Madness Tropes - Television Tropes & Idioms

Praying to yourself, my Lord? That's not a good sign. Or perhaps it is. Prince of Madness, and all that.
— Haskil, Shivering Isles

Any tropes involving madness or insanity. Except those dealing with Hollywood Psych.

These can run the gamut from the weird but generally happy chaos that inhabits the Cloudcuckoolander's mind to the darkest corners of a person's shattered psyche.

Categories:

Tropes:

Characters

Issues

A God Am I
Ax Crazy
Becoming the Mask
Black and White Insanity
Cabin Fever
Caligula's Horse
Crazy-Prepared
Crazy Sane
Damaged Soul
Fighting From The Inside
Freak Out
Freudian Excuse
Funny Schizophrenia
G-Rated Mental Illness
Heroic BSOD
Heroic Safe Mode
Humanity Is Insane
I Reject Your Reality
Interacting With Shadow
Lunacy
Lunatic Loophole
Mad Love
The Madness Place
Mind Control Conspiracy
Napoleon Delusion
Neat Freak
Ocean Madness
Post Historical Trauma
Science-Related Memetic Disorder
Secret Identity Identity
Single Issue Psychology
Space Madness
Split Personality
Sticky Fingers
Super OCD
Thoroughly Mistaken Identity
Through the Eyes of Madness
Trauma Induced Amnesia
Trigger Happy
Villainous Breakdown
Windmill Political
Why Did It Have to Be Snakes? (Phobia supertrope)
Wrong Genre Savvy (Thinking you're in a sci fi or fantasy story and acting accordingly definitely counts as this when you're in a gritty drama)

Symptoms

Ways to Break Characters and Twist the Plot

Remedies

They said it was impossible to create an index covering all the insanity tropes! They said it couldn't be done! They Called Me MAD! WELL WHO'S MAD NOW?! MWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!