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| 3 | %% This list of examples has been alphabetized. Please add your example in the proper place. Thanks! |
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| 6 | %% Image selected per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1360209208032240100 |
| 7 | %% Please do not replace or remove without starting a new thread. |
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| 9 | [[quoteright:320:[[MonsterClown https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/psycho_psych_800.jpg]]]] |
| 10 | [[caption-width-right:320:[[TooDumbToLive Seems legit.]]]] |
| 11 | |
| 12 | ->''"Yeah, but you know, he's a psychiatrist, so he's automatically a creep. I've seen movies. They all turn into super-sophisticated, Chianti-loving cannibals."'' |
| 13 | -->-- '''Det. Jake Peralta''', ''Series/BrooklynNineNine'', "[[Recap/BrooklynNineNineS6E11TheTherapist The Therapist]]" |
| 14 | |
| 15 | Sometimes ThereAreNoTherapists... and sometimes you'll only ''wish'' there weren't. |
| 16 | |
| 17 | Mental illness or psychological trauma can be serious, damaging issues that may need many months, if not years, of serious and dedicated care from a highly trained and understanding professional. This trope is what happens when you take those professionals and add a sprinkle of AxCrazy, TortureTechnician, and ManipulativeBastard. Psycho Psychologists are therapists who really should not be a therapist; at best they will display a criminally negligent LackOfEmpathy with the patient and either grow callously frustrated with dealing with other people's problems, or give them horrible and often self-destructive advice; at worst, they will have sinister, ulterior motives and actively abuse the relationship, possibly making their hapless victim an UnwittingPawn in some evil schemes, or perhaps deliberately sabotaging their fragile mental state [[ForTheEvulz out of sheer spite or sadism.]] |
| 18 | |
| 19 | Expect them to be found at a BedlamHouse and utilize [[ElectroconvulsiveTherapyIsTorture electroconvulsive therapy]], {{Lobotomy}}, MindRape, BrainwashedAndCrazy and MoreThanMindControl too often, but they can also be found in more humanistic forms of therapy like counseling or [[AllPsychologyIsFreudian Freudian therapy]]. |
| 20 | |
| 21 | Psycho Psychologists aren't even limited to psychology-related settings. They may be recruited by the BigBad to mastermind the MindControlConspiracy; they might be employed by the SecretPolice to create the ManchurianAgent; they may put their considerable skills and training to use as a DiabolicalMastermind. Or maybe the years of listening to other people's problems have simply [[CriticalPsychoanalysisFailure driven them over the edge]]. The nuts and bolts of this trope is mostly a psychologist who is, quite simply, either evil or crazy, however they put their abilities to use. |
| 22 | |
| 23 | Sub-trope of MadDoctor, if they are psychiatrists, or MadScientist, if they are psychologists, but either way TheCobblersChildrenHaveNoShoes; see also TheShrink and MorallyAmbiguousDoctorate. Compare with the evil variant of WarriorTherapist, who [[MindRape crushes your will]] on the battlefield, not the sofa. See also OrderliesAreCreeps. In extreme cases, see DrPsychPatient, where a patient impersonates or is mistaken for a psychiatrist. |
| 24 | |
| 25 | [[noreallife]] |
| 26 | ---- |
| 27 | !!Examples: |
| 28 | |
| 29 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 30 | |
| 31 | [[folder:Anime & Manga]] |
| 32 | * In ''Anime/BlackRockShooter'', [[spoiler:school counselor Saya Irino]] is revealed to be this. She'll mentally break any student who comes for help in their living days. It's not without reason, though (ItMakesSenseInContext): whenever someone's mind breaks down, an "Otherself" of that person will appear in the MentalWorld, embodying one's hard feelings and despair. [[spoiler:In the past, Saya made a vow to help her old friend, Yuu (who got [[FreakyFridayFlip swapped mentally]] with Strength, her Otherself) to send opponents against the titular Black★Rock Shooter; a monster killing Otherselves to cure them. Now that Yuu is in the Other world, she is a target as well.]] Of note, it doesn't help that [[spoiler:Saya herself also has an Otherself, called Black★Gold Saw]]. |
| 33 | * In ''Literature/{{Durarara}}'', Izaya Orihara is the DiabolicalMastermind variant. |
| 34 | * In the first anime of ''Manga/HunterXHunter'', Leroute is a psychologist who manipulates her patients into committing suicide and tries to [[BreakThemByTalking break Leorio by talking]]. |
| 35 | * In ''Manga/{{Monster}}'', both Johan and Nina are the product of an elaborate psychology experiment to produce an {{Ubermensch}}. While the doctor in charge of said experiment was an AntiVillain who aborted it before it [[GoneHorriblyRight went horribly right]] (though, in Johan, it already had), the experiments continued in state-run orphanages throughout East Germany, and the guys in charge of ''those'' attempts fit this trope to a T. One of them is encountered after the experiments ended and, having run into Johan previously, [[AbusiveParents horribly abuses his foster son]] because he is not more like him. |
| 36 | * As the BigBad of the second season of ''Anime/PsychoPass'', Kirito Kamui is an effective and manipulative therapist with the charisma of a cult leader. |
| 37 | * In ''Anime/RevolutionaryGirlUtena'', Souji Mikage runs a therapy seminar which he uses to draw in students looking for psychological help and brainwashes them to try and kill Anthy Himemiya. |
| 38 | * Professor Frank from ''Anime/YuGiOh5Ds'' is clearly more insane than any patient of the typical psychiatrist. |
| 39 | [[/folder]] |
| 40 | |
| 41 | [[folder:Comic Books]] |
| 42 | * ''ComicBook/{{Batman}}'' features a ''lot'' of these, most likely due to psychology and madness being such an important part of the mythos. |
| 43 | ** Dr. Crane was a university psychologist studying the effects of fear on the human mind. He got kicked out after firing a gun in class and became the Scarecrow. |
| 44 | ** ComicBook/PostCrisis, Hugo Strange is reinvented as a psychiatrist obsessed with analyzing (and ''[[IJustWantToBeYou becoming]]'') Batman, who he views as an {{Ubermensch}}. However, since EvilCannotComprehendGood, he believes Batman to be [[AllPsychologyIsFreudian subconsciously]] driven by fantasies of power. |
| 45 | ** Dr. Harleen Quinzel was the therapist for the Joker and ended up [[CriticalPsychoanalysisFailure falling completely in love with him]], quickly becoming his sidekick Harley Quinn. |
| 46 | *** In ''ComicBook/{{Harleen}}'', Dr. Harleen Quinzel is a psychologist whose subsequent growing LackOfEmpathy and obsession over 'treating the Joker' is borne out of [[NaiveNewcomer an original sense of genuine care, academic inquiry and a desire to live up to the Hippocratic Oath]]. Gotham, its police department and the subpar working environment of Arkham eventually [[BreakTheCutie turn her into someone who is too impulsive and too willing to bend laws]] with her little authority, paving the way for her fall. |
| 47 | *** {{Subverted|Trope}} in the ''ComicBook/HarleyQuinn'' solo series, in which Harley takes a day job as a psychologist at a nursing home and genuinely helps some of the residents, although her personal issues mean that her methods approach a psychological version of MeatgrinderSurgery. |
| 48 | ** And ''then'' there is Dr. Jeremiah Arkham, who starts off as merely a well-meaning shrink with probably the worst assignment in the world (running [[BedlamHouse Arkham Asylum]]); he eventually goes off the deep end and became [[spoiler:the new Black Mask]] (although this appears to have been {{retcon}}ned into a temporary condition by the ''ComicBook/New52''). |
| 49 | ** As shown in ''ComicBook/ArkhamAsylumASeriousHouseOnSeriousEarth'', Amadeus Arkham -- the guy who ''founded'' Arkham Asylum (and Jeremiah's ancestor) -- was also nuts, murdering a patient who had raped and killed his wife and daughter. It's strongly implied that Arkham, if not Gotham itself, is somehow cursed, and that anyone who works there is going to be driven insane -- Amadeus thought his family was haunted by an "evil Bat spirit" and performed occult rituals to bind it to the asylum, which he is ultimately incarcerated in himself. |
| 50 | ** For a time after joining the Arkham staff, Dr. Eric Border seemed to be a perfectly normal if slightly ineffective psychologist. [[spoiler:In ''ComicBook/BatmanEndgame'', the moment he stops taking the muscle relaxants and antipsychotics and washes off the hair dye and the skin makeup, the Joker's taken control of the asylum.]] |
| 51 | ** Following the destruction of Arkham Asylum in ''ComicBook/DCInfiniteFrontier'', Dr. Tobias Wear -- the man behind the new Arkham Tower in ''Shadows of the Bat'' -- is [[spoiler:a con man with an utter contempt for the mentally ill, which of course he keeps quiet about while running the con]]. |
| 52 | * ''ComicBook/ButtonMan'': Harry's secret handler in the first album turns out to be a renowned psychologist -- the same one he's relating his story to. Harry notes that he was especially interested in the gory details of the kills he committed on his orders. |
| 53 | * ''ComicBook/CaptainAmerica'': In comics from the 1960s and '70s, Cap periodically tangles with Dr. Faustus, a GeniusBruiser who prides himself on destroying Cap through the mind rather than the body. (In some ways, he serves as a dry run for Hugo Strange's transition from a generic MadScientist into one of these in ''ComicBook/{{Batman}}''; Creator/SteveEnglehart handled both.) |
| 54 | * ''ComicBook/{{Deadpool}}'' issue #900 is about the man himself confronting a therapist who takes sexual advantage of a young girl patient, resulting in her being DrivenToSuicide. Notably, this is one of the few times we see Deadpool go TranquilFury on a target. |
| 55 | * Doctor Gross from ''ComicBook/HackSlash'' is a [[FlayingAlive skinless]] psychologist specializing in [[ColdBloodedTorture physical]] and [[MindRape mental]] torture. |
| 56 | * "Professional Help", one of the stories from ''ComicBook/{{Hellboy}}: Weird Tales'', has [[ArtificialHuman Roger]] telling a shrink about a particularly distressing case he worked involving a baby giant, [[StupidJetpackHitler Nazi scientists]], and a BlackMetal cult. The shrink turns out to be an evil spirit who [[EmotionEater feeds on mental anguish]]. Roger knew this the whole time and quickly dispatches it, but he was hoping to get some closure while he was at it. |
| 57 | * ''ComicBook/TheIncredibleHulk'': Doc Samson turns into this due to the Intelligencia, though this involves turning him into a SuperpoweredEvilSide. |
| 58 | * Both versions of Margaret Love created by Creator/FrankMiller, spanning across multiple franchises. |
| 59 | ** The Love in ''ComicBook/FrankMillersRoboCop'', an adaptation of his early script for ''Film/RoboCop2'', is Juliette Faxx's prototype, who not only has many of the same flaws Faxx had, but a God complex, is aligned with the Rehabs and helps [[spoiler:them frame Murphy]], and frequently engages in ColdBloodedTorture under the pretext of it being therapy. |
| 60 | ** Miller would recycle the character's name and concept when he teamed up with Creator/ToddMcFarlane for the ''ComicBook/{{Batman}}''/''ComicBook/{{Spawn}}'' {{crossover}}, where she was someone Al Simmons knew in his days as an assassin before he became Spawn, experimented on the homeless, and [[spoiler:was willing to nuke the world in her attempts to take it over]]. |
| 61 | * ''ComicBook/NewGods'': Desaad, right-hand man to Darkseid, goes incognito as Dr. Dezard and provides evil therapy to (among others) Shilo Norman in the Creator/GrantMorrison run of ''Mister Miracle''. |
| 62 | * In ''ComicBook/{{Runaways}}'', Molly's mother works as a speech therapist. She also happens to be an evil mutant with MindRape powers. |
| 63 | * ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'': |
| 64 | ** In #24 of ''ComicBook/TheAmazingSpiderManLeeAndDitko'', Mysterio manages to briefly convince Spider-Man that he's losing his mind, posing as a psychologist to convince him that the root of his problem is his SecretIdentity. He would feel so much better if he confided in this friendly psychologist... What's really scary about this example in [[FridgeBrilliance retrospect]] is that Mysterio has just about ''succeeded'', until [[SpannerInTheWorks J. Jonah Jameson and Flash Thompson]] blunder into the house where the therapy is being conducted and where Mysterio has set up the illusions which made Spidey believe that he was hallucinating. When Jameson and Thompson see and react to the "hallucinations" as well, Spidey realizes that he's ''not'' crazy and that Mysterio's conning him -- cue the beatdown. |
| 65 | ** In ''ComicBook/TheAmazingSpiderMan1963'' #180, Spidey furiously unmasks the Green Goblin to find not Norman Osborn, nor Harry Osborn, but rather Harry's psychologist Dr. Bart Hamilton. Under hypnosis, Harry had told Hamilton about his being the Goblin and where the Goblin's glider and costume were stashed, encouraging Hamilton to try a little supervillainy. |
| 66 | ** The largely forgotten villain Judas Traveller from ''ComicBook/TheCloneSaga'' is a renowned psychologist and philosopher who claims to be an immortal, [[RealityWarper reality-warping]] mutant but is really just a regular [[MasterOfIllusion illusion-casting]] one, though this still makes him dangerous and allows him to convincingly fake being more powerful. He takes over the Ravencroft Institute for the Criminally Insane and uses his powers to (amongst other things) screw with Peter's mind and separate Carnage from his symbiote. |
| 67 | * Dr. Karla Sofen, aka Moonstone from ''ComicBook/{{Thunderbolts}}'', is a ''supervillain'' psychiatrist. One of her favorite hobbies is manipulating depressed patients into committing suicide. She also obtained her powers by manipulating one of her patients (the [[LegacyCharacter previous Moonstone]]) into giving her their source (an alien gem). |
| 68 | * Froid in ''ComicBook/TheTransformersMoreThanMeetsTheEye'' began hauling a SerialKiller with a taste for MindRape and a much more literal taste for chewing on Cybertronian brains around with him in order to study the guy in action. When [[TheBusCameBack he makes his return]] during the Mutineers arc, he starts egging on Getaway's InferioritySuperiorityComplex to see what happens. |
| 69 | * ''ComicBook/WonderWoman'' villain Dr. Psycho is a crazed, misogynistic, DepravedDwarf psychologist. |
| 70 | [[/folder]] |
| 71 | |
| 72 | [[folder:Comic Strips]] |
| 73 | * One Creator/GahanWilson cartoon has a psychiatrist scribbling down, not notes on what his oblivious patient is saying, but something like "I, Doctor Herman Schultz, am GOD and can solve all of mankind's problems!" |
| 74 | ** Another has the psychiatrist saying "When did you first become aware of this imagined 'plot to get you,' Mr. Potter?" while quietly beckoning a couple of creepy cloak-and-dagger types into the office. |
| 75 | [[/folder]] |
| 76 | |
| 77 | [[folder:Fan Works]] |
| 78 | * ''Fanfic/AndrogyninjasADoseOfVenom'' sees Sakura sent to a mandatory evaluation after the events of [[Fanfic/AndrogyninjasADropOfPoison the previous work]]. Unfortunately, Ishino has no interest in actually ''helping'' her, asking a series of leading questions before trying to convince her that [[spoiler:Mind Walking]] is a standard part of psychological evaluations. And when Sakura calls his bluff, he [[spoiler:{{Mind Rape}}s her anyway, desperately trying to uncover any information he can use to justify locking her away]]. |
| 79 | * ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/44173321/chapters/111078130 Death Wish]]'' is a ''Franchise/MyHeroAcademia'' fic where Bakugo falls victim to one. He’s dealing with ptsd from being kidnapped and raped and is inpatient for a time, but the doctor uses a real treatment called prolonged exposure therapy as an excuse to be a pervert and pedophile. And when Midoriya and Mitsuki, Bakugo’s mom, arrive while he’s in the act with a semi-quirk-drugged Bakugo, the guy has the nerve to say Bakugo is confusing reality and fiction. Both Midoriya and Mitsuki are livid and Bakugo’s father struggles to stop Mitsuki from killing the guy. Bakugo manages to snarl at the doctor when he realizes the guy wants Midoriya too, but he’s too weak to do much. Aizawa coaxes Bakugo to testify in court to make sure the guy is put in jail for his crimes. |
| 80 | * In ''Fanfic/GhostsOfEvangelion'', Asuka's former therapist, Dr. Kotetsu, was a creep who molested and sometimes raped his patients. He tried to rape Asuka and he almost drove her to suicide. |
| 81 | -->''Asuka glared at her. "Fine," she said. She closed her eyes, remembering that night. "He put his hands on me," she whispered, her voice shaking with rage. "He acted like he was doing me a goddamn favor by paying attention to me." She opened her eyes, her gaze fixed on some point past Misato's shoulder. "I couldn't believe it. He was supposed to be helping me, you know? You sent me there so he could help me, and he…" She shook herself, set her jaw, and continued on.'' |
| 82 | * The ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' fic ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/1908149/1/Institutionalized Institutionalized]]'' sees Captain Janeway basically deal with one after ''Voyager'' returns to Earth; the counselor in question won a lawsuit against Starfleet some time ago and used that to basically bully her way into a position where she is in charge of her own facility and can hold various 'security risk' Starfleet officers as patients, continually delaying and denying alternative appointments that might move patients out of her care. The counselor attempts everything from basically {{Gaslighting}} Janeway in minor ways (such as claiming Janeway's forgotten the other woman's name rather than Janeway never being told the name in the first place) to falsely diagnosing Janeway as suicidal (she just bruised herself trying to get out of her straps), even trying to convince Janeway that Chakotay is an abusive stalker (Chakotay tried to break into the facility to rescue her). Fortunately Janeway had enough contacts of her own that she is only there for a week or so before Admiral Paris is in a position to help secure her release. |
| 83 | * ''Fanfic/MiraculousThePhoenixRises'' gives us Dr. Nicole Cho, a student aid and head of the guidance office who cares more for asserting dominance than actually giving a damn about the students' mental health. |
| 84 | * ''Fanfic/AMothToAFlame'', [[EvilGenius The Core]] acts as a surprisingly benevolent version of this to Marcy, although [[PragmaticVillainy this is to mold her into a more ideal vessel than actually solve her legitimate psychological issues]], many of which it's [[TheCorrupter responsible for in the first place]]. |
| 85 | [[/folder]] |
| 86 | |
| 87 | [[folder:Film -- Live Action]] |
| 88 | * ''Film/TheAppointmentsOfDennisJennings'': Dr. Schooner really couldn't be a worse therapist. Sure, Dennis is irritating, but doodling during a session is bad, having the doorman to the building sit in for you when you can't make Dennis's appointment is bad, mocking Dennis while in the company of friends is really bad, and dating Dennis's girlfriend is mega-super-bad. |
| 89 | * ''Film/Asylum1972Horror'': |
| 90 | ** The former head of the asylum, Dr. B. Starr, underwent a complete mental breakdown and attacked his deputy Rutherford. Starr now believes himself to be someone else and is incarcerated in the secure wing. Dr. Martin's task is to determine which of four patients in the wing is really Dr. Starr. [[spoiler:He's actually Max, the orderly -- or rather, he's killed the real Max and has taken his place.]] |
| 91 | ** Dr. Rutherford is a comparatively downplayed example. He's lost hope that his patients can be treated, considering them so incurably insane that the only option is to lock them away and leave them to their delusions. In Byron's case, he decides that the best treatment for him would be a {{lobotomy}}. Dr. Martin rightly calls him out for treating his patients so unethically. |
| 92 | * In ''Film/BatmanBegins'', Johnathan Crane (a.k.a. the Scarecrow) helps convicted mobsters avoid jail time and get transferred to his Asylum, via testifying for the InsanityDefence on their behalf, where they help him perform his twisted experiments and poison Gotham's water supply on behalf of [[BigBad Ra's sl Ghul]]; essentially, he is a PsychoForHire. He returns in ''Film/TheDarkKnight'' for a cameo where he peddles his toxin as drugs, and again in ''Film/TheDarkKnightRises'' when he becomes the HangingJudge for Bane's dictatorship over Gotham. |
| 93 | %%* Barry Nyle in ''Film/BeyondTheBlackRainbow''.%%Administrivia/ZeroContentExample |
| 94 | * One of the earliest examples is the eponymous Doctor in ''Film/TheCabinetOfDrCaligari'', [[UnreliableNarrator depending on your point of view]]. In Francis' ostensible delusion, Caligari is the director of an asylum who uses his position to manipulate the somnambulist Cesare to do his bidding. |
| 95 | * Dr. Ronald Pendleton of ''Film/{{Choose}}'' may have had the best of intentions, but having mental ward patients hold a puppy and then offer them increasing amounts of money, then their freedom, if they snap the puppy's neck may not have been the best of plans. |
| 96 | * ''Film/{{Cure}}'': [[SerialKiller Kunihiko Mamiya]] isn't a practicing psychologist, but he was a student, and currently uses his knowledge to hypnotize others into becoming murderers. |
| 97 | * In ''Film/DarkCorners'' by Ray Gower, the protagonist Susan Hamilton attends the sessions of a creepy psychologist Dr. Woodleigh, [[spoiler:who turns out to be a serial killer and murders her]]. |
| 98 | * The therapeutic hypnotist in ''Film/DeadAgain'' starts out as obnoxious comic relief but turns out to be the BigBad in the end. |
| 99 | * ''Film/TheDeadCenter'': Dr. Forrester is a psychiatrist with a kind heart, but has problems communicating his emotions and is willing to break the law to help his patients. While he's very good at what he does, it's pretty obvious the others -- especially his boss -- are starting to get sick of him. Once word gets out about how he illegally admitted a catatonic patient into the emergency psych ward, things go south quickly. After all, he basically kidnapped, drugged, and [[spoiler: assaulted]] a helpless patient. The staff ''thinks'' Dr. Forrester has gone crazy, [[spoiler: but he's trying to kill John Doe before the demon that's possessing John's body can be discharged from the ward and kill again.]] |
| 100 | %%* Dr. Robert Elliot in ''Film/DressedToKill''.%%Administrivia/ZeroContentExample |
| 101 | * Played with in the Dr. Mabuse film series: |
| 102 | ** In the original ''Film/DrMabuseTheGambler'' one of [[DiabolicalMastermind Dr. Mabuse's]] identities (possibly the "real" one) is as a psychoanalyst, and he drives one of his victims to suicide while supposedly giving him therapy. |
| 103 | ** In ''Film/TheTestamentOfDrMabuse'', Mabuse has apparently died in a hospital for the criminally insane, but his organization is mysteriously starting up again. [[spoiler:In fact, his psychiatrist, Dr. Baum, has been "taken over" by Mabuse's personality and is committing the crimes. It's deliberately unclear if this is due to Baum spontaneously going mad, to post-hypnotic suggestion by Mabuse, or to actual spirit possession.]] |
| 104 | ** In ''Film/Die1000AugenDesDrMabuse'', one of Dr. Mabuse III's identities is as Dr. Jordan, a psychiatrist. |
| 105 | * Part of TheReveal in ''Film/{{Gothika}}''. [[spoiler:It turns out that Doug used his position as the head of a mental institution for women to allow himself and his partner-in-crime to rape several of the patients.]] |
| 106 | * {{Subverted|Trope}} in ''Film/HellraiserInferno''. The precinct psychiatrist Dr. Paul Gregory initially reveals himself as the Engineer killer when Joseph finds his wife and child frozen to death in his home. [[spoiler:It's actually Pinhead in disguise and is further implied to have made up the doctor's identity to begin with, as he is the one to inform Joseph of the Lament Configuration's origins.]] |
| 107 | * ''Film/HighAnxiety'': Nurse Diesel and Dr. Montague of the Psycho-Neurotic Institute for the Very, Very Nervous are dangerously insane. They hire a killer to murder anyone who gets in their way. |
| 108 | * A mild example: The shrink in ''Film/LocalHero'' brazenly insults client (later former client) Mr. Happer, stopping at nothing to get the message across, looking to confirm some unstated hypothesis of his. Happer eventually calls for him to be shot dead. |
| 109 | %%* Doctor Jack Grefe from ''Film/LoversLane'', one of the film's three killers.%%Administrivia/ZeroContentExample |
| 110 | * ''Film/TheMarriageChronicles'' has the Masters, a charming couple who use attempted drowning, electric torture, and revelation of dark secrets in an attempt to save the marriages of their patients. |
| 111 | * In ''Film/TheMatrixResurrections'', [[spoiler:Neo's therapist turns out to be a sentient computer program like Agent Smith who is keeping him trapped in the Matrix]]. |
| 112 | * ''Film/MermaidDown'' has Dr. Beyer, head of the Beyer Psychiatric Facility for Women, which looks like a pleasant suburban house but is actually a BedlamHouse. Beyer is a sadist who delights in tormenting the women under his power with ElectricTorture and {{punishment box}}es. [[spoiler:He's also a serial killer who dissects people alive.]] |
| 113 | * ''Film/MiracleOnThirtyFourthStreet'': Dr. Sawyer is a selfish, bitter man who fancies himself a brilliant therapist when his job is merely to give psychological evaluations to Macy's employees. He actually convinces a kid that his NiceGuy behavior is the result of a GuiltComplex. He later conspires to have Kris Kringle institutionalized, first when Kringle questions ''him'' on his own sanity, and when Kringle smacks him on the head over his treatment of the boy. [[spoiler:Mr. Macy later does the right thing and fires him.]] |
| 114 | * ''Film/{{Nightbreed}}'': At first, Dr. Philip Decker seems like a concerned psychologist who feels obliged to report Aaron Boone to the authorities for all the apparent murders that Boone committed during his blackouts. He prescribes Boone some medication to keep him from having another episode until he turns himself in. Turns out that [[ChemicallyInducedInsanity the drugs are actually hallucinogens]], Decker is the real killer and has framed Boone for his own crimes. |
| 115 | * ''Film/PerfectAssassins'': [[BigBad Dr. Samuel Greely]] is a shrink who wants to take B.F. Skinner's experiments to the next level. To do this, he kidnaps children, locks them in a box, electrifies their only way to get food, prevents them from having any meaningful human interaction, and conditions them to become assassins. |
| 116 | * Juliette Faxx from ''Film/RoboCop2'' is pretty crazy as when she's given control of the [=RoboCop=] project, she decided to look into death row inmates for viable candidates and decides on Cain, a known deal cult leader and murderer[[note]]her reasoning, after several tries to create a Robocop 2 with police officer brains have Les to the Robocop units being DrivenToSuicide, is that cops are proud of their bodies and cannot assimilate [[WasOnceAMan that they are no longer human]], so they need people who will focus on the "cool" parts of being a full body cyborg (read: sociopaths)[[/note]] -- and is overjoyed when, after she put his brain into the [=RoboCop=] 2 body, he survives an attempt to destroy him, even after he'd been massacring people. |
| 117 | * In ''Film/{{Scissors}}'', the protagonist (played by Creator/SharonStone) stabs a would-be rapist with scissors, then spends several days locked up in an apartment with a dead man stabbed to death with scissors. [[spoiler:In the last scene, her doctor reveals that he wanted to drive her completely insane to frame her for murdering his wife's lover. Fortunately, she retains enough sanity to slip out and lock the doctor and his wife in this inescapable apartment.]] |
| 118 | * ''Film/{{Shock}}'': After murdering his wife, psychiatrist Dr. Richard Cross has Janet Stewart, the only witness to the crime, committed to his private sanitarium under the pretext of treating her nervous collapse. Once under his care, he first [[{{Gaslighting}} attempts to drive her permanently insane]] and then, when that fails, tries to murder her. |
| 119 | * ''Film/ShockTreatment'''s [[BrotherSisterIncest tight-knit sibling]] medical team Drs. Cosmo ("Mac") and Nation [=McKinley=] run the quack and dangerous reality TV show/mental asylum ''Dentonvale'', administering traumatic treatments at the behest of their sponsor and supported by no real research or diagnosis. |
| 120 | -->'''Mac:''' You need a bit of... Ooh, shock treatment/Gets you jumping like a real live wire! |
| 121 | * ''Film/SideEffects'' is an interesting case. Dr. Siebert is shown to be a pretty competent, even well-regarded therapist in her everyday work. However, she is revealed to [[spoiler:be a co-conspirator with one of her patients on an elaborate scheme to murder the patient's husband and make it look like a psychotic episode]], which can't exactly be called a shining example of medical ethics. |
| 122 | * Dr. Emil Breton from ''Film/Sisters1973'' stalks his former patient/ex-wife obsessively and uses drugs and hypnosis to control her and supposed threats to her alike. |
| 123 | * Blue in ''Film/SuckerPunch'', the [[OrderliesAreCreeps male psych nurse in the asylum]] where Babydoll's father dumped her. Not only is he running something on the side, faking papers for {{lobotom|y}}ies for money, he also goes even more psycho after [[spoiler:Babydoll is lobotomized, and it creeps him out so much that he doesn't even want to rape her like he was planning on doing]]. |
| 124 | * In ''Film/Terminator2JudgmentDay'', the psychiatrist at the mental hospital where Sarah Connor is being held against her will is more concerned with using her to bolster his own career than treating her. ([[TheCassandra Not that she's insane]], but everyone quite reasonably thinks she is.) However, in ''Film/TheTerminator'', he's mostly just smug, maintaining that Kyle was delusional instead of believing his crazy story about time-travelling robots. |
| 125 | * Dr. Stevens, the government-enlisted therapist for the local prison in ''Film/TrustNo1'', is part of a larger conspiracy involving the Pentagon, with methods including gaslighting and false imprisonment. |
| 126 | * Bob from ''Film/WhatAboutBob'' may be an incredibly clingy and annoying patient, but Dr. Leo jumps to murder attempts pretty quickly, and that's only after some pretty obvious failures as a therapist to set up and enforce boundaries. |
| 127 | * ''Film/AHauntingAtSilverFalls'': Larry's father, Dr. Parrish, is a very pushy psychologist who spends more time grilling Jordan than listening to her. When he finds that she's seeing the ghosts, he pressures her into [[spoiler:visiting the convicted Wyatt Dahl]], claiming that every other girl has stopped seeing the ghosts afterward. Due to his awkwardness when Jordan asks if she can meet with those girls, it's implied that [[spoiler:he may be working with [[OutlawCouple Anne and Kevin]]]]. At the very least, he has no sense of Patient Confidentiality, and forces her to talk in front of her aunt, uncle, and Larry. In the sequel, Larry's mother also turns out to be a psychologist -- and a far more responsible one at that. |
| 128 | [[/folder]] |
| 129 | |
| 130 | [[folder:Literature]] |
| 131 | * Dr. John "Night Tripper" Havilland in ''Because the Night'' by Creator/JamesEllroy, who manipulates his patients into both suicide and murder ForTheEvulz. |
| 132 | * Doctor Gordon in ''Literature/TheBellJar'', who behaves indifferent and cold to Esther in her therapy sessions and ultimately botches electroshock therapy, giving her a traumatic fear of the procedure. Based on the author's real-life experiences. |
| 133 | * Dr. Hilarius in Thomas Pynchon's ''Literature/TheCryingOfLot49''. Prescribes and takes massive doses of LSD. Has other issues as well. |
| 134 | * Dr Myra Lark in "You Don't Have to Be Mad..." and other ''Literature/DiogenesClub'' stories by Creator/KimNewman. Described in the character sheet of ''Secret Files of the Diogenes Club'' as more interested in the ''uses'' of the mentally disturbed than in curing them. Also her superior in "You Don't Have To Be Mad..." [[MeaningfulName Dr. I. M. Ballance]]. |
| 135 | * ''Literature/DreamPark'' has a rare example of [[TheShrink the Harmful Shrink]] as one of the good guys. Dr. Vail, psychologist for Dream Park in ''The Barsoom Project'', lacks empathy and is willing to risk others' sanity in order to protect the Park (because where else would he have absolute control of subjects' experiences?). Be ''very'' glad that he's on the hero's side, because what he does to the villains in the end ain't pretty... |
| 136 | * Dr. Mark [[MeaningfulName Ahriman]] in ''Literature/FalseMemory'' {{Mind Rape}}s his patients into committing crimes/very creative suicides, and occasionally ''actually'' rapes them. It's all for [[ForTheEvulz his own entertainment]]. He also has an obsession with eyes, tears, and misery in general. When his victims cry, he licks their tears. |
| 137 | * Referenced in Creator/JackChalker's ''Literature/FourLordsOfTheDiamond'' series, when one of the protagonists meets a psychiatrist who wears glasses as an affectation, on a world where all health issues are instantly fixed, including imperfect eyesight. He thinks to himself that he has yet to meet a shrink who didn't need to see one. |
| 138 | * In Stuart B. [=McBride=]'s ''Literature/{{Halfhead}}'', Dr. Westfield is a female psychiatrist much like Hannibal Lecter. Prior to the book's start, she "treated" mentally ill children, but was really turning them into serial killers. Eventually she was caught and subjected to the titular treatment, which is essentially lobotomizing the subject into a mindless slave. However, the treatment failed her after a few years for mysterious reasons, causing her to seek revenge for everyone she blamed for her sentence. She first had problems due to not having the right drugs (or a face), but fixed them, then started overdosing, causing her to complain about how they "filled my head with [[MadnessMantra buzzing bees and broken glass!]]". |
| 139 | * Dr von Blimenstein in Creator/TomSharpe's novel of apartheid South Africa, ''Literature/IndecentExposure'', applies two different clinical standards depending on whether she's dealing with white or black mental illness. |
| 140 | * Psychiatrist William Haber in Creator/UrsulaKLeGuin's ''Literature/TheLatheOfHeaven''. He also appears in TheFilmOfTheBook. He's a well-meaning, but harmful shrink, who believes UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans (using his patient to rewrite reality). |
| 141 | * Miss Frisch in ''Literature/LosingChristina'' is a psychologist personally working alongside the Shevvingtons to help enforce the idea that the girls she examines are mentally disturbed. She was the one who helped put Valarie away in a mental hospital and tries to have a one-on-one with Christina, lucky a [[CoolTeacher kind teacher]] saved her at the last minute. |
| 142 | * Peter Teleborian from the ''Literature/MillenniumSeries'' was Lisbeth Salander's state-assigned childhood therapist. He reported that she was a seriously disturbed [[TheSociopath sociopath]] and a danger to society, and testifies to that to the police and in court, but while Salander was indeed disturbed she was no sociopath- he gave that report because she refused to speak to him, and resisted her attempts to control him, to which he responded by strapping her to her bed for days on end, and psychologically torturing her. He's also a pedophile and it's implied that he had been abusing most of the other children in his care, and he's arrested after the police find thousands of child pornography photos on his computer. He is probably the person who did the most damage to Salander's life which, given all the horrible people she had in that life, really is saying something. |
| 143 | * All of the psychologists in ''Literature/MissionEarth'' are, as per author Creator/LRonHubbard's views, either trying to murder their patients, sexually exploit them, or turn them gay as part of a Nazi conspiracy to destroy America. |
| 144 | * [[BlatantLies Dr. Holmes]] and [[LackOfEmpathy Dr. Bradshaw]], the psychologists in ''Literature/MrsDalloway'' by Creator/VirginiaWoolf, end up as this from different angles, and they're easily the most despicable characters in the book. |
| 145 | * Dr. Lilith Ritter in ''Literature/NightmareAlley'' is a particularly manipulative example of this trope: she's a [[TheVamp ruthless seductress]] who cares nothing about her code of ethics and sleeps with her patients as well as using the confidential information she gains in their sessions against them to coerce and blackmail. In the introduction to the 2010 reprint of the novel by New York Review Books, the journalist Nick Tosches even calls her "the most viciously evil psychologist in the history of literature". |
| 146 | * ''Literature/OneFlewOverTheCuckoosNest'' has Nurse Ratched. The Black Boys are not quite mental health professionals, but their jobs involve working with mentally ill people, and they may need help a lot worse than the patients. |
| 147 | * Olive Farina, a ConspiracyTheorist from the ''Literature/RepairmanJack'' novel ''Conspiracies'', was convinced by her incompetent shrink that she'd been the victim of [[HollywoodSatanism Satanic ritual child abuse]]. It never happened, but her "therapy" implanted false memories that destroyed her relationship with her parents and reduced her to a paranoia-plagued wreck. |
| 148 | * ''Literature/SavingMax'' has [[spoiler:Dr. Fastow, who has been testing experimental drugs on Max that cause violence and lability.]] |
| 149 | * In ''Literature/ShockPoint'', Cassie's WickedStepfather is a psychiatrist who makes money enrolling teens in a clinical trial for the behavioral modification drug Socom. He forges the signatures of parents who won't consent and gives it to teens without their knowledge. When the drug turns out to cause delusions and suicidal urges in a minority of patients, Rick hides the information from the authorities. Cassie discovers evidence of Rick's crimes, but before she can get an adult to take her seriously, Rick plants crystal meth in her room so her mom will send her to Peaceful Cove, an abusive reform school, which Rick hopes will keep her out of the way until she turns eighteen. |
| 150 | * John Melvin from Creator/SunnyRandall's ''Literature/ShrinkRap'', who lures women into relationships with him before he kills them. His ex-wife Melanie Joan is still heavily scarred by her experiences with him and hires Sunny as a bodyguard to keep him away. |
| 151 | * ''Literature/TheSilenceOfTheLambs'': Hannibal Lecter almost goes without saying. Lecter, the brilliant, cultured, refined, and charming psychiatrist and RenaissanceMan, and also AxCrazy [[ImAHumanitarian cannibalistic]] SerialKiller known as the Chesapeake Ripper and, later, Hannibal the Cannibal. He murdered one patient and fed him to his dinner guest because of his [[DisproportionateRetribution terrible flutist skills]] (though he was also apparently tired of his whining in sessions), and another he drugged and convinced to slash his own face with a piece of glass and feed the flesh to his dogs; though, granted, the first was a JerkassVictim and the second was [[PayEvilUntoEvil a psychopathic pedophile]]. He had dozens of other victims, but it's unlikely any of the rest were his patients. |
| 152 | ** It was also believed by Jack Crawford that Lecter encouraged his patients to perform acts of violence as a way to amuse himself. |
| 153 | * ''Literature/SimonArk'': In [[spoiler:"The Treasure of Jack the Ripper"]], the killer is a cold, emotionally distant and, as is ultimately revealed, deeply disturbed behavioural psychologist. Simon speculates that her mind was unbalanced by discovering [[spoiler:she is a descendant of UsefulNotes/JackTheRipper]] when she was too young to properly process the information. |
| 154 | * ''[[Literature/WaysideSchool Wayside School Gets a Little Stranger]]'' has a ''relatively'' light-hearted example: Doctor Pickell aka Doctor "Pickle" thanks to his pickle ornament. Pickell uses the pickle to hypnotize people to get rid of the problems they go to him to treat, but he also implants a TriggerPhrase that gives them entirely ''new'' issues just ForTheEvulz. One of the rare examples of a psycho psychologist actually getting caught, he had his license revoked... whereupon he became the school's guidance counselor. |
| 155 | -->He cured people with sick minds. Although Doctor Pickle had a pretty sick mind himself. |
| 156 | * ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime'': During the Age of Legends, Kamarile Maradim Nindar was a world-famous therapist, who used both her mastery of the [[MagicByAnyOtherName One Power]]'s mind-related weaves and her considerable skill and knowledge in human psychology to spectacularly cure many people of severe mental illnesses. However, she was a sadist and secretly made her treatments more painful than necessary. When it was revealed, she escaped the trial and joined the Dark One, becoming the exact opposite of her public persona, making people crazy and turning them into slaves. |
| 157 | * ''Literature/ZonesOfThought'': Flenser in ''A Fire Upon the Deep'' is the psychological equivalent of an EvilutionaryBiologist, thanks to the hive-minded nature of his species. He creates hive-minds of every possible configuration in order to see what will happen to their members, and the result is usually temporary or permanent psychological damage. He does take his science seriously, though -- he's willing to raise a new mind entirely on positive reinforcement, not out of any love for it, but because he's genuinely curious what effects such an upbringing will have. |
| 158 | [[/folder]] |
| 159 | |
| 160 | [[folder:Live-Action TV]] |
| 161 | * In the ''Series/AgentCarter'' episode "[[Recap/AgentCarterS1E6ASinToErr A Sin to Err]]", it is revealed that Dr. Ivchenko, whom the SSR has "rescued" from the Soviets, is the psychiatrist running the Black Widow program of [[ChildSoldier Child Supersoldiers]]. He then demonstrates his ability to hypnotize people into committing suicide and murder, which shines a completely different light on his patient's suicide during the "rescue". |
| 162 | * ''Series/AmericanHorrorStoryAsylum'' has [[spoiler:Dr. Oliver Thredson]], a psychiatrist who was appointed by the court to evaluate Briarcliff's latest patient, the suspected SerialKiller Bloody Face. He is kind and compassionate... except that [[spoiler:''he'' is the real Bloody Face, and that he set up Kit Walker as his patsy and ensnared Lana Winters as his latest victim. Dr. Thredson also has no qualms about using his medical expertise to torment the two of them after his plans went awry]]. |
| 163 | * ''Series/{{Angel}}'': The episode "[[Recap/AngelS01E06SenseAndSensitivity Sense & Sensitivity]]" has Allen, a milquetoast "sensitivity trainer" who is foisted upon Detective Lockely. He engages the police in passing around a "talking stick" and decreeing "no judgements". The stick is actually a cursed totem, reducing the officers to weepy neurotics and allowing the prisoners to bust free. Unfortunately, in the process of roughing Allen up, [[BadassInDistress Angel touches the talking stick as well]]. |
| 164 | -->'''Doyle:''' ''[grumbling]'' I think we've found "Mr. Sensitivity".\ |
| 165 | '''Angel:''' Uh-uh! He was here all along, just waiting to come out. Boy, what our parents do to us, huh? |
| 166 | * ''Series/BabylonBerlin'': Dr. Schmidt ([[spoiler:aka Anno Rath]]) is an AmbiguouslyEvil psychoanalyst who genuinely helps Gereon and his other shell-shocked patients, but also puts his talents at the disposal of gangsters, dabbles in sinister occultism, may be manipulating Gereon via hypnotic suggestion, and is developing a PsychoSerum based on amphetamine. |
| 167 | * Leonard's mother, Beverly Hofstader, on ''Series/TheBigBangTheory''. Serving as an older counterpart to the borderline-Asperger's of Sheldon, she has zero compassion for her subjects and merely bats them around like a cat with mice. She even used her infant son as a test case for her book, ''Needy Baby, Greedy Baby''. |
| 168 | * ''Series/BirdsOfPrey2002'': Dr. Harleen Quinzel is a psychiatrist who happens to be TheDragon of one of Gotham's most vile criminals. She goaded a patient to murder his girlfriend through urging him to embrace his anger, after which he'd [[MurderSuicide killed himself]]. Quinzel is quite pleased with this. She's also, per normal, a [[{{Understatement}} bit less]] than mentally well herself. |
| 169 | * The ''Series/BrooklynNineNine'' episode "[[Recap/BrooklynNineNineS6E11TheTherapist The Therapist]]" features one as the [[MysteryOfTheWeek villain of the week]]. |
| 170 | * ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'': |
| 171 | ** Dr. Maggie Walsh is a government spook who masquerades as Buffy's professor of psychology in the forth season. |
| 172 | ** Dr. Platt from "[[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS3E4BeautyAndTheBeasts Beauty and the Beasts]]" is actually a {{subver|tedTrope}}sion (surprisingly, given the nature of the series). He smokes at school, sprays air freshener around his office to cover it up and is quirky enough for Buffy to open up about her being a Slayer and her relationship with Angel. All in all, he comes off as a kind and insightful ReasonableAuthorityFigure and is therefore horribly murdered by the MonsterOfTheWeek, [[spoiler:the abusive boyfriend of another patient]]. |
| 173 | ** "[[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS6E17NormalAgain Normal Again]]": A competent therapist in real life would most certainly ''not'' encourage a patient to kill their imaginary friends, which serves as a big indication that [[NightmareOfNormality the asylum reality is a hallucination]] caused by the demon's venom. |
| 174 | ** In "[[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS7E7ConversationsWithDeadPeople Conversations with Dead People]]", Buffy is nonplussed to discover that the grave she's been patrolling all night belongs to an old classmate, a psych major named Holden Webster. As a warm-up for their inevitable duel to the death, the vampiric Holden offers to psychoanalyze Buffy -- and we cut to Buff [[FreudianCouch reclining on a flat tombstone like a couch]]. While he does intend to kill her and uses the analysis to get under her skin -- which he's pretty up-front about -- his AffablyEvil nature ("Buffy, I'm here to kill you, not to judge you") and genuine insight mean that his analysis actually helps Buffy explore her issues and deal with them. This makes TheReveal that he was sired by [[spoiler:Spike (under the control of the First Evil)]], who is a prominent user of the same technique in his own right (though not an actual psychologist), somehow fitting. |
| 175 | * ''Series/BurnNotice'': [[spoiler:Dr. Anson Fullerton]], leader of the conspiracy that burned Michael, is a CIA psychiatrist who has built up a network of burned spies in order to do off-the-books operations. He also uses his psychology skills to great effect in manipulating people, particularly Michael. |
| 176 | * ''Series/{{Chucky}}'': We learn late in Season 2 that Dr. Mixter was Chucky's psychiatrist when he was a child, and that she deliberately stomped out the flicker of good in him, guaranteeing that he'd grow up to be a SerialKiller, all because she [[ForTheEvulz found his innocence boring]]. This effectively makes her the GreaterScopeVillain of [[Franchise/ChildsPlay the entire franchise]]. |
| 177 | * ''Series/{{Columbo}}'': |
| 178 | ** Dr. Ray Fleming from "[[Recap/ColumboS00E01 Prescription: Murder]]" is a psychiatrist who seduces one of his patients and convinces her to be his accomplice in the murder of his wife. He is one of the few to catch on to Columbo's act of ObfuscatingStupidity and the only one to do so almost immediately. In a conversation with Columbo, he implies that he thinks of himself as a kind of {{Ubermensch}}, entitled to kill his wife because he could get away with it; he later admits that he would probably have killed his accomplice girlfriend at some point too, and perhaps continue the pattern of murder that he had begun, making him SerialKiller in the making. |
| 179 | ** In "[[Recap/ColumboS04E06 A Deadly State of Mind]]", hypnotherapist Dr. Mark Collier kills his patient/lover's husband to protect the book he is writing using her, then has her cover for him, even "implanting" instructions in her mind during a therapy session. |
| 180 | * ''Series/CriminalMinds'': |
| 181 | ** Karl Arnold from "[[Recap/CriminalMindsS1E7TheFox The Fox]]" is a psychiatrist working in family therapy. He comes to the homes of his patients, murders the father, lives ''as'' the father for a short time, then [[FamilyExtermination murders the rest of the family]]. |
| 182 | ** Dr. Stanley Howard from "[[Recap/CriminalMindsS3E3ScaredToDeath Scared to Death]]" murders his patients [[FrightDeathtrap using their worst fears]]. |
| 183 | ** Dr. Malcolm from "[[Recap/CriminalMindsS5E12TheUncannyValley The Uncanny Valley]]" is a child therapist and closet [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil child molester]] who uses electroshock treatment to torture his victims into submission. His abuse of his daughter -- who, yes, was one of his victims -- drives her to [[SympatheticMurderer unintentionally kill people]] in an attempt to relive her lost childhood. |
| 184 | ** In "[[Recap/CriminalMindsS11E21DevilsBackbone Devil's Backbone]]", the [[ConsultingAConvictedKiller convicted killer who the BAU consults]] (with all the obligatory [[ShoutOut shout-outs]] to ''Literature/TheSilenceOfTheLambs'') is Antonia Slade, a therapist and social worker who used her position to target, abduct and kill at-risk children. The unsub turns out to be a former patient who she groomed to be a [[JackTheRipoff copycat killer]]. |
| 185 | ** Dr. Elizabeth Rhodes from "[[Recap/CriminalMindsS14E10FleshAndBlood Flesh and Blood]]" convinces her patient David that he's "destined" to be a SerialKiller like his father, but that he should assuage his conscience by killing "criminals" -- actually the people who she blames her daughter's accidental death. |
| 186 | * In ''Series/{{Dexter}}'', Dr. Emmett Meridian is a psychiatrist who subtly manipulates his patients, all women, and convinces them to kill themselves. Dexter signs up for a session with him to get closer and finds himself revealing more about himself than he initially intended. |
| 187 | * The ''Series/DiagnosisMurder'' episode "[[Recap/DiagnosisMurderS4E17DelusionsOfMurder Delusions of Murder]]" has Dr. Gavin Reed as the villain. Reed uses his hypnotherapy as a way of sexually abusing his female patients, having done enough of this to induce miscarriage in one. When his soon-to-be-ex wife threatens to release this information as a way of getting everything she can out of Gavin in her divorce, he murders her and sets up one of the women he's "treating" to take the fall for it. His wife is a more downplayed example, as she is also a therapist and... well, see why she gets murdered above. |
| 188 | * ''Series/Evil2019'': Leland Townsend is a forensic psychologist in league with actual demons. As such, he uses his knowledge to push unstable people into committing murder and label innocent ones with falsified diagnoses which destroy their lives. |
| 189 | * Can Manay of ''Series/{{Fi}}'' is a manipulator and abuser, driven by obsession and a desire for control. He installs spy cameras to monitor his neighbor (and later girlfriend) around the clock. He assaults his lover and threatens her with a sex tape when she tries to alert another woman to his true motivation. He burned his ex-girlfriend's face when he learned she was meeting with her ex-husband, and later [[spoiler: killed said woman with his bare hands for threatening to reveal his crime]]. He is prone to violent confrontations, gaslights those he claims to care about, uses those who consider him a friend for his own gain, and treats his employees like shit. |
| 190 | * At the end of the ''Series/{{Forever|2014}}'' episode "Skinny Dipper", it turns out that the episode's antagonist, a mentally ill man named Clark Walker, was actually manipulated by his therapist. Henry's own therapist, Dr. Lewis Farber, gives Henry some key information, [[spoiler: which may or may not have been true but was clearly designed to manipulate ''Henry'' into thinking that Walker was his immortal stalker, Adam. Adam was actually the one manipulating them both all along, terrorizing and traumatizing Henry, culminating in tricking Henry into killing Walker, after which he revealed that "Dr. Farber" was actually Adam himself.]] |
| 191 | * ''Series/ForeverKnight'' had yet another therapist who hypnotized her patients into committing homicide. (The painting of Bedlam in her waiting room was a tip-off something was wrong.) |
| 192 | * ''Series/{{Gotham}}'' is crawling with these, which handily explains why billionaire Bruce Wayne [[ThereAreNoTherapists can't get decent mental health care for his outstanding issues]]. One outstanding example is Dr. Marks, who hypnotizes patients into becoming serial killers. There are also those who use the methods without the advanced degree to go with it, like Jack Gruber aka Buchinsky, who brainwashes victims with improvised electroshock, and Gerald Crane, current bearer of the [[LegacyCharacter Scarecrow legacy]]. |
| 193 | * ''Series/{{Hannibal}}'': {{Double Subver|sion}}ted. While Hannibal Lecter is clearly a ManipulativeBastard, evil genius, and serial killer, in the first few episodes he's an absolute professional when it comes to actually dispensing psychiatric advice. It's only in later episodes that he crosses into this territory [[spoiler:by {{gaslighting}} Will Graham]], and it's for very specific reasons -- until the second season, as [[spoiler:we get some extra glimpses of what ''really'' went on during Will's sessions]]. It isn't just [[spoiler:Will]], either -- Hannibal's advice to at least two other patients [[spoiler:(Randall Tier and Margot Verger)]] was driven purely by his own curiosity and propensity for chaos and not for the benefit of their mental health. |
| 194 | %%* The villain in the "Wahine'inoloa" ("Evil Woman") episode of the third season of ''Series/HawaiiFive0''.%%Administrivia/ZeroContentExample |
| 195 | * ''Series/Hunter1984'': Dr. Bolin from the pilot episode, who is hired by [[DaChief Captain Cain]] to make psychological assessments of all his officers, in particular Hunter himself so Cain has grounds to fire him for being "unstable". It later turns out that Dr. Bolin is a SerialKiller who is being treated by another therapist for sociopathy. In fact, he specifically picks out women because they resemble his therapist. |
| 196 | * ''Series/LAsFinest'': Duke Ingram is a military veteran and therapist who has a therapy retreat to help fellow veterans with PTSD. He's actually using it to recruit many as assassins. |
| 197 | * This has been a common recurring feature in the ''Franchise/LawAndOrder'' franchise: |
| 198 | ** ''Series/LawAndOrder'': |
| 199 | *** In the episode "Promises to Keep" a psychiatrist forms a sexual relationship with a young man in her care and convinces him that he needs to kill his girlfriend. Dr. Olivet is so repulsed by all of this that she pushes Schiff to prosecute the shrink as well as the killer. The young man goes to prison while the psychiatrist only loses her license. |
| 200 | ** ''Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit'': |
| 201 | *** In one episode, a man is beaten so hard that his testicles rupture by his daughter's school guidance counselor, on the grounds that he had not accepted his daughter being transgender. |
| 202 | *** The episode "Conned" features a {{yandere}} psychiatrist who took advantage of her teenage patient, tried to manipulate him into staying with her once she got pregnant, and broke him up with his new girlfriend by calling her parents and telling them he was a rapist before drugging and kidnapping him. When the detectives finally catch up with her, she claims that their "relationship" was the healthiest she ever had and that she was previously attracted to abusive men. The episode makes a point of averting DoubleStandardRapeFemaleOnMale, with multiple people pointing out that what she did is just as wrong as it would be with a male psychiatrist and an underage female patient. |
| 203 | *** Yet another seduced several of her teenage son's friends, then literally cried "[[FalseRapeAccusation Rape!]]" when he walked in on her with one of them, prompting the kid to ''shoot'' his friend to supposedly defend his mother. During the trial, she proceeded to lie through her teeth and claim that he had an [[ChildSupplantsParent oedipus complex]] and actually acted out of ''jealousy''. |
| 204 | ** ''Series/LawAndOrderCriminalIntent'': |
| 205 | *** In an episode there was a psychiatrist that manipulated his patients into investing stock for another patient of his. He even managed to manipulate one into killing himself. |
| 206 | *** Another one had a therapist who gave a paranoid but harmless man a form of "therapy" that amounted to torture, turning him into a homicidal psychotic. |
| 207 | *** In yet another, a forensic psychiatrist who testifies for the DA has his girlfriend's brother-in-law killed for molesting his daughter. [[spoiler: Which the guy wasn't even guilty of.]] |
| 208 | * ''Series/LieToMe'': In the episode "Do No Harm", a psychiatrist kidnaps a few children who were her clients. |
| 209 | * ''Series/LoisAndClarkTheNewAdventuresOfSuperman'': |
| 210 | ** Lex Luthor's vengeful ex-wife is a ''Daily Planet'' columnist who peddles pop psychology advice. The columns are actually [[SubliminalSeduction subliminal messages]] instructing Metropolitans to hate Superman. Go figure. |
| 211 | ** Lois has sessions with several paid psychiatrists, and nearly all of them turn out to be evil. |
| 212 | --->'''Lois Lane:''' I haven't had the greatest luck with psychiatrists.\ |
| 213 | '''Dr. Friskin:''' Oh? You've spent some time in therapy?\ |
| 214 | '''Lois Lane:''' Oh, no. It's just that the last psychiatrist that I saw [[SurgicalImpersonation had an exact double of me made]] and tried to have me killed.\ |
| 215 | '''Dr. Friskin:''' And how did that make you feel? |
| 216 | ** A season later, Lois becomes stricken with amnesia and falls under the care of a certified weirdo who tries to [[HypnotizeTheCaptive brainwash her into marrying him]]. It nearly works, but the amnesia wears off, and Lois ends up [[GroinAttack kicking him in the groin]]. |
| 217 | * ''Series/MidsomerMurders'': |
| 218 | ** {{Subverted|Trope}} in one episode in which the psychologist is perfectly sane -- [[spoiler:her three teenaged-and-younger children]] are the murderers who go after any man [[spoiler:who talks to their mother, including their father (died in a "climbing accident") and Barnaby]]. |
| 219 | ** One early episode has a psychiatrist use a patient's extremely depressing backstory for his award-winning novel. The patient is not amused and murders him for it. |
| 220 | ** One episode has a former police officer who quit the force to become a psychologist to treat a lord she'd arrested for the murder of his wife, and as such is idolized by Barnaby. The lord's wife was a GoldDigger who slept around with several men, including the psychologist's husband, [[spoiler:so she murdered the wife and framed the lord. Decades later, she ends up murdering her own husband when the investigation starts up again, and after Barnaby arrests her, he doesn't exactly overexert himself to prevent her from jumping under a train]]. |
| 221 | * ''Series/MontyPythonsFlyingCircus'' has several sketches with psychiatrists, most of them mad. |
| 222 | ** Theatre/{{Hamlet}} meets a series of fake psychiatrists who only want to talk about sex ("You've got her legs up on the mantelpiece..."). |
| 223 | ** A milkman psychiatrist who makes pat diagnoses of patients' problems without first obtaining their full medical history. |
| 224 | ** Mr. Larch, a psychiatrist who calls himself on the phone. |
| 225 | * A few episodes of ''Series/MurderSheWrote'' had them, sometimes as the murderer, sometimes as a RedHerring. Others had TheShrink set up to ''look'' like a Psycho Psychologist as a RedHerring. |
| 226 | * Dr. Jeremy Batewell from ''Series/{{Profit}}'' uses his skills at hypnotism to molest his female patients. Jim Profit uses recordings of this to blackmail the doctor into psychologically destroying a rival and committing her to an asylum in a perpetually drugged-up state. [[spoiler:Jim later exposes Batewell and "rescues" his rival, leaving her in his debt, and others questioning whether her legitimate investigation into Jim was the result of Batewell’s handiwork all along.]] |
| 227 | * Doctor Michelle Banks from ''Series/Revenge2011'' institutionalized and psychologically abused an innocent and mentally healthy girl in an exchange for a cushy private practice. Years later, the girl gets her revenge by stealing copies of the unauthorized videos which Banks made of her patient's sessions, showing them at a public gathering, discrediting her, then kidnapping the doctor and locking her in a shipping container for a day. |
| 228 | * ''Series/RaisingHope'': Lucy's father is shown to have more than a few screws loose himself, and he ''married'' one of his patients, while continuing to "treat" her. It's little wonder that [[TroubledButCute Lucy is so messed up]]. |
| 229 | * In ''Series/{{Sisters}}'', middle sister Georgie's therapist convinced her she had been molested by her father, then convinced her to turn her back on her disbelieving family. Ironically, had he been correct, this would have been an appropriate reaction, but his sole reason for doing all this was to seduce her. Her attempts at filing a complaint prove futile and he tauntingly suggests that she seek professional help. When she finally catches him in the act (after sending in youngest sister Charlie as a HoneyTrap), she pulls an IronicEcho and says the same thing to him. Given the high likelihood that she's not the only woman he's done this to, she's probably right. |
| 230 | * Dr. Foster from ''Series/{{Skins}}'' is a particularly extreme example, seeing as he's a StalkerWithACrush wants to break [[spoiler:Effy Stonem]] down to virtually a BlankSlate to rebuild as he likes. |
| 231 | * ''Series/{{Smallville}}'': |
| 232 | ** Reformed criminal Alicia Baker finds herself being stalked by her old doctor from [[BedlamHouse Belle Reve sanitarium]] (yes, Smallville had its own Arkham), who is jealous of Clark Kent's affections. |
| 233 | ** A couple seasons later, an escaped Phantom Zone prisoner tries to [[spoiler:take over Clark's body by creating a hallucination where the prisoner is a doctor trying to cure Clark of his delusions -- supposedly, after Clark's real parents died, he made up an imaginary world where he is an invulnerable alien]]. |
| 234 | * ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'': Dr. Tristan Adams from "[[Recap/StarTrekS1E9DaggerOfTheMind Dagger of the Mind]]" is a brilliant psychologist well known for revolutionizing Federation {{penal colon|y}}ies, including the facility on Tantalus IV of which he is the director. However, Adams eventually became corrupt, using a [[MindControlDevice Neural Neutralizer]] to brainwash the colony's staff and inmates under the guise of rehabilitaing mental patients. |
| 235 | * The ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'' episode "[[Recap/SupernaturalS01E10Asylum Asylum]]" features the ghost of one of these, haunting his old asylum and inducing insanity in anyone he touches. |
| 236 | * One episode of ''Series/{{Trace}}'' features [[UnholyMatrimony a married couple]] of psychologists who [[spoiler:kidnap children, put them in orphanages, and monitor their parents' wealth ''before'' asking for a ranson (they need to understand whether the parents can pay huge sums or not)]]. |
| 237 | [[/folder]] |
| 238 | |
| 239 | [[folder:Music]] |
| 240 | * The title character from "Dr. Jerome, Love Tub Doctor" by The Bogmen, who uses psychotherapy, hypnosis and a hot tub to seduce patients. |
| 241 | * Suggested with Dr. X from Queensryche's "Music/OperationMindcrime" album, although it's unclear if he actually has any claim to the "doctor" title or is just a self-taught brainwasher. |
| 242 | [[/folder]] |
| 243 | |
| 244 | [[folder:Myths & Religion]] |
| 245 | * According to [[TheScottishTrope a certain group we shall not name]] due to controversy and not wishing to get our pants sued off, ''all'' psychologists are automatically this, brainwashing humanity and repressing our inner divinity. |
| 246 | [[/folder]] |
| 247 | |
| 248 | [[folder:Oral Tradition]] |
| 249 | * The stock character of asylum-themed anecdotes in RussianHumour. |
| 250 | -->'''Psychiatrist:''' ...But, of course, he's nuts. Because [[NapoleonDelusion the REAL Napoleon Buonaparte is ME]]!\ |
| 251 | '''Psychiatrist:''' ...What, you eat coffee cups for breakfast and only leave the handles? My, my, you must be mentally ill... because the handle is the tastiest bit! |
| 252 | * In Polish stock jokes (at least Andrzej Sapkowski's stories mentioned it as such), the "What's the difference between..." riddle says that the difference between an asylum's staff and patients is that the former get to sleep in their own homes. |
| 253 | * A madman in an asylum is brought for a psych evaluation: |
| 254 | -->'''Psychiatrist:''' Why did you decide to start singing "Deck the Halls" while doing jumping jacks at three in the morning?\ |
| 255 | '''Patient:''' Because God told me to!\ |
| 256 | '''Psychiatrist:''' [[AnswersToTheNameOfGod I said no such thing]]! |
| 257 | [[/folder]] |
| 258 | |
| 259 | [[folder:Tabletop Games]] |
| 260 | * ''TabletopGame/JAGSWonderland'': |
| 261 | ** Big Pharma is a secret conspiracy being run from the lower chessboards with the ultimate purpose of [[spoiler: 'curing' human will to live and triggering the mass suicide of the entire human race]]. Individual psychologists also operate support groups encouraging denial (and thus self-destruction) among the Unsane. |
| 262 | ** Dr. Nothing from the "Fall of New York" setting supplement for Fast Company, the action rules for the system. This guy specializes in crushing the dreams of those who seek to make a difference in the WretchedHive that New York has become. In addition to his skills as Fast Company (which makes him as badass as any player character), he likes to BreakThemByTalking as well as other dirty social tricks. |
| 263 | * A ''Magazine/{{Dragon}}'' article about ''Heinfroth's Manual of Methods''; a spellbook constructed by a Psycho Psychologist in the TabletopGame/{{Ravenloft}} setting, with spells like ''submersion treatment'', ''shock treatment'' and ''lobotomize'', as well as advice on {{gaslighting}} and experimenting on living brains. |
| 264 | * In ''TabletopGame/NewVindicators'', one of the seven Fallen Seraphim, Abaddon, has a disguise as a psychiatrist operating out of a complex called the Spider. He provides therapy for the young New Vindicactor students, keeps his daughter (and mother of some of his kids) locked up, and {{Mind Rape}}s at least one person with illusions of their loved ones. |
| 265 | * In ''TabletopGame/CityOfMist'', the case Broken Glass features a whole organization of these who specialize in BreakThemByTalking with the goal of driving Rifts into suicidal self-loathing. |
| 266 | [[/folder]] |
| 267 | |
| 268 | [[folder:Theatre]] |
| 269 | * Dr. Rook, the jailhouse shrink in ''Theatre/OneTouchOfVenus'', is not as harmful as the police lieutenant wants him to be, but still somewhat hostile and a little insane. |
| 270 | -->'''Rodney''': I'm not the loony one--you are!\ |
| 271 | '''Rook''': That's what they all say. |
| 272 | * In ''Theatre/ThePhysicists'' the head of the sanatorium (Fraulein Doktor Mathilde von Zahnd) is revealed to be this. |
| 273 | [[/folder]] |
| 274 | |
| 275 | [[folder:Video Games]] |
| 276 | * ''VideoGame/AliceMadnessReturns'' gives an especially twisted example in [[spoiler:Dr Angus Bumby, whose 'therapy' consists of getting his patients to forget their pasts so he can use them as child prostitutes. He also burns down the protagonist's house to cover his tracks after raping her sister. His KarmicDeath is justified.]] |
| 277 | * In ''VideoGame/AngelsOfDeath'', [[spoiler:Doctor Daniel "Danny" Dickens is Rachel Gardner's therapist, but there is clearly something wrong with him, as he is a SerialKiller with an [[EyeScream eye fetish]] and the BigBad who uses his position to recruit fellow killers (including Rachel) for the Tower]]. |
| 278 | * ''Videogame/DieAnstalt'': Dr. Wood, who can, if mishandled, end up messing with the player character psychiatrist. |
| 279 | * ''Franchise/BatmanArkhamSeries'': |
| 280 | ** Good ol' Dr. Crane a.k.a. Scarecrow, as ever in ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'' media. In his first patient interview, ''he's'' the one trying to conduct the interview, and in subsequent recordings, he still acts as if he's the doctor and his psychiatrist is the patient. With his return in ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamKnight'', [[BreakThemByTalking he got worse]]. [[SoftSpokenSadist Much, much worse]]. |
| 281 | ** ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamAsylum'' has [[spoiler:Quincy Sharp]], author of the Spirit of Arkham messages. He's [[YouAreWhatYouHate a schizophrenic who hates the mentally ill]], and various atrocities he's committed against the inmates are detailed in the messages. |
| 282 | ** ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamCity'' has Hugo Strange, warden of the title facility, who experiments on his inmates using dangerous mind-control drugs and ultimately aims to [[spoiler:massacre all of them [[KnightTemplar in the name of the greater good]]]]. |
| 283 | * The villain in ''VideoGame/BioShock2'' is Dr. Sofia Lamb, a brilliant psychiatrist who believes UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans and that [[TheEvilsOfFreeWill Individuality is the root of all evil]]. She uses her skills to manipulate patients and the entire city of Rapture into becoming part of the "Rapture Family," which is just an elaborate ruse designed to obscure the fact that she's using the inhabitants to further her crazy agenda. |
| 284 | * Doctor X of ''VideoGame/TheCatLady'' abuses his position as head of the hospital's psychiatric ward to hold female patients involuntarily, conduct interviews to learn their weaknesses, and ultimately [[spoiler:murder them so that he can pose their bodies to look like classic art pieces.]] |
| 285 | * Doctor Marcel, of ''[[VideoGame/EdnaAndHarveyTheBreakout Edna & Harvey]]''. He devised a treatment intended to make unruly children into obedient ones, but in practice is robbing them of their childhood. It gets even worse in [[VideoGame/EdnaAndHarveyHarveysNewEyes the sequel]], where [[spoiler:after being crippled in the ending of the previous game, he [[SanitySlippage snaps]] and attempts to manufacture stuffed dolls that {{brainwash|ing}} children into being completely submissive to adults.]] |
| 286 | * In ''[[VideoGame/AnnabelleRPGMaker The Exorcism of Annabelle Sunray]]'', The Preacher becomes head of The Church, which doubles as an acclaimed orphanage and counseling center for troubled orphans, and completely scraps their prior humanitarian curriculum. The Preacher then replaces it with a system of deliberately abusing patients physically and psychologically, doing things like BlamingTheVictim and telling them that they are being punished by God or forcing them to drink ipecac and vomit, in order to keep them traumatized and dependent on The Church [[spoiler:so that [[{{Greed}} the government will keep paying him for his job]]]]. |
| 287 | * ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoV'' gives us Isiah Friedlander, Michael's psychologist. He's basically an expy of the LA Noire counterpart; popular and famous, but also corrupt and abusive to his patients. Experts in Real Life have summed up his negative-view treatments as "the wrong syringe, not even trying to fix things", which is justified by the exorbitant amounts of money Michael pays him (per session) to keep his mouth shut. And then he [[spoiler:reveals his plans to blab about it anyway. ON A PRIME-TIME TELEVISION SHOW]]. At this point, you have the option to kill him. If you do it's revealed that he also published the details of Michael's sessions in a best-selling book, giving him the pseudonym "Marky De Santos". Summed up by Trevor: |
| 288 | -->'''Michael:''' Ah, hypocrisy, Franklin: Civilization's greatest virtue!\ |
| 289 | '''Trevor:''' Jesus, your therapist has a lot to answer for.\ |
| 290 | '''Michael:''' I know, I still hate myself. But hey, at least I know the words for it now. |
| 291 | * One of the main villains in ''VideoGame/LANoire'', [[spoiler:Dr. Harlan Fontaine]], is shown to be a brilliant psychologist and "doctor to the stars". However, he's corrupt to the core and very PragmaticEvil, with an emphasis on evil. His prescriptions to said stars consist of 10% interactions with stereotypical abusive racists and 90% heroin/coke/whatever is expensive and degrading. When one of [[spoiler:Dr. Fontaine]]'s students, [[spoiler:Courtney Sheldon]], is in a fix and wondering what to do with some military surplus morphine, he offers to take the morphine and then uses it to participate in a corrupt conspiracy that has ex-veterans with PTSD burning down housing estates [[spoiler:so they can seize the land it's built on, which was pre-planned by the government to be used to build what would eventually become Los Angeles' famous highway system, thereby holding the government's development plans for L.A. hostage for millions. And THEN he kills Courtney with a lethal injection]]. He also forces an ex-patient to burn down two families' houses, forcing them to sell their land. Eventually, his malpractices screw him over when [[spoiler:said ex-patient is driven insane by his deconstructive therapy, and opts to kill him while Harlan is busy attempting to murder one of his other patients]]. |
| 292 | * In ''VideoGame/{{Lunarosse}}'', [[spoiler:the real identity of the Illusion Master, the BigBad, turns out to be Dr. Dario Naumov, Corlia Davis's therapist, who has been destroying her story/ConstructedWorld out of petty revenge that [[{{Yandere}} she didn't love him back]] (never mind how unprofessional [[FlorenceNightingaleEffect doctor-patient relationships]] are)]]. |
| 293 | * ''VideoGame/NightInTheWoods'' demonstrates an example who isn't actively malicious in his intent with patients, but he ''does'' show that incompetence can be equally dangerous. [[spoiler:Namely, Dr. Hank, the town's [[SuperDoc general medical practitioner]], makes "keep a journal" and "repress your issues" into ''every'' therapy solution, which leaves protagonist Mae Borowski incredibly ill-equipped to deal with her own dissociation and psychosis, leaving her to viciously attack another child and later drop out of college when her symptoms flared up and frightened her away.]] |
| 294 | * ''[[VideoGame/Persona5 Persona 5 Royal]]'' has its new ArcVillain, [[spoiler:Dr. Takuto Maruki.]] Unusually for this trope, they're a WellIntentionedExtremist and AffablyEvil and are motivated by a genuine desire to end everyone's pain. Unfortunately, this takes the form of imposing a LotusEaterMachine on reality where everyone's deepest desires come true, and their [[MentalWorld Palace]] takes the form of a psychological research facility where anyone who could even be considered vaguely unhappy is sent for "treatment". Flashbacks in the dungeon reveal [[TheCobblersChildrenHaveNoShoes that they're not the most mentally stable themselves]], partly due to past tragedy and partly due to [[spoiler: [[WrongContextMagic an unnatural Persona awakening]].]] |
| 295 | * In ''VideoGame/PhantasmagoriaAPuzzleOfFlesh'', Dr. Marek is a complete psycho who runs a downright hellish mental asylum and tortures his patients. He's in league with a CorruptCorporateExecutive and sacrifices his mental patients to be consumed by interdimensional aliens. [[spoiler:He even bugged his colleague Dr. Harburg's phone to keep tabs on Curtis.]] |
| 296 | * Dr. Mathias Kohl, Talos I's counselor in ''VideoGame/Prey2017'', is a downright scumbag who was more interested in using his position of power and trust to antagonize people while spying on their mental state on the behalf of Alex Yu. He repeatedly pokes people's triggers seemingly for laughs, forcing poor Dr. Calvino to look at an artist's rendition of a Phantom that was haunting Calvino's nightmares and tries to make Morgan take an unknown pill when Morgan expresses distress at the missing spots in their memory. |
| 297 | * Subverted in ''VideoGame/{{Psychonauts}}'' with Dr. Loboto, who resides in a spooky abandoned mental institution, is thoroughly insane and evil, and messes with people's brains (that is, he ''extracts'' their brains to power psychic tanks). [[OpenHeartDentistry He's actually a dentist.]] |
| 298 | * Sheng-Ji Yang, the Chairman of Human Hive in ''VideoGame/SidMeiersAlphaCentauri'', had an education in psychology (along with many other areas) before the mission's takeoff. He's implied to have used his knowledge to cheat on psychology tests when applying, and that's before starting his personality cult on Planet. |
| 299 | * Dr. Killjoy from ''VideoGame/TheSuffering'', whose "unorthodox" methods more often than not resulted in death of the patients of the asylum on Carnate Island. |
| 300 | * ''VideoGame/VampireTheMasqueradeBloodlines'' gives us Alistar Grout, Primogen of Clan [[MadOracle Malkavian]]. He's been spending centuries trying to cure his "unique condition"... and often does it by doing some very non-APA-approved research on those with mental disorders. Oh, and he's such an old-school shrink, he thinks Freud was too touchy-feely. |
| 301 | [[/folder]] |
| 302 | |
| 303 | [[folder:Visual Novels]] |
| 304 | * In ''VisualNovel/TherapyWithDrAlbertKrueger'', the titular doctor uses his therapy sessions to [[spoiler:get new recruits for his dream eater army]], killing patients he deems unsatisfactory. |
| 305 | [[/folder]] |
| 306 | |
| 307 | [[folder:Webcomics]] |
| 308 | * In ''Webcomic/DrFrost'', [[spoiler:Professor Moon]] turns out to be one, [[spoiler:[[BreakThemByTalking talking several people into committing suicide]]]] for his experiments. |
| 309 | * ''Webcomic/TwistedTropes'': The strip summarizes the Kickstarter project ''Series/PersonalSpace''. The astronauts of the ColonyShip describe their personal issues to an AI therapist AMI, who is hacked by Actaeon Entertainment to spy on them and stealthily escalate conflicts while it's being broadcasted in a TrumanShowPlot. |
| 310 | * ''Webcomic/UnholyBlood'': Sahan works as a school therapist. He uses this position to take in abused and neglected teenagers and then warp them into bloodthirsty vampires by preying on their insecurities. |
| 311 | [[/folder]] |
| 312 | |
| 313 | [[folder:Web Original]] |
| 314 | * ''WebVideo/TheJokerBlogs'': The [[Film/TheDarkKnightTrilogy Nolan trilogy]]-style reimagining of Harley Quinn's origins considerably deemphasizes both the MadLove aspect and the quickness of the flip as seen in [[ComicBook/{{Batman}} the comics]], deconstructing/reconstructing the story as that of a young ambitious psychiatrist at Arkham wanting to make her fame by treating a legendarily deranged inmate, only to encounter (and subsequently be slowly turned by) a nihilistic, anarchistic, terroristic Franchise/HannibalLecter. |
| 315 | [[/folder]] |
| 316 | |
| 317 | [[folder:Western Animation]] |
| 318 | * ''WesternAnimation/TheAmazingWorldOfGumball'': Mr. Small is the school's counselor but really needs therapy more than any of his students. Especially in the first season, where he often showed himself to be violently bipolar. Seasons two and three had him more as spacey and paranoid. |
| 319 | * Hugo Strange from ''WesternAnimation/TheBatman''. As chief psychiatrist of Arkham, he's more interested in finding out how the criminal mind works than actually curing it, going so far as to sabotage his patients' progress as "tests" (which goes some ways towards explaining Arkham's revolving door). He soon develops an obsession with Batman and begins orchestrating even more ([[NeverSayDie potentially]]) deadly "experiments" for his research. |
| 320 | -->'''Strange:''' I had to put my treatment to the test, Batman. You know, to see if the criminal mind can ever '''really''' be cured. |
| 321 | * ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond'': |
| 322 | ** Spellbinder turns out to be the psychiatrist at Terry's high school -- he uses his position to hypnotize his young patients into aiding him in stealing from their wealthy parents. |
| 323 | ** Dr. Wheeler from "[[Recap/BatmanBeyondS2E16TheLastResort The Last Resort]]" is the sadistic head of a treatment facility aimed at torturing and brainwashing the students who get sent there. |
| 324 | * ''WesternAnimation/DannyPhantom'': The EmotionEater Spectra disguised herself as a therapist and deliberately made her student patients more miserable in order to feed off their negative emotions. |
| 325 | * ''WesternAnimation/DarkwingDuck'' saw a therapist at least twice. Both turned out to be Quackerjack in disguise, using it as a ploy to mess with his head. |
| 326 | * ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'': In one episode, Peter visits a fifties-era insane asylum to find his missing mattress. They're greeted by a doctor who has them all committed for things like [[DeliberateValuesDissonance being friends with minorities or being crippled]]. |
| 327 | * ''WesternAnimation/TheMask'': In "Shrink Rap" Stanley decides to get rid of the mask by giving it to psychologist Dr. Neuman. But when Neuman gives in to temptation and tries on the mask, it takes him over and turns Neuman into a looney psychotherapist. Mask-Neuman proceeds to go around accusing people of having "Ipkissa Maskosis" and subjecting them to such bizarre treatments as wedgie straitjackets, the whole time while [[TheComicallySerious mixing the Mask's cartoony antics with his usual deadpan, professional demeanor]]. Mask-Neuman goes so far as to team up with [[MadScientist Dr. Pretorious]] in order to save Edge City from the supposed outbreak of madness (when really Pretorious is plotting to blow up the city [[ForScience to provide illumination of a distant alien planet]]), and it's up to the now-powerless Stanley to stop him. |
| 328 | * In ''WesternAnimation/{{Metalocalypse}}'', after the band gets in a fight on stage, their manager hires Dr. Twinkletits (pronounced "twink-LET-its") to provide group therapy for them, but the doctor goes on to intentionally make them emotionally dependent on him. Midway through the episode, it's revealed that this isn't the first time he's tried to take over a band in this way, and he actually killed the last one, when he calls their corpses to gloat about being hired by the more popular Dethklok. |
| 329 | * In the ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' episode "City Sushi" Butters gets a therapist due to his supposed multiple personality disorder, who turns out to be both insane and abusive to Butters. |
| 330 | * Plankton once passed himself off as a psychiatrist as part of a BatmanGambit to get ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'' to tell him the secret Krabby Patty recipe. |
| 331 | * Parodied (of course) in one episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheTick''. Theoretically, the therapist was helping Tick get over his phobia of the MonsterOfTheWeek, but he seemed far more interested in seeing Tick wrestle with his assistant [[TestosteronePoisoning Taft]] in various costumes. |
| 332 | * {{Downplayed|Trope}} in ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice2010''. Hugo Strange (see above) is the psychologist at [[TheAlcatraz Belle Reve]] and ultimately turns out to be working with [[LegionOfDoom the Light]] to take control of the facility, but as far as we know, he never actually uses his counseling to harm or manipulate the inmates (many of whom are in on the plan anyway). |
| 333 | [[/folder]] |
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