A character is attacked by a villain in the most painful non-physical way possible. Their mind and
soul are assaulted with painful, horrifying visions and memories, and broken until they're
powerless and
numb, but
not dead, although afterward they
may wish they were. No sexual contact occurs, but everything else is there to resemble a rape - violation of private parts, helplessness, and the corruption of what could otherwise be a source of joy.
The physical attacks won't go very far; all (or most) of the agony is inflicted mentally and emotionally, and it's chilling to see a villain be that cruel. The traumatized victim suffers all of the side-effects afterward (such as
Rape Leads To Insanity). May include further sexual symbolism for good measure, such as severe and unfunny
Clothing Damage and sinister
Double Entendres.
Comes in two variations: one is a
completely "mundane" but no less horrifying brand of
torture that nonetheless
breaks a character's mind. The other is the above done via
Mind Probe,
Psychic Powers,
Brown Note,
illusions, or seeing something
Man Was Not Meant To Know. All too frequently the consequence of encountering an
Eldritch Abomination; even so much as
looking at one of them might cause
permanent damage to sanity. Of course, Mind Rape can also involve forced exposure to
mindscrews.
Just as
Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil, a character indulging in the
Mind Rape of another character primarily for
their own pleasure or enjoyment is a good sign they are almost certainly a
Complete Monster or have at least crossed the
Moral Event Horizon. Doubly so if the sexual symbolism is present. A
Well-Intentioned Extremist,
Anti-Villain or even the heroes may resort to Mind Rape
if circumstances force them to, but only the lowest of the low will take a sick enjoyment out of it.
The less said of the things that are created when this trope meets
Rule 34, the better.
Can be a possible cause of
I'm Having Soul Pains, and can function as a
Stupidity Inducing Attack. Any character pulling this has little or no
Mind Over Manners. Heroes will try to protect themselves from these by entering
Heroic Safe Mode or trying out some
Brain Bleach.
Compare
Fate Worse than Death,
Subtext, and
Villainous BSOD.
Logic Bomb is what happens when computers (or
really rational people) experience this due to encountering and being confused with mindscrews. Contrast with the
Care Bear Stare, which assaults the target with happy thoughts, like
rainbows and stuff.
Not to be confused with
More than Mind Control (though
Mind Rape can have some elements of this). Also not to be confused with
Mind Screw, despite the origin of the trope name in
a quite (in)famous Mind Screw. Not to mention that some people consider the
ending of said
series to qualify as
Mind Rape of both the entire cast
and the audience in its own right.
Examples
