Is There Are No Therapists Tropeworthy?

To my understanding, There Are No Therapists is when a character has psychological problems and isn't seeing a therapist. This is a trope that's defined in the negative, meaning the lack of something that would be common in the real world makes it tropeworthy. The thing is, those tropes rely on the thing being missing to be so common that its absence is noteworthy. For instance, Nobody Poops is a trope because people use the bathroom several times a day. The thing is, in the real world there are many people with psychological problems who don't go to therapy for a variety of reasons (stigma surrounding mental illness, lack of access, not realizing they have a problem). So if it isn't unusual for someone to not seek help for mental problems in the real world, why is it noteworthy in fiction?

It's not about how one character isn't seeking help, but about a world where nobody seeks mental health treatment... Because those services either don't exist or are out of reach.

Edited by WarJay77 on May 13th 2022 at 2:06:04 PM

If I am not mistaken, in RL there is a system in place to ensure young people get this treatment after a trauma regardless of whether they seek it out or not. If this is not acknowledged in a work of fiction because it would take away from the drama then I believe this trope is in effect.

If it exists, that system is probably not universal, so it's unreasonable to expect this to be mentioned in every work where many of the characters struggle with mental health issues . The trope you linked has nothing to do with therapy (and I'm pretty sure the patient still needs to go to the doctor on their own to get Doctor's Orders. The doctor is not going to do rounds looking for patients or traumatized individuals to give them care)

Edited by Adept on May 14th 2022 at 8:45:11 PM

So if an example read something like "Played straight with this character, but averted with this character", it would be misuse because that implies that these services exist?

But how common is that program? Even if it were widespread, it would only apply to children. My point is that there are many cases where someone with mental problems or trauma wouldn't automatically go to a therapist. That's why I think "character should go to a therapist, but doesn't" isn't tropeworthy.

That is correct. There Are No Therapists is about a setting in which mental healthcare is completely absent. Implied, the setting should be expected to have such healthcare; it obviously wouldn't apply in a medieval fantasy since psychiatry was not a profession then. It does not apply on a character-by-character basis.

Edited by Fighteer on May 14th 2022 at 12:23:31 PM

I'm wondering if there's any overlap between There Are No Therapists and Dysfunction Junction, since they seem to show up together.

Dysfunction Junction says exactly that in its description. Note that they are distinct tropes.

• There Are No Therapists is about a setting in which mental health services inexplicably don't exist. In real life, for example, professional military organizations (usually) keep a close eye on the well-being of soldiers because they don't want them breaking down in the field, but in this setting The Squad has several members with obvious, debilitating issues that nobody ever attempts to treat.
• Dysfunction Junction is about a cast whose members all have significant traumas and/or mental illnesses, despite this being fairly improbable. It can often juxtapose with There Are No Therapists because otherwise it's hard to explain why authorities have taken no notice of the problem.

Edited by Fighteer on May 25th 2022 at 9:24:54 AM