History Main / ThereAReNoTherapists

** Carialle of ''The Ship Who Won'' lost her brawn in a very traumatic incident and spent two years in extensive therapy that has her returning to her old job, but wanting to hide any remaining symptoms because an official really has it out for her. She looks back on the time, effort, and love people gave her in therapy with gratitude, even if some of her therapists ''were'' only set up to handle muggles. In ''The Ship Errant'' she has a {{Foil}}, a brawn who survived the extremely traumatic loss of her [[SapientShip brainship]] and was ''not'' given nearly as much help. With brawns being regular humans who are simply educated for several years in order to become brawns, and brains being [[LongLived semi-immortal]], nearly indestructible, and incredibly expensive and time-consuming to "make", a brawn surviving a brain is looked on differently and the brawn was seen as unlucky and largely cut loose to fend for herself.

* ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'' is set in a world with both advanced medical technology and soulless beasts known as Grimm that are drawn to negative emotions and have regularly [[TheUsualAdversaries destroyed kingdoms]] in the past. Despite this, therapy doesn't seem to exist. When Yang hallucinates Mercury attacking her and shoots him in the leg, General Ironwood and Velvet both react to this by saying that it's "normal" for Huntsmen and Huntresses to hallucinate sometimes and the only consequence is that she's banned from the tournament. When Yang falls into a deep depression after [[spoiler:losing her arm]], Taiyang is unable to help her. While nearly every character has mental problems and trauma, none of them suggest therapy or anything similar. [[spoiler:The closest thing the world has to therapy is the Blacksmith, an entity from another dimesnion that was created by an omnisicent divine tree for the purpose. When Ruby tries to kill herself in that dimension, the Tree takes her and brings her to the Blacksmith who gives her magical EpiphanyTherapy.]] There might be some justification to this, as the world is a battleground for a SecretWar against [[HumanoidAbomination Salem]] whose primary tactic is to [[ManipulativeBastard use her opponents' emotional flaws against them]] and sow fear and hatred among the populace. It's possible that she sabotaged or else destroyed any developments in psychiatry as a threat to her plans.

** While he does make a miraculous recovery by the end of Season 2, the lack of treatment for Fitz's underlying mental health issues does actually come back in Season 5. With reality warping around the Lighthouse thanks to a dimensional rift manifesting people's fears, Fitz begins hallucinating again but mistakes his visions for literal fragments of the other world, leading to him doing some arguably quite terrible things in the belief that his villainous [[MadDoctor "Doctor"]] alter ego from Season 4 has manifested as a separate person running around outside of his control, and not (as turns out to be the case) himself acting out the questionable impulses of a secondary personality.

SisterTrope of AdultsAreUseless and AllTherapistsAreMuggles. If there's a PsychoTherapist in the work, then the characters will likely wish this trope were played straight.

** Subverted with Shino, who did ''try'' to get therapy after her childhood trauma. The problem is that said childhood trauma involved disarming a shooter at a bank to protect her mother, and then shooting him in the ensuing struggle for the weapon. Japan's existing problems with therapy were compounded by the country's DoesNotLikeGuns culture; Shino didn't get any help from the professionals, and eventually turned to exposure therapy with GGO on a friend's recommendation.

** Tomura Shigaraki is a PsychopathicManChild, and the teachers quickly identify him as someone who never even got the basic counseling every child is expected to have. Of course, in his case, it's justified because [[spoiler:he was "rescued" as a child by [[BigBad All For One]] and raised in isolation to brainwash him to All For One's purposes]].

* ''Fanfic/IsItStrongerToBreak'': Subverted. There are therapists in Paris, but the whole "supervillain who mind controls anyone who feels negative emotions" makes going to therapy within the city limits extremely risky. Justified in Marinette and Adrien's cases, as a normal therapist simply isn't equipped to handle their issues and seeing one would require them to reveal their identities. Tim suggests the possibility of Ladybug and Chat Noir sees one of the Justice League's therapists.

* ''Fanfic/OfPatienceAndPettiness'': PlayedWith; there ''is'' a counselor at Dupont who talks to the victims of akuma attacks. However, Marinette notes that they're horribly overworked, and wants to help establish a better system.

** Often, the ER doctors will try to get patients who obviously need psychiatric help admitted to the psychiatric department (or psych, as they call it) only for these patients to be turned away for various reasons. These patients inevitably either come back, having harmed themselves or others, or turn up dead. Most notably, in the episode Be Still My Heart, [[spoiler:Lucy and Carter call for a psych consult on a schizophrenic patient but are kept waiting long enough for the patient to have a psychotic break and stab both Lucy and Carter, ultimately killing the former and permanently damaging the latter both physically and psychologically--and while he sees one while in rehab, there's never any mention of him continuing to do so.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'': DoubleSubversion in that there ''are'' numerous mental health officials, but they are generally depicted as [[TheShrink incompetent and misguided]] at best and [[PsychoPsychologist sociopathic and manipulative]] at worst. This is best demonstrated in "[[Recap/SouthParkS15E8AssBurgers Ass Burgers]]", where Stan does not receive the help he needs for his depression because everyone was so stupid that they misinterpreted it as a sign of UsefulNotes/AspergersSyndrome.

* Justified in ''VideoGame/WolfensteinIITheNewColossus''. Even though quite a few of the Resistance are in serious need of therapy, including (but by all means not limited to) B.J, Grace, and Wyatt, they are also wanted fugitives in a world dominated by ThoseWackyNazis, [[TruthInTelevision who in real life]] considered mental illness and physical disabilities to be executable offences. For instance, there was a mental health hospital in the prequel - [[ShootTheDog and then the Nazis purged the hospital]], shooting most of the patients in their beds and the doctors when they started fighting back.

--->'''Acho the content creator:''' A "therapy stream"? I don't think there's any therapist on the Faction Isles, guys. [[AnachronismStew I don't therapy has been invented yet]]. I think that would explain a lot of things.

* ''WebVideo/PiratesSMP'': Alluded to on Day 36, following the server-wide event "In Too Deep". After investigating the Whirlpool and [[spoiler:watching Aimsey get KilledOffForReal]] with most of the server, Acho asks the Travelling Merchant if there's anywhere around to get therapy or [[INeedAFreakingDrink get drunk]]. The Merchant directs star to the tavern in town, with no further mention of getting anyone any psychological help.

* Averted in ''Blog/SwearySheRa''. Mystacor is re-imagined as a therapy center, and Castaspella is a therapist. However, Castaspella notes that [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome therapy isn't a magical fix-everything button]] and that dealing with Adora's ''many'' issues won't be easy, fast, or perfect.

* ''VideoGame/TwistedWonderland'': It's become something of a fandom joke that [[PlayerCharacter Yuu]] is basically Night Raven College's resident therapist because everyone there has issues and there doesn't seem to be an official school psychologist.

* ''Film/IronMan3'': Tony Stark is unambiguously suffering from PTSD after nearly dying during ''Film/TheAvengers2012'', and J.A.R.V.I.S. flat out tells him that he is having a panic attack. TheStinger shows that he ''is'' seeing a doctor about it... [[NotThatKindOfDoctor Bruce Banner]]. And beyond that, the scene is decidedly PlayedForLaughs, and there is no indication in the film or any subsequent MCU films that Tony ever seeks out professional help from a qualified source. The only character who gives him any kind of advice whatsoever is Harley, who tells him to "build something" to help him focus. While this could be an effective short-term solution to helping someone through a panic attack, it does essentially ''nothing'' to address the underlying causes of his PTSD. However, the movie treats it as a moment of EpiphanyTherapy, as Tony doesn't have trouble through the rest of the film, [[UnfortunateImplications the implication being he is completely cured]]. [[FridgeHorror Actually]], if Tony is suffering from undiagnosed PTSD, this puts a lot of what happens in [[Film/AvengersAgeOfUltron later]] [[Film/CaptainAmericaCivilWar films]] into a quite different context...

* In ''Franchise/StarWars'', galactic medical science is pretty advanced — when it comes to purely physical ailments. But the vast majority of the plot is driven by characters with glaring psychological problems who seem to have no formal support mechanisms whatsoever.

* ''Fanfic/FateRevelationOnline'': As in ''Literature/SwordArtOnline'' canon, Yui was created by the general AI to act as a therapist for the players. Here, Kayaba still won't let her interfere with the players, but he puts her to a different use: Acting as a {{psychopomp}} for the "dead" players and putting them to work testing new game features. Unfortunately, the contrast between Yui's programming to help players and her task to put them to work no matter the cost to their psyches is causing errors to accumulate. She is ''also'' aware that she is one of the few programs tagged as deletion-acceptable and deletion-enabled, meaning that if she doesn't do her job [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness she will be deleted and replaced]].
-->Sometimes, while in Turing-Capable Mode, Yui wanted to downgrade to a lower activity state. She didn't want to think and feel with human emotions. More and more she wanted that layer of her to sleep, to hibernate, to not activate and feel. Diagnostics indicated that the percentage of time was trending up during each activation. Yui knew she should reboot and repair. But each time while in Turing-Capable Mode she also issued the directive to not reset. She chose to remember the pain each time. It was a logical contradiction but it made perfect sense when she was capable of emotion.

* ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'': It is utter nonsense that no one, not even his closest loved ones, has recommended (or forced) Peter Parker/Spider-Man to go to a psychologist to finally end his obsessive-compulsive need for self-sabotage.

* Parodied in ''ComicBook/WhatIf'' v2 #2, where Characters/{{Daredevil|MattMurdock}} murdered [[Characters/MarvelComicsTheKingpin The Kingpin]] and went insane with guilt. While he's running around, he bumps into [[NinetiesAntiHero the Punisher]]. When he sees just how broken Daredevil's become, Castle actually recommends a psychiatrist and offers to take him there personally.

* ''Fanfic/FateRevelationOnline'': As in ''Literature/SwordArtOnline'' canon, Yui was created by the general AI to act as a therapist for the players. Here, Kayaba still won't let her interfere with the players, but he puts her to a different use: Acting as a {{psychopomp}} for the "dead" players and putting them to work testing new game features. Unfortunately, Yui's programming to help players and her task to put them to work no matter the cost to their psyches is causing errors to accumulate. She is ''also'' aware that she is one of the few programs tagged as deletion-acceptable and deletion-enabled, meaning that if she doesn't do her job [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness she will be deleted and replaced]].