History Main / DrivenToMadness

* In {{Euripides}}'s tragedy, ''{{Bacchae}}'', the [[ClassicalMythology god Dionysus]] drives his aunts --and many of the women of Thebes-- mad because they dishonored his mother and refused to acknowledge his divinity. The play ends with [[DownerEnding tragic results]].

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** Accordingly, the Warner Kids of ''{{Animaniacs}}'' almost invariably manage to do this to anyone they have adopted as their "Special Friend" (generally someone who is being a jerk to start with).

* ''WesternAnimation/SamAndMaxFreelancePolice'': Sam and Max do this to MoralGuardian [[PunnyName Kent Standit]] in "The Glazed MacGuffin Affair". When he banned the titular snack food, Sam and Max went on a crusade to make him lift by getting him to taste one, following him everywhere he went and trying to trick him into eating one. This escalates into a cross-country chase, ending when Kent realizes he's arrived at the factory where Glazed MacGuffins are made and snaps.

<<|MadnessTropes|>>

* ''MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'''s Discord favors this as a method of BreakTheCutie.

** The Chameleon was '''frightened into a coma'' when he unknowingly built robot duplicates of Peter Parker's dead parents. It ended up being a case of BewareTheNiceOnes.

* The Black Spiral Dancers of ''WerewolfTheApocalypse'' force their captives to walk the Black Spiral and go as mad as they have.

** Not to mention the show's ''{{High Octane Nightmare Fuel}}''a.k.a the Reavers, who will occasionally keep one victim alive and force that said victim to watch their shipmates be raped to death, skinned and eaten. The survivor will ultimately go mad from the experience and will only cope by becoming a reaver themselves.

** Arguably not a completely straight case as the goal wasn't to drive her insane, madness being a side-effect from the abuse and what she saw, the point was to enhance her psychic powers. Admittedly the end goal was left in the air and Simon even explains to Book that if the point was just hurting her then they wouldn't want her back.

* ''SamAndMax'' do this to MoralGuardian [[PunnyName Kent Standit]] in "The Glazed MacGuffin Affair." When he banned the titular snack food, Sam and Max went on a crusade to make him lift by getting him to taste one, following him everywhere he went and trying to trick him into eating one. This escalates into a cross-country chase, ending when Kent realizes he's arrived at the factory where Glazed MacGuffins are made and snaps.

** Unfortunately, a detective who has the misfortune of overseeing Joker being processed through to jail in Batman Confident is indeed driven to madness, ultimately turning into a cop-killing psychopath who ultimately commits suicide when he realizes how Joker turned him into a monster.

* ''The Screaming Skull'': In which a man attempts to drive his wife insane in order to get unrestrained access to her money.
** It shares [[AdaptationDecay very little]] with the F. Marion Crawford short story of that name besides the title.

There are many varied reasons for someone to attempt to drive another person to madness. Perhaps they seek to break the character's will in order to make them more pliable, or it may be an attempt to induce a FreakOut or HeelFaceTurn. They may wish to punish the character or torment them by attacking their loved ones in such a fashion. They may try doing so in order to have someone discredited or declared incompetent. [[CompleteMonster Maybe they're]] [[ForTheEvulz just jerks.]]

** The Joker also ''successfully'' drives Harley Quinn nuts in her origin story.

* Many LooneyTunes characters end up doing this to their antagonists - of particular note are the Goofy Gophers.