History Main / PsychosomaticSuperpowerOutage

* When ComicBook/WallyWest became ComicBook/TheFlash, he was rife with HeroicSelfDeprecation. Never being able to see himself living up to his late mentor Barry Allen's legacy, he was haunted by the nightmares of Barry being ashamed of him. As a result, he mentally limited himself to speed of sound for a long time, and even after he overcome his fear of living up to Barry's legacy, he suppressed his speed because he didn't want to actually ''replace'' Barry by matching his speed. After the famous ''ComicBook/TheReturnOfBarryAllen'' story, he was finally able to make peace with himself and eventually surpassed all of [[SurpassedTheTeacher Barry's benchmarks]].
* ''Franchise/GreenLantern'':
** Kyle Rayner loses his powers when his confidence is shattered by Megaddon.

* ComicBook/SpiderMan's powers have stopped working several times due to emotional issues, in almost every medium that he's been in. He gets them back when he becomes self-assured again, usually just in the nick of time. Inversely, [[HeroicResolve when people he cares about are in danger his powers grow exponentially stronger]].
** In ''Amazing Spider-Man'' Annual #1 (published in 1964), Spider-Man seemed to lose his powers after a bout of guilt over [[ILetGwenStacyDie his uncle Ben's death]]. He regained them just in time to face off against the Sinister Six, an alliance of his biggest villains at the time. He even admitted to himself that his temporary power loss was probably psychosomatic in nature.
** ComicBook/SpiderGwen's powers take on this quality once she gains the symbiote, with emotional stress causing her to uncontrollably sweat "spiders" and behave more aggressively.
* Creator/MarvelComics character Gladiator of the Shi'ar Imperial Guard is often the victim of this. Justified because his powers are fueled by self-confidence. As long as he ''feels'' like an unstoppable super badass, he's an unstoppable super badass. But if something shakes his confidence, his powers suffer a drop, leading to his confidence dropping even further, leading to his powers falling further...
* ''ComicBook/{{Empowered}}'' is implied to be subconsciously holding her powers back due to her consistent losing streak [[ClothingDamage and subsequent humiliation]]. The few times she was brainwashed into forgetting her self-loathing she becomes a ''very'' dangerous minion, with her teammates lampshading the relative power boost.

Super-powers are frequently linked to one's mental state. When the character has unresolved emotional issues, his or her superpowers can stop working. This is universally true of explicitly PsychoactivePowers, but this also can apply to powers that don't normally seem to have a psychoactive component.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Moana}}'': After reclaiming his magical fishhook, Maui finds that a thousand years without it have left him woefully out of practice and he has [[MagicMisfire lost control over his shapeshifting]]. Unfortunately, he discovers this just as he confronts Tamatoa who proceeds to mop the wall with him while delivering the BreakThemByTalking section in his song "Shiny". For a demigod that ''thrives'' on human adoration [[spoiler:and has a severe InferioritySuperiorityComplex]], Maui spirals into a negative mental state that perpetuates his power outage. Once Moana gets him thinking positively again, however, he regains the knack.

* The animated series ''WesternAnimation/GeneratorRex'' features a hero whose powers flicker on and off depending on his feelings at the time.

* When ComicBook/WallyWest became ComicBook/TheFlash, he was rife with HeroicSelfDeprecation. Never being able to see himself living up to his late mentor Barry Allen's legacy, he was haunted by the nightmares of Barry being ashamed of him. As a result, he mentally limited himself to speed of sound for a long time. After the famous ''ComicBook/TheReturnOfBarryAllen'' story, he was finally able to make peace with himself and eventually surpassed all of [[SurpassedTheTeacher Barry's benchmarks]].

* What prevents Li figuring out that he was a firebender in ''Fanfic/{{Foxfire}}'' is that he's not angry. Without Zuko's anger, Li is forced to start from scratch which helps in rediscovering a lost form of firebending.

* In ''Fanfic/MarriageOfHeavenAndHell,'' Makoto has a block shortly after first discovering his SecretArt fighting [[LightNovel/HighSchoolDXD Raynare]] and has to nail down the proper frame of mind to use it.