History FreudianExcuse / Literature

* This is part of the basis for ''Literature/AChristmasCarol''. Scrooge is a JerkWithAHeartOfJerk at the story's beginning, but the Ghost of Christmas Past takes him back to see the various {{Freudian Excuse}}s that made him that way. His mother died at a young age, leading his father to abandon him at boarding school and never return home, even at Christmas, which taught him not to empathize with his fellow man. When he became a workaholic obsessed with getting ahead, his fiance realized he cared more about money than her and left him. He hates Fred, his good-natured nephew and only living relative because his beloved sister died in childbirth. And all of these events happened over Christmas, making him despise the holiday. None of these excuses really serve to justify Scrooge's cruelty or selfishness, but do highlight his chance at redemption.

* In the short story collection ''The Further Adventures of the Joker'', [[ComicBook/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.

** Oh, it's worse than that: [[spoiler: Snape was a very unpopular kid growing up, with his only real friend being Lily Evans, Harry's mother (who he had a crush on). He also hung out with a group of kids who would grow up to be Death Eaters, and absorbed their racist views -- resulting in Lily breaking off their friendship when he called her a "mudblood". Lily later went on to marry James Potter, once Snape's chief bully. Harry, having inherited James' looks but Lily's eyes, constantly reminds Snape of how he lost her. 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. And ''then'', with nowhere else to go, he ended up becoming a Death Eater and overhearing part of a prophecy about a kid who'd grow up to defeat the Dark Lord -- which Voldemort interpreted as referring to Lily's kid and deciding to kill her along with her family. Snape plead with him to spare her, but he ended up killing her when she wouldn't get out of his way and let him kill her 1-year-old baby.]]
** {{Invoked|Trope}} and consciously {{averted|Trope}} with Voldemort. He was conceived when his mother, a StalkerWithACrush, used a love potion on her crush. She was heartbroken when he left her and died in childbirth, leaving Tom to be raised at an orphanage. Though it's suggested that he might be TheSociopath partially because there was no love involved in his conception, his actual past is never brought up as being an excuse for what he did. The orphanage was not pleasant, yes -- but ''he was the worst thing in it'', having learned early how to manipulate magic in order to hurt others.

** 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 has bitter envy 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]].
** Ron abandons Harry twice in the series, both times when Harry ''really'' could've used his help and support. Ron's Freudian Excuse in both cases is being OvershadowedByAwesome, as he grew up with several talented older brothers, and then hanged out around with TheChosenOne Harry and TeenGenius Hermione. The second occurence also had a good dose of [[HatePlague brainwashing]] involved.
* ''Literature/HouseOfTheScorpion'': El Patron's ruthlessness arises mainly from the fact that he lived a dirt poor childhood, and was the only surviving child of a large family. The man was forced to live by his wits.

* {{Deconstructed|Trope}} in ''Literature/{{Lolita}}'' -- Humbert's reason for being a pedophile is very Freudian (at age 16, he was interrupted while having sex with his 12-year-old childhood sweetheart who died shortly afterward) and he thinks about it in these terms. However, the author's point was that this is a poor excuse for his terrible actions.
* ''Literature/MachineMan'' has the excellent example of Lola, whose [[spoiler:father deliberately self-maimed himself in a series of industrial accidents to collect insurance and pay for Lola's HeartTrauma replacement]]. As a result, Lola as an adult finds men [[spoiler:who've lost body parts]] irresistible, and works in prosthetics.

* {{Discussed|Trope}} and {{defied|Trope}} in ''Literature/MarketOfMonsters''. Kovit, like his mother, is a zannie -- an "unnatural" human species that needs to eat human pain. When he was 10, he turned his mother into the authorities for locking up and torturing a friend of his. After living alone on the run for a while, he was taken in by a mafia family and forced to torture people for them for the next 10 years, until he was [[ReassignedToAntarctica reassigned to an unnatural trafficking ring in the Amazon jungle]] as punishment for refusing to torture a friend. All this while living in a world that sees him as a "monster" just because of what he is. He's clearly suffered a lot in his life, and after he tells Nita about how his handler in the Family Henry raised and taught him, he can tell she's ready to start blaming Henry for the way he is. He violently insist she's wrong, that he's a monster because he chooses to be and takes full responsibility, not because of anything Henry or his mother did to him.

* In the ''Literature/MillenniumSeries'' novel ''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]] emerged a functional human being despite going through the same upbringing, certainly backs her argument. On the other hand, Lisbeth has very little sympathy or fellow feeling for [[spoiler:Harriet]]; but that probably says more about Lisbeth than anything else.

** Tywin Lannister's father was a good man who had his kind nature frequently taken advantage of and who was mocked by even his own bannermen for his perceived weakness. After his father's kindness nearly brought their house to ruin, it was up to Tywin to restore the glory of the Lannister House, no matter how ruthlessly he had to act in order to do so. Tywin also served as Hand to the Mad King, Aerys Targaryen, and had his successful efforts to stabilize the realm rewarded by Aerys treating him as nothing more than a servant whose daughter was unfit to marry into Aerys's family. The best part of him, inspired by his love for his wife, Joanna, is said to have died when she did.
** Cersei Lannister has spent her entire life horrified that a prophecy about her future would come to pass. She was told, at a young age, that [[spoiler:all of her children would die before she would and that she would be killed by her younger brother]]. This explains both her ''extreme'' overprotectiveness of her children and her absolute loathing of Tyrion.
** Sandor Clegane was mutilated at a young age by his psychopathic, older brother, Gregor, who burned off half of Sandor's face for playing with one of Gregor's discarded toys. Sandor's father and little sister are also implied to have been murdered by Gregor, and Sandor, who grew up witnessing his brother be rewarded for his atrocities with a knighthood, has become convinced that all knights are monsters who kill for the pleasure of it. For these reasons Sandor believes that neither gods nor nobility exist in the world and that only the strong are able to do as they wish, so he embraces his BloodKnight tendencies.

** Petyr "Littlefinger" Baelish originally came from a small house but was fostered at House Tully for much of his childhood. While there, he was frequently mocked for his family's poor standing. Petyr fell in love with Catelyn Tully, but Catelyn only loved Petyr like a brother. When Petyr, urged on by stories of knights and adventure, attempted to duel for her hand against her then fiancée, Petyr was left scarred but alive at Catelyn's urging. While delusional and recovering from his duel, Petyr was taken advantage of sexually by Lysa Tully, who became pregnant with his child but was forced to abort it at her father's insistence. In retribution for his duel, Petyr was sent back to his poor house and Catelyn cut off all contact with him. These events helped turn Petyr from a young boy who loved stories of knighthood and romance, into a Machiavellian schemer who believes political plots are the only way to gain power.
** Ever since Viserys Targaryen was a boy, he had the hopes of his entire destroyed house resting on his shoulders. The stress of his task, along with being so poor that he had to pawn everything of value he had, even his mother's crown, and the years he spent being ridiculed as "The Beggar King," eventually caused his descent into madness.

** Tigerstar: His father abandoned him at a young age to be come a kittypet, causing his irrational hatred towards kittypets, and he was mentored by an incredibly aggressive warrior whose personality traits seemed to rub off on him. Apparently, father issues, an aggressive personality, racism, and ambition combine to create [[ANaziByAnyOtherName the feline version of Hitler]].

** [[spoiler:Mapleshade]]: [[spoiler: Fell in love with Appledusk, a [=RiverClan=] warrior and had his kits, but when her Clan found out, she and her kits are cast out. In desperation, she tried to bring her kits across the river into [=RiverClan=] territory, but the kits drowned. Blaming Maplehade for their kits' deaths, Appledusk rejected and humiliated Mapleshade in front of [=RiverClan=], and then found another mate and had kits with her. She hated Crookedstar because he was her former mate's great-grandson.]]

** Darktail [[spoiler: was born to Onewhisker, a [=WindClan=] warrior and Smoke, a pampered kittypet. Onewhisker refused to let neither his mate or son join the Clans, causing Smoke to raise Darktail to hate the Clans. His father's rejection, coupled with his mother's raising him to feel nothing but hate for the Clans and their way of life, turned Darktail into a cruel, bitter, murderous tyrant with a single purpose: Destroy the Clans!]]

** Same with [[ScaryBlackMan Desmond McCain]], who was bullied for being black and criticized in the newspapers. Still doesn't justify [[spoiler: his evil charity and his love of killing]].

* ''Literature/DiaryOfAWimpyKid'': Greg may be a complete jerk, but his life should give you a reason as to why he acts as such. His mother is overbearing and embarrassing as all hell, his father is a no-nonsense curmudgeon, his older brother always seeks out ways to screw him over, his younger brother is a spoiled brat, and he's constantly stepped on and made fun of at school. It's not hard to see where his jackassery comes from.

** Filch is partially so mean to Hogwarts students because he's jealous -- he himself is a [[MuggleBornOfMages Squib]].
** 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]].

** In ''Scorpia Rising'' we have [[spoiler: Julius Grief]]. He is a 15-year-old who gets pleasure from other people's pain, seems quite fond of murdering people, and is consumed by his hatred of Alex. However, considering [[spoiler: he was created and raised so he ''would'' be evil, with no purpose other than helping Doctor Grief take over the world, and it is stated that he and the other clones got the cane if they shot a gun the wrong way]], resulting in him being completely insane, it's hard not to feel a ''little'' sorry for him.
*** Not really. He never experienced any sort of emotional pain or trauma in his childhood, and never spoke badly of his father. In fact, the fact that his own psychologist ''instinctively'' dislikes him seems to be a subtle hint that readers should not pity him.

* Herod Sayle of the ''Literature/AlexRider'' novel ''Stormbreaker'' (renamed Darrius Sayle in TheFilmOfTheBook) came from a poor Lebanese background and was sent to a British boarding school after saving a wealthy English tourist couple (in the film, he was an American who lived in a trailer until his mother won the lottery), where he was bullied due to his background by several other children, many of whom became influential figures in British government (including the Prime Minister). His reaction to this is to invest in a multi-million dollar advanced computer system which he would donate to the British school system, which secretly contains biological weapons which, when simultaneously activated, ''will kill millions of children, and probably thousands of other innocent people''. {{Lampshade|Hanging}}d in the movie.
-->'''Alex Rider''': Alright so you were bullied; ''lots'' of kids are bullied! It doesn't turn them into mass-murdering psychopaths!

* Every villain, {{antivillain}} and {{AntiHero}} in the ''Literature/{{GONE}}'' series has one at the very least heavily implied.

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

** Invoked and consciously averted with Voldemort. He was conceived when his mother, a StalkerWithACrush, used a love potion on her crush. She was heartbroken when he left her and died in childbirth, leaving Tom to be raised at an orphanage. Though it's suggested that he might be TheSociopath partially because there was no love involved in his conception, his actual past is never brought up as being an excuse for what he did. The orphanage was not pleasant, yes -- but ''he was the worst thing in it'', having learned early how to manipulate magic in order to hurt others.

** 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]].

* Nancy Farmer's ''[[Literature/HouseOfTheScorpion The House of the Scorpion]]'': El Patron's ruthlessness arises mainly from the fact that he lived a dirt poor childhood, and was the only surviving child of a large family. The man was forced to live by his wits.
* This one depends upon your point of view. In "The Icemark Chronicles" Medea had a bad childhood because her parents didn't give her the attention that her sibling had. However there is a debate among fans as to whether this was her parents fault or her own.

* 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 thinks about it in these terms. However, the author's point was that this is a poor excuse for his terrible actions.
* Max Barry's ''Literature/MachineMan'' has the excellent example of Lola, whose [[spoiler:father deliberately self-maimed himself in a series of industrial accidents to collect insurance and pay for Lola's HeartTrauma replacement.]] As a result, Lola as an adult finds men [[spoiler: who've lost body parts]] irresistible, and works in prosthetics.

* In Richard Condon's ''Manchurian Candidate'' Raymond's mother is a seething pool of Freudian motives. She had an incestuous relationship with her father. Hated her mother as a sexual rival and complained that she could not understand how he could lie down with such an ugly woman (people said that as an adult she was nearly a twin for her mother). When her father died, her older brother claimed leadership of the family and she swore that she would follow him into any profession he chose to outdo him, and crush him. He chose politics.
* Creator/JaneAusten's ''Literature/MansfieldPark'' contains a TakeThat at this trope: Edmund excuses every red flag in Mary Crawford's behavior as the result of faulty upbringing or the influence of bad friends. He finally has to admit he's been LovingAShadow and the perfect woman he thought was spoiled by a crappy childhood in her uncle's house is a RichBitch who [[spoiler:was hoping his ill older brother would die so Edmund would become the heir of the family and be rich enough for her to consider marrying]].
* Discussed and defied in ''Literature/MarketOfMonsters''. Kovit, like his mother, is a zannie -- an "unnatural" human species that needs to eat human pain. When he was 10, he turned his mother into the authorities for locking up and torturing a friend of his. After living alone on the run for a while, he was taken in by a mafia family and forced to torture people for them for the next 10 years, until he was [[ReassignedToAntarctica reassigned to an unnatural trafficking ring in the Amazon jungle]] as punishment for refusing to torture a friend. All this while living in a world that sees him as a "monster" just because of what he is. He's clearly suffered a lot in his life, and after he tells Nita about how his handler in the Family Henry raised and taught him, he can tell she's ready to start blaming Henry for the way he is. He violently insist she's wrong, that he's a monster because he chooses to be and takes full responsibility, not because of anything Henry or his mother did to him.

* In the ''Literature/TheMillenniumTrilogy'' novel ''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.
** On the other hand, Lisbeth has very little sympathy or fellow feeling for [[spoiler: Harriet]]; but that probably says more about Lisbeth than anything else.

* [[Literature/TheSilenceOfTheLambs Hannibal Lecter]] lost much of his mystique when explanations for his actions were presented in ''Hannibal'' and ''Hannibal Rising'' during his jarring BadassDecay into a misunderstood AntiHero.
** The author was all but [[ExecutiveMeddling forced to write]] ''Hannibal Rising'', having been told that if he didn't provide a backstory for Dr. Lecter, some other writer would.
** Jame Gumb and Francis Dolarhyde are given very detailed backstories in the novels, which works well to humanize them. Gumb was born to an alcoholic prostitute and lived in foster homes until moving in with his abusive Grandparents at the age of 10. Dolarhyde was born with a severe disfigurement to his face and was abused by his Grandmother, after being ditched by his stepfather's family [[spoiler: which had the same structure as the families he killed]]. There is only one reference to Gumb's Freudian Excuse is given in the movie, however, which is "Billy was not born a criminal, but made one by years of systematic abuse." It works rather effectively.
** Between the level of detail that goes into the other serial killers' backstories, the recurring emphasis on psychology (as unreliable as it can be), and Lecter being, well... Lecter, it's likely that Lecter's seemingly inherent evil was meant as the exception, not the rule.

* ''Literature/TheLastDaysOfKrypton'': Nam-Ek's father went crazy and killed the rest of his family when he was a child. Afterward Nam-Ek was raised by Zod, who cared for him but implicitly exposed the traumatized boy to a lot of scheming and violence during those impressionable years, causing Nam-Ek to see nothing wrong with being Zod's hatchet man.
* ''Literature/NightfallSeries'': Subverted. It’s implied that Prince Vladimir has a traumatic past, but it’s never used as an excuse, and he is unapologetic about destroying the world.
* ''Literature/TheTribe'': Each member of The Tribe has a reason for running away from their old lives.
** Sporkboy joined The Tribe after Riley made him spray food all over.
** Compass joined The Tribe after his fungus experiment for a science fair was sabotaged.
** Sully joined The Tribe after Riley got everyone at school to make fun of her for allegedly catching cooties.
** [[spoiler:In "Camp Cannibal", we find out that Peashooter originally ran away because he couldn't handle being beaten by his [[AbusiveParent abusive stepdad.]]]]
* ''Literature/CatsVsRobots'': Giffen "Giff" M.E. Huggs was orphaned as a kid and sent to live with [[RaisedByGrandparents his grandfather]]. However, said grandparent was a cold, distant man who was never satisfied with how much Giff earned. This lack of affection molded Giffen into a man who seeks to gain everything he can [[WellDoneSonGuy in the hopes he'll earn his grandfather's approval]].
* Wang Sau-leyan in ''Literature/ChungKuo'', ugly, fat and clumsy, was treated as a poor sequel to his brothers while he grew up. This is not presented as an excuse for his behavior, but it helps explain it.

* Creator/IsaacAsimov's "Literature/TheMule": The Mule is driven to [[GalacticConqueror conquer the galaxy]] because of a [[AllOfTheOtherReindeer childhood of ostracism and abuse]] due to his physically deformed stature; he claims 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. The Mule spends the rest of his life happy.
* In the novel ''Literature/BattleRoyale'', Mitsuko Soma is a cold-blooded killer who uses her sex appeal to manipulate the male students into dropping their guard, all so she can win the game. Late in the novel, her background is revealed to [[spoiler: have started with her mother ''selling Mitsuko into prostitution, when she was very young''. Repeatedly. When Mitsuko began to trust and rely on a teacher, ''he'' began to sexually assault her, Mitsuko's friend saw and started the rumor of Mitsuko being a slut]]. The narration states that Mitsuko has been 'dead inside' for years and one clearly feels sympathy for her, but this nonetheless never excuses her early behavior.
* Subverted in ''Literature/ChildrenOfTheMind'': 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.

* Averted in Dostoevsky's novel ''Notes from Underground'' to the point of being AnAesop. Dostoevsky was concerned with the far-reaching consequences of certain ideas being batted around in his day - essentially, that despite humankind appearing to be fundamentally irrational and uncontrollable, using psychology and whatnot they'd one day be able to figure out exactly what makes people act the way they do, and could correct anti-social behavior easy as solving a math problem. (And then they could fix all their woes and achieve a socialist utopia, hooray). So he wrote a book featuring a maladjusted hero who's a miserable prick for no reason and will no doubt continue to be a miserable prick no matter what happens to him. Needless to say, it was not popular with Soviet critics.
* Nancy Farmer's ''[[Literature/HouseOfTheScorpion The House of the Scorpion]]'': El Patron's ruthlessness arises mainly from the fact that he lived a dirt poor childhood, and was the only surviving child of a large family. The man was forced to live by his wits.

* ''Literature/OutOfPosition'' has Brian, who's very bitter towards Dev and football players after he was a victim of a gay bashing led by a few football players. His excuse is only justified in the first novel, however; by ''Divisions'' and ''Uncovered'', he's a BitchInSheepsClothing and an AttentionWhore, and his hatred against Dev and Lee goes to a personal level.
* [[Literature/TheSilenceOfTheLambs Hannibal Lecter]] lost much of his mystique when explanations for his actions were presented in ''Hannibal'' and ''Hannibal Rising'' during his jarring BadassDecay into a misunderstood AntiHero.
** The author was all but [[ExecutiveMeddling forced to write]] ''Hannibal Rising'', having been told that if he didn't provide a backstory for Dr. Lecter, some other writer would.
** Jame Gumb and Francis Dolarhyde are given very detailed backstories in the novels, which works well to humanize them. Gumb was born to an alcoholic prostitute and lived in foster homes until moving in with his abusive Grandparents at the age of 10. Dolarhyde was born with a severe disfigurement to his face and was abused by his Grandmother, after being ditched by his stepfather's family [[spoiler: which had the same structure as the families he killed]]. There is only one reference to Gumb's Freudian Excuse is given in the movie, however, which is "Billy was not born a criminal, but made one by years of systematic abuse." It works rather effectively.
** Between the level of detail that goes into the other serial killers' backstories, the recurring emphasis on psychology (as unreliable as it can be), and Lecter being, well... Lecter, it's likely that Lecter's seemingly inherent evil was meant as the exception, not the rule.
* Gaston Leroux's ''Literature/ThePhantomOfTheOpera'' gives an excuse for Erik's cold bloodedness: [[spoiler: humanity hates him because of his deformity, so he hates humanity]]. The ''Phantom'' adaptation gives more of a {{backstory}} to this: [[spoiler: in addition to the deformity, his mother shows him no love and keeps him shut inside where he can't fully use his genius.]] Still a creepy guy for a protagonist.
** There's a similar version in the 1990 TV miniseries. While the Phantom's murderous behavior is not condoned or excused, when we get his backstory, his mother is depicted as loving and adoring him despite his deformity, and it is appears that his passion for Christine is based on the resemblance between the two. Which is a whole other FreudianExcuse.
* Notably averted by ''Literature/TheCatcherInTheRye'', as the opening quote reveals:
-->"If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I was born and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that Literature/DavidCopperfield kind of crap, but I don't feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth."
** And then played straight, as you realise that Caulfield's deceased younger brother is a large part of the reason he's so unhinged.
* ''Literature/KnavesOnWaves'' gives every major character a reason for choosing piracy. Of particular note are Carnage and Jacques, whose horrific experiences have left them both with an extremely flexible moral code.
* 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 thinks about it in these terms. However, the author's point was that this is a poor excuse for his terrible actions.

* A kind of subversion, based on going into more details. In ''Literature/ArtemisFowl and the Lost Colony'' we are introduced to Billy Kong (previously called Jonah Lee), and told that his teenage brother was killed when he was quite young. Later, we learn that when Jonah was young, his brother claimed that he was part of a secret group that fought child-eating demons, in an attempt to keep Jonah off the Miami streets while their mother was working, due to trouble his brother had been having with a gang at the time. When his brother was murdered, Jonah was convinced that demons did it, and he and his mother moved to Taiwan (where she was from) shortly after. Jonah is said to have later decided his brother had deceived him, causing him to become inherently distrustful and making it easier to hurt people, which combined with the environment he grew up in, turned him into a violent criminal. Shortly before the book begins, he is hired to help capture a fairy demon, causing Kong to start wondering if his brother had been honest after all. When Holly is captured while trying to save the captive demon and is being interrogated, she uses her (limited) knowledge of Kong's past to try and psych him out, and unknowingly feeds into his delusions by "confirming" the abilities that Billy's brother said demons had. This leads to Kong having a rather tragic nervous breakdown, and starts an obsession with destroying all demons, and killing anyone who gets in his way.
* Inverted with James T. Kirk, whose tendency to TakeAThirdOption is explained in various ''Franchise/StarTrek'' novels as being a result of surviving the mass executions on Tarsus IV (from the TOS episode "The Conscience of the King") as a boy. It also probably explains why he doesn't believe in the [[UnwinnableTrainingSimulation The Kobayashi Maru]] and the No-Win Scenario.
* ''Almost every single villain'' from ''Literature/WarriorCats''.
** Tigerstar: His father abandoned him at a young age to be come a kittypet, causing his irrational hatred towards kittypets, and he was mentored by an incredibly aggressive warrior whose personality traits seemed to rub off on him. Apparently, father issues, an aggressive personality, racism, and ambition combine to create [[ANaziByAnyOtherName the feline version of Hitler]].
** Scourge: He was constantly teased and excluded by his brother and sister until he eventually ran away from home and into a forest, where he was attacked, brutally beaten, and almost killed by Tigerstar. He spent the rest of his life trying to prove that he was strong, and to get revenge on Tigerstar, which eventually lead him to being a mass-murdering psychopathic dictator.
** Hawkfrost: Not mentioned often, but Hawkfrost was essentially an orphan and had to grow up living in his father's shadow until he eventually decided to follow in his footsteps. Also, his brother died, that might have something to do some of it... kinda...
** Brokenstar: He had a horrible foster mother in his kithood, who hated him and always tried to exclude him, making him the UnFavorite. Due to this, he saw aggressiveness as the only way to [[WellDoneSonGuy prove himself]], and eventually killed Raggedstar,[[spoiler: his real father]], to show that he could become a leader, and prove his greatness. This lead him to commit all sorts of atrocities, so that he could make [=ShadowClan=] the strongest Clan of them all.
** [[spoiler: Ashfur]]: Started out as an adorable, boisterous young apprentice, [[BreakTheCutie until his mom was killed indiscriminately by Tigerstar]]. [[spoiler: Fell in love with [[ActionGirl Squirrelflight]], only for her to pass him over in favor of Brambleclaw]]. Then he was forced to mentor their "son", whose very presence was a constant reminder of the mate that he lost. [[spoiler: He eventually went insane and went on a RoaringRampageOfRevenge, attempting to kill Squirrelflight's "kits" to make her feel the same emotional pain that he felt when she rejected him.]]
** [[spoiler:Mapleshade]]: [[spoiler: Fell in love with Appledusk, a [=RiverClan=] warrior and had his kits, but when her Clan found out, she and her kits are cast out. In desperation, she tried to bring her kits across the river into [=RiverClan=] territory, but the kits drowned. Blaming Maplehade for their kits' deaths, Appledusk rejected and humiliated Mapleshade in front of [=RiverClan=], and then found another mate and had kits with her. She hated Crookedstar because he was her former mate's great-grandson.]]
** And Sol has been given a backstory as well: [[spoiler: His mother, Cinders, didn't really care for her kits - she hadn't even bothered to name them - and complained all the time. His father was never around. The only good part in his life was that she told them stories of "sky warriors". She eventually abandoned them at different Twoleg nests. Sol felt that if he could have been a "sky warrior", she might have been proud of him and stayed around. Then he discovered [=SkyClan=], but after trying to train with them, they felt he didn't respect the warrior code, so they wouldn't make him a warrior. This resulted in his trying to get revenge on ''all'' the Clans, not just [=SkyClan=].]]
* Darktail [[spoiler: was born to Onewhisker, a [=WindClan=] warrior and Smoke, a pampered kittypet. Onewhisker refused to let neither his mate or son join the Clans, causing Smoke to raise Darktail to hate the Clans. His father's rejection, coupled with his mother's raising him to feel nothing but hate for the Clans and their way of life, turned Darktail into a cruel, bitter, murderous tyrant with a single purpose: Destroy the Clans!]]
* Frank Bennett from ''Literature/FriedGreenTomatoesAtTheWhistleStopCafe'' bases his hatred towards women purely on the fact that he saw his beloved mother having an affair with his uncle as a child. Ever since, he beats and rapes women, never wanting to change.

** Oh, it's worse than that: [[spoiler: Snape was a very unpopular kid growing up, with his only real friend being Lily Evans, Harry's mother (who he had a crush on). He also hung out with a group of kids who would grow up to be Death Eaters, and absorbed their racist views- resulting in Lily breaking off their friendship when he called her a "mudblood". Lily later went on to marry James Potter, once Snape's chief bully. Harry, having inherited James' looks but Lily's eyes, constantly reminds Snape of how he lost her. 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. And ''then'', with nowhere else to go, he ended up becoming a Death Eater and overhearing part of a prophecy about a kid who'd grow up to defeat the Dark Lord- which Voldemort interpreted as referring to Lily's kid and deciding to kill her along with her family. Snape plead with him to spare her, but he ended up killing her when she wouldn't get out of his way and let him kill her one-year-old baby.]]
** Invoked and consciously averted with Voldemort. He was conceived when his mother, a StalkerWithACrush, used a love potion on her crush. She was heartbroken when he left her and died in childbirth, leaving Tom to be raised at an orphanage. Though it's suggested that he might be TheSociopath partially because there was no love involved in his conception, his actual past is never brought up as being an excuse for what he did. The orphanage was not pleasant, yes- but ''he was the worst thing in it'', having learned early how to manipulate magic in order to hurt others.

** Filch is partially so mean to Hogwarts students because he's jealous- he himself is a [[MuggleBornOfMages Squib]].

* In the short story collection ''The Further Adventures of the Joker'', [[ComicBook/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.

* The title character of the ''Wally [=McDoogle=]'' series writes a new [[ShowWithinAShow superhero story]] in [[OnceAnEpisode every book]] in between the action. Every one introduces the VillainOfTheWeek with speculation as to what might have caused him to turn evil.
* Herod Sayle of ''[[Literature/AlexRider Stormbreaker]]'' (renamed Darrius Sayle in TheFilmOfTheBook) came from a poor Lebanese background and was sent to a British boarding school after saving a wealthy English tourist couple (in the film, he was an American who lived in a trailer until his mother won the lottery), where he was bullied due to his background by several other children, many of whom became influential figures in British government (including the Prime Minister). His reaction to this is to invest in a multi-million dollar advanced computer system which he would donate to the British school system, which secretly contains biological weapons which, when simultaneously activated, ''will kill millions of children, and probably thousands of other innocent people''. {{Lampshade|Hanging}}d in the movie.
-->'''Alex Rider''': Alright so you were bullied; ''lots'' of kids are bullied! It doesn't turn them into mass-murdering psychopaths!
** Same with [[ScaryBlackMan Desmond McCain]], who was bullied for being black and criticized in the newspapers. Still doesn't justify [[spoiler: his evil charity and his love of killing]].
** General Alexei Sarov, from the third book. His son was killed at war, and then he lost the country that he lived for. That still doesn't come ''close'' to excusing him for his [[spoiler: plan to cause a massive nuclear explosion]].
** In ''Scorpia Rising'' we have [[spoiler: Julius Grief]]. He is a fifteen year old who gets pleasure from other people's pain, seems quite fond of murdering people, and is consumed by his hatred of Alex. However, considering [[spoiler: he was created and raised so he ''would'' be evil, with no purpose other than helping Doctor Grief take over the world, and it is stated that he and the other clones got the cane if they shot a gun the wrong way]], resulting in him being completely insane, it's hard not to feel a ''little'' sorry for him.
*** Not really. He never experienced any sort of emotional pain or trauma in his childhood, and never spoke badly of his father. In fact, the fact that his own psychologist ''instinctively'' dislikes him seems to be a subtle hint that readers should not pity him.
* Dr. No, in [[Literature/DrNo the novel of the same name]], got where he is in large part due to his father's rejection of him. His beginnings in the crime world -- violence, destruction, and a general lack of empathy -- were largely a reaction to his father's treatment of him and a manifestation of his rejection of authority in general. Curiously, by the events of the story, he is plainly aware of this fact and doesn't hesitate to put it in those very words.
* In ''Literature/WatershipDown'', General Woundwort's violent and un-rabbitlike behavior stem from his traumatic kittenhood, in which his father was shot, his siblings scattered, and his wounded mother killed and partially eaten by a weasel right in front of him. Adopted and nurtured by a kindly human, who nevertheless failed to keep his cat from menacing the young rabbit, Woundwort never learned to interact civilly with other rabbits, and his lapine psyche became warped, his natural flight-instincts supplanted by aggression.
** TruthInTelevision, as captive-reared wild animals tend to develop behavioral problems and socialize poorly with their own species.
* In ''Literature/TheSilmarillion'', some of Fëanor's rash actions can probably be attributed to the fact that, in what was virtually paradise, his mother was the first person ever to die, that his father (however loving) remarried (which was completely unheard of and never happened again), had other children, and then was the first person to be killed in Valinor. Now, in the published ''Silmarillion'', this is not belatedly revealed to excuse Fëanor's actions; in fact, it's not explicitly held up as an excuse at all. However, it ''is'' a relatively late addition to the ''Quenta Silmarillion'': in earlier versions, Fëanor's just someone who obsesses over his jewels and hates his brother because of Morgoth's lies; later, he's also to be pitied, a bit.
* In Violet Eyes, the reason for Dr. Frankenstein's cruelty is that [[spoiler: during his childhood, he was jealous of his brother, who was more talented than he was.]]
* This one depends upon your point of view. In "The Icemark Chronicles" Medea had a bad childhood because her parents didn't give her the attention that her sibling had. However there is a debate among fans as to whether this was her parents fault or her own.
* [[ArtifactOfDoom Crenshinibon]] from the Literature/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.
* The mystery villain of Janet Evanovich's ''[[Literature/StephaniePlum Smokin' Seventeen]]'' engages in his killing spree because [[spoiler: Stephanie's it's-complicated Joe stole his girlfriend back when they were all in high school together, so now he intends to steal Joe's girlfriend. With murder]]. Somehow.
* In ''Literature/ThePaleKing'', The unnamed narrator of Chapter 23 has issues with regards to his self-worth. He remembers a presentation he did on The Iliad in the eleventh grade, and he freely associates it with his family. He likens his family to Achilles, in that his seemingly perfect brother is Achilles's shield, while he is the [[AchillesHeel heel]]. He even develops a fixation on people's feet.
* Literature/InDeath series: Played straight and averted across the series. Some of the murderers have this, and some of them were always evil. Either way, Eve and Roarke do not consider the FreudianExcuse acceptable, considering the AbusiveParents they had.
* Max Barry's ''Literature/MachineMan'' has the excellent example of Lola, whose [[spoiler:father deliberately self-maimed himself in a series of industrial accidents to collect insurance and pay for Lola's HeartTrauma replacement.]] As a result, Lola as an adult finds men [[spoiler: who've lost body parts]] irresistible, and works in prosthetics.
* Literature/SisterhoodSeries by Creator/FernMichaels: Averted for the most part across the series. Practically none of the bad guys have a single excuse for their behaviour. With that said, Senator Webster from the book ''Payback'' and John Chai from ''Vendetta'' may be exceptions. The Senator had good parents, but he distanced himself from them and disowned them because he was ashamed of them and the fact that they were so low-class! John Chai is the son of a diplomat and an ambassador, and he may have gotten feelings of entitlement and being untouchable from being born in all that power, wealth and position.
* The narrator/protagonist of ''Literature/LettersBackToAncientChina'' (a time travelling mandarin from medieval China) compliments a western woman on her breasts. She rationalized his odd behavior by concluding that he wasn't breastfed enough.
* Many ''Literature/InheritanceCycle'' villains have these. Sloan is such a jerk because his wife died, and Galbatorix was partially motivated by the death of his dragon.
* In ''Literature/SeptimusHeap'', [=DomDaniel=] was ''not'' a good father figure to the Apprentice/[[spoiler: Merrin Meredith]]. He kidnapped the Apprentice because he was the seventh son of a seventh son, [[spoiler: though he actually wasn't. He was an ordinary baby who got mistaken for the ''real'' seventh son of a seventh son, Septimus Heap]]. His troubles started when nobody bothered to feed him when he arrived for more than a day, and got worse from there. He has no real Magykal ability of his own, and once [=DomDaniel=] figured that out, he was openly contemptuous of the boy. [=DomDaniel=] continuously belittled him, called him stupid, mistreated him and terrified him for most of his childhood. [[spoiler: And in the climax of the first book, he escapes a sinking ship by Consuming Merrin, which left the kid as an EmptyShell. Aunt Zelda only ''barely'' managed to save him. Merrin also has an inferiority complex relating to the ''real'' Septimus Heap, who really is Magykal and whom Merrin believes stole his life from him.]]
* ''[[Literature/TheMillenniumTrilogy 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.

* In Richard Condon's ''Manchurian Candidate'' Raymond's mother is a seething pool of Freudian motives. She had an incestuous relationship with her father. Hated her mother as a sexual rival and complained that she could not understand how he could lie down with such an ugly woman (people said that as an adult she was nearly a twin for her mother). When her father died, her older brother claimed leadership of the family and she swore that she would follow him into any profession he chose to outdo him, and crush him. He chose politics.
* In the Literature/BelisariusSeries, Empress Theodora's obsession with power (both the trappings and reality thereof), gut level distrust of anyone with a working penis[[note]](she is honestly devoted to her husband Justinian, but trusting him fully is another matter)[[/note]], and overall mean streak is quite fully explained by her being sold to a pimp at the age of twelve... by a father who had started raping her when she was nine.
* This is part of the basis for ''Literature/AChristmasCarol''. Scrooge is a JerkWithAHeartOfJerk at the story's beginning, but the Ghost of Christmas Past takes him back to see the various {{Freudian Excuse}}s that made him that way. His mother died at a young age, leading his father to abandon him at boarding school and never return home, even at Christmas, which taught him not to empathize with his fellow man. When he became a workaholic obsessed with getting ahead, his fiance realized he cared more about money than her and left him. He hates Fred, his good-natured nephew and only living relative because his beloved sister died in childbirth. And all of these events happened over Christmas, making him despise the holiday. None of these excuses really serve to justify Scrooge's cruelty or selfishness, but do highlight his chance at redemption.
** In the off-Broadway Radio City Music Hall Production, Scrooge had a much ''different'' Freudian Excuse. His father was sent to debtor's prison, and the only advice he could give his son was to remain thrifty at all costs and avoid a similar fate. His mother died shortly afterwards trying to raise him and his brother himself, but he took the advice to heart, eventually taking it too far, again caring more about money than anything else.
* Literature/TrappedOnDraconica: Zarracka was spoiled by her mother and then banished for [[spoiler: seeking attention by]] summoning an emperor ghoul in the capital. The only reason she started working for Gothon is because she was living in a city that he conquered.
* In ''Literature/GalaxyOfFear'', the Children [[spoiler: are [[ImAHumanitarian cannibals]]]]. This is because their stranded parents, starving, unable to stand the sound of their children crying from hunger, [[spoiler: started to feed the dead to them.]] Malnourished and uneducated - the last of the parents died when the oldest of the Children was seven - the Children remember this as something joyful, as the ultimate act of love, even though it was clear that their parents were absolutely horrified. Hearing about this makes Zak Arranda a lot more sympathetic towards them.
* Every villian, {{antivillain}} and {{AntiHero}} in the ''Literature/{{GONE}}'' series has one at the very least heavily implied.
** [[BigBad Caine Soren]] was put up for adoption and never knew his parents, and was hated by his adopted parents, who sent him away to a rough reform school called [[AcademyOfEvil Coates Academy]] and never saw him again.
** [[DarkChick Diana Ladris's]] father was a alcoholic who cheated on her mother, who, upon finding out, threatened to divorce before being suspiciously paralysed from the neck down that very night. [[FridgeHorror (Who pushed her is left ambigious...)]] Diana's father was then imprisoned, leaving Diana with nowhere to go except [[AcademyOfEvil Coates academy]], which she described in ''PLAGUE'' as "horrible". Diana was also implied in the 4th book to be [[RapeAsDrama sexually abused as a child.]] So basically, her pre-FAYZ life was just one big [[TraumaCongaLine Trauma Conga Lina]].
** {{Yandere}} Penny the monster bringer's father was a pedophile and her mother was dead. Penny was also the TheUnfavourite out of her two sisters, and felt bitter jealousy towards them. This was shortly followed by her father being imprisoned. [[spoiler: in later books, Penny also has her legs broken, which [[BigBad Caine]] describes in ''FEAR'' as what really pushed her off the precipice of insanity and evil]]
** [[JerkassWoobie Orc]] (who is a villain only in the first book before becoming more sympathetic), was abused by his father (Michael Grant seems to love this trope) to the point where a electric drill went through his arm. [[spoiler: And as of the end of the first book, is a stone-monster and alcoholic]]
** Even SmugSnake Zil Sperry seems to have one, although it seems a little less tragic. Zil was simply the "unfavourite" in comparison to his little brother, which kick started his jealous and bitter traits.
** [[InvisibleJerkass Bug]] had a abusive step father who beat him, and a sick, alcoholic mother. His brother also got high a lot on class A drugs and liked to torment and bully him. The reason he was sent to Coates was apparently for "his own safety".
** The only case in which this trope in averted is in sadistic, reprehensibly violent Drake Merwin, whose only motivation behind his heinous, psychopathic acts is '''"YOLO, bitch!"'''
--->"I had a hard life. Hard for my parents, I mean. It wasn't that bad for me."

* ''Literature/PercyJacksonAndTheOlympians'' Luke Castellan, once we learn his backstory in the fifth book. His mother tried to host the Oracle when Luke was a baby and it went horribly wrong. She ended up driven insane, being [[TheOphelia not quite there at the best of times]], and at random moments she'd have visions of her son's fate. His father was [[DisappearedDad never there]]. He eventually ran away from home, and took up with Thalia and Annabeth. They had a horribly eventful trip to camp, during which Thalia was turned into a tree. He was later given a quest 'to keep him busy', and it resulted in him being permanently scarred. Yikes. No wonder he's given up on the world. Sadly Hermes actually loves his son. He arranged the quest to let Luke be a real hero before his doom came down on him. It worked about as well as trying to beat fate ever does in Greek mythololgy.
* Maelstrom, Mediochre's dragon-slaying ArchEnemy in ''[[Literature/MediochreQSethSeries The Good, the Bad and the Mediochre]]'', is so obsessed with killing dragons because his [[DoomedHometown village]] was destroyed by one. However, Charlotte does note that, tragic though it is, that doesn't excuse [[ReallySevenHundredYearsOld over three centuries]] of monomaniacal, murderous douchebaggery.

* ''Literature/TheLastDragonChronicles'': Gwilanna's [[spoiler: mother was a {{Jerkass}}. Her father was [[AlwaysChaoticEvil evil]].]]

* 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.
* The ''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/{{Domina}}'':
** Quite a few of the main characters have lost parents or otherwise had tragedies in their lives that shape their thinking. In a subversion, this is so common that no one actually cares. When you live in a WretchedHive, you're ''expected'' to have lost family members and friends in acts of senseless violence. Orphans are more common than people with even a single living parent.
** Subverted with Alex, who tries to spin off out a unique and interesting backstory... only for Kelly to tell him to knock it off. Turns out that other than growing up in an orphanage, his childhood was quiet and peaceful.
--->'''Alex:''' Saints ''above'' vampire, can't you just let me have my cool origin story?
** Subverted in another direction when it turns out that [[spoiler:Alex and Kelly are siblings, and the only reason that Alex had a peaceful childhood is because their mother sent him away from their father. Pity she couldn't do the same for Kelly, who grew up a drug-addled maniac who tortured people for fun. Necessarius managed to get her off the drugs, but she eventually had to return to her old culture--and the drugs--to take control of the culture and possibly do something constructive with it]].
* ''Literature/SmallerAndSmallerCircles'': [[spoiler:Alex Carlos was raped by his gym teacher in high school,]] which leads to [[spoiler:his]] vengeful and psychopathic actions in the present.
* DiscussedTrope; St. Augustine's ''Literature/{{Confessions}}'' makes the claim that almost every evil is committed because the perpetrator was tragically fixated on a specific good without reference to any greater goods. Even the irrationally vile murderer [[Creator/{{Cicero}} Catiline]] had sympathetic reason to do his evil: to overthrow the city so that his poverty and low regard would not weigh his family down. In contrast to this killer, young Augustine had no such excuse for stealing pears, besides doing it ForTheEvulz.
* In ''Literature/{{Ratburger}}'', Tina Trotts is TheBully: stealing, slobbering on people, teasing, fighting, etc. Then, at the end, [[spoiler: it's revealed that her father is mean.]]
* In the third ''Literature/KingOfTheBench'' book, "Kicking and Screaming", we learn that the reason Jimmy Jimerino is such a bully is because [[spoiler:he's under constant pressure from his dad to be the best athlete in school]].
* ''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 disdain for being twins. Consequently, they're perfectly willing to [[spoiler:sell out Vastai and anyone in it]] for their own advancement.
* ''Literature/DarthBane'': The titular character was abused as a child by his father and grew up on an armpit of a planet. Bizarrely, while it's easy to see how this shaped him into a monster, he makes no attempt to justify his actions with it.
* Discussed and defied in ''Literature/MarketOfMonsters''. Kovit, like his mother, is a zannie -- an "unnatural" human species that needs to eat human pain. When he was 10, he turned his mother into the authorities for locking up and torturing a friend of his. After living alone on the run for a while, he was taken in by a mafia family and forced to torture people for them for the next 10 years, until he was [[ReassignedToAntarctica reassigned to an unnatural trafficking ring in the Amazon jungle]] as punishment for refusing to torture a friend. All this while living in a world that sees him as a "monster" just because of what he is. He's clearly suffered a lot in his life, and after he tells Nita about how his handler in the Family Henry raised and taught him, he can tell she's ready to start blaming Henry for the way he is. He violently insist she's wrong, that he's a monster because he chooses to be and takes full responsibility, not because of anything Henry or his mother did to him.
* In ''Literature/NewJediOrder'' It's implied that being caught in the crossfire during the Silentum-Abominor war (a war between two races of robots) is the reason for the Yuuzhan Vong's vicious [[EvilLuddite technophobia]] and general [[AbsoluteXenophobe xenophobia.]]
* The reason why Inspector Javrouche from ''Literature/TheFerrymanInstitute'' has it out for Charles in the first place is because Charles took a day off when Javrouche's son died. Since the rules forbid ferryman from working with deceased individuals they knew in life, Javrouche was unable to do the case himself and since Charles was the best ferryman they had, he blames Charles when the ferryman sent to fix the situation failed to do just that.
* ''Literature/TheCatWhoSeries'': In book #9 (''The Cat Who Went Underground''), this is what turned the book's killer into a killer. [[spoiler: Years of sexual abuse and the suicide of her twelve-year-old sister, who was also being abused, led to her developing a second personality who concluded that since her abuser was a carpenter, all carpenters were bad, therefore she started killing them.]]
* ''Literature/MonsterOfTheYear'': Discussed at one point, shortly before the book's ThisMeansWar moment, when the characters are watching Myrna Smud on TV and wonder if one of these (such as her having seen a monster movie as a child and being terrified by it) is why she hates monsters so much.

* ''Every single villain'' from ''Literature/WarriorCats''.

** Scourge: He was constantly teased and excluded by his brother and sister until he eventually ran away from home, where he was attacked and almost killed by Tigerstar. He spent the rest of his life trying to prove that he was strong, and to get revenge on Tigerstar, which eventually lead him to being a mass-murdering psychopathic dictator.

** [[spoiler:Mapleshade]]: [[spoiler: Fell in love with a [=RiverClan=] warrior, but when she tried to bring her kits across the river into [=RiverClan=] territory (since her own Clan had driven her out), the kits drowned. Eventually, the tom she was in love with found another mate and had kits with her. She hated Crookedstar because he was her former mate's great-grandson.]]

* In ''Literature/WatershipDown'', General Woundwort's violent and un-rabbitlike behavior stem from his traumatic kittenhood, in which his father was shot, his siblings scattered, and his wounded mother killed and eaten by a weasel right in front of him. Adopted and nurtured by a kindly human, who'd nevertheless failed to keep his cat from menacing the young rabbit, Woundwort never learned to interact civilly with other rabbits, and his lapine psyche became warped, his natural flight-instincts supplanted by aggression.

* ''Literature/TheLastDaysOfKrypton'': Nam-Ek's father went crazy and killed the rest of his family when he was a child. Afterward Nam-Ek was raised by Zod, who cares for him, but implicitly exposed the traumatized boy to a lot of scheming and violence during those impressionable years, causing Nam-Ek to see nothing wrong with being Zod's hatchet man.

* [[Literature/{{Dragons}} The Last Dragon Chronicles]]: Gwilanna's [[spoiler: mother was a {{Jerkass}}. Her father was [[AlwaysChaoticEvil evil]].]]

** Though this is somewhat {{justified|Trope}} in that all of the good and bad personality quirks of the Ribeira children are due to the [[AbusiveParents abusive nature of their father]], [[spoiler: who wasn't really their father.]]
*** Her argument is [[FridgeLogic flawed anyway]]. Who's to say jerks can't become saints?

* In ''Literature/NewJediOrder'' * It's implied that being caught in the crossfire during the Silentum-Abominor war (a war between two races of robots) is the reason for the Yuuzhan Vong's vicious [[EvilLuddite technophobia]] and general [[AbsoluteXenophobe xenophobia.

* ''Literature/DarthBane'':

* Creator/IsaacAsimov, ''Literature/{{Foundation}}'' series: 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.

* FreudianExcuse: Each member of The Tribe has a reason for running away from their old lives.