as a girl and that [[spoiler: Harriet Vanger]], despite going through the same upbringing as [[spoiler: Martin]] yet emerged a functional human being, certainly backs her argument.

** Invoked and consciously averted with Voldemort. His upbringing as an orphan was far from ideal, but others (most notably Harry himself) were brought up in worse conditions without using it as an excuse to become Wizard Hitler. And it's pretty clear he was just born a sociopath.

* Creator/IsaacAsimov: [[Literature/{{Foundation}} The Mule]] is driven to conquer the galaxy because of a childhood of ostracism and abuse due to his physically deformed stature; he claims in his internal monologue that it is now "his turn." Appropriately, he is stopped by a master psychologist administering instant therapy with a bit of mind control thrown in for good measure. He spends the rest of his life happy -- and out of the way.

* Prince Marek of ''Literature/{{Uprooted}}'' is an extremely nasty individual who tries to rape Agnieszka in his first appearance, then spends the rest of the book strongarming her and the Dragon into making a suicidal and expensive trip into the malicious Wood--but he's doing so in hopes of saving his mother, who was abducted and lost there when he was eight years old. While his motive is sympathetic, nobody really excuses his self-centered actions because he's now a grown man wasting dozens (and eventually thousands) of lives on an unrealistic fantasy.

* Deconstructed in ''Literature/{{Lolita}}''- Humbert's reason for being a pedophile is very Freudian (at age 16 he was interrupted having sex with his childhood sweetheart who died shortly afterward) and he [[GenreSavvy thinks about it in these terms]]. However, the author's point was that this is a poor excuse for his terrible actions.

** Still later we have Coydt Van Haaz, the BigBad of ''Empires of Flux and Anchor'', who wants to turn a LadyLand into a NoWomansLand to get back at the priestesses who [[DisproportionateRetribution castrated him]] for a relatively minor offense.

** Subverted in one of the ''Dancing Gods'' books, wherein a) the character discussing his tragic early life is on the side of good, and b) it transpires that this tale of a sad past is complete and utter nonsense designed to throw the villain off his game. It works.

* Subverted in ''[[Literature/EndersGame Children of the Mind]]'': In a backwards attempt to explain why she is so contrary, Quara reveals to Wang-mu that she was sexually abused at a young age by Quim, her soon-to-be sainted brother. When Wang-mu immediately believes her, she reveals it wasn't true, but points out the hypocrisy of people who would more easily believe the worst in a saint of a man like her brother than believe that some people are inherently, for no real reason, jerks.