History Main / EpiphanyTherapy

** To be fair, [[spoiler:he loses it because he's afraid he won't be able to be able to save a life because he feels he relies on it too much, due to a patient dying because he wasn't fast enough to save one of four consecutive GUILT patients by himself. The best way to convince him he's wrong? A bunch of easier surgeries that shows him that he ''is'' capable of saving lives without relying on it!]]
* Played straight and averted in ''FireEmblemAwakening'''s supports. While issues are typically resolved by an A rank support, it doesn't truly resolve and will tend to repeat itself if the issue appears in other supports. Some of them, such as Lon'qu's gynophobia, are justified. Others, not so much.

** It was kinda played straight with Susan. Her years of hating men were pretty much permanently erased by spending one evening [[GenderSwap Gender Swapped]]. Though, to be fair, her experiences spending time with Elliot and Tedd had been slowly eroding her misconceptions about men for a while leading up to that. She'd also been working under the theory that all men were afflicted with raging, barely-controllable hormones. Learning first-hand that the male libido wasn't as overwhelming as she'd believed switched her from believing in male inferiority to confining her hatred to more... ''specific'' targets[[note]] namely, her father, whose infidelity led to her mother instilling a hatred of men in her[[/note]].

* In ''Webcomic/QuestionableContent'', they make mention of this trope when Faye finally explains why she gets so defensive. It's a very good example of deconstruction, so I think I'll just quote it:

** More absurd than this is "The Guru." Aang, in order to master the Avatar state, has to unlock a series of chakras by letting go of various Earthly, negative emotions, such as his grief over being TheLastOfHisKind, and the fear of failure against the Fire Lord. Every one of these takes about twenty seconds apiece to utterly conquer. Maybe subverted in that he refuses to get rid of the last emotion, love for Katara, and his problems and emotions persist into the rest of the series.
*** While it is still quite difficult to swallow, it should be noted that Aang was already a very spiritual individual, whose main problem was his lack of experience and good teachers to help him focus his powers. Consequently, you might be able to accept that he could go through this process far more easily than a normal person, but admittedly it still seems strange for him to get over his problems so easily.
** In Season 3, when he is plagued by nightmares in anticipation of facing the Fire Lord, his friends try various ways to help him sleep peacefully, with Sokka taking on the role of a psychiatrist to discuss his issues (and doing an extremely bad job of it). He eventually manages to sleep after his friends convince him that they have total faith in him.

* Lt. Barclay on ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' had a paralyzing fear of transporters, as revealed in the episode "Realm of Fear". Of course during that episode his fear is compounded when he discovers a living organism within the transporter field. The same story had O'Brien reveal that he once had a fear of spiders, but now kept a pet tarantula (which I suspect Keiko insisted he ditch before they moved to ''[[Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine Deep Space Nine]]'').

After a while, writers may feel that the character has to lose this flaw. In RealLife, deep-seated psychological traumas take years to deal with and cure even in the best case scenario, and most require a lifetime of treatment. In fictionland, however, ThereAreNoTherapists; fortunately, FreudianExcuse, MyGreatestFailure, the HeroicBSOD, InTheBlood, and DysfunctionJunction, no matter how extreme, can be cured with a simple WhoopiEpiphanySpeech, growing BoredWithInsanity, a friend telling them to [[GetAHoldOfYourselfMan cop on]], confiding in someone about your BadDreams, the [[ThePowerOfLove strength]] or [[LoveRedeems redemption]] offered by love, or a SickeninglySweet {{sidekick}} showing them that ThePowerOfFriendship cures all wounds. The writers thus resolve the issue over the course of a single episode (or movie) and call it CharacterDevelopment, often at a cost of WillingSuspensionOfDisbelief.

** Also parodied in the episode where Marge is cured of her fear of flying.

* Parodied in ''High Anxiety'', where a climactic situation sent {{Mel Brooks}}' character into a childhood flashback, making him realize "I'm not afraid of heights, I'm afraid of ''parents''!"

* MythBusters host Adam Savage has struggled for years with a well-known fear of bees, much to his annoyance as it made him the guinea pig for multiple phobia myth experiments. Until they tested a myth of bees glued to a laptop flapping their collective wings to make it fly. Working with a single bee in their lab, he learned to admire their individual strength and by the final test, he admitted being completely over his fear.

* ''[[TraumaCenter Trauma Center: Under the Knife 2]]''. After [[spoiler:losing his Healing Touch in the heat of an operation, and being unable to get it back, Derek goes back to his first Hospital to get help from old friends. Long story short, they push him real hard and he gets it back. StatusQuoIsGod.]]

* In ''GenkakuPicasso'' the general result is that once Picasso has helped with a person's mental trauma, they get a burst of confidence and understanding and are shown a few days later taking steps to finish overcoming it.

* In ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'' for most of his life Gaara has been hated by everyone around him for [[SealedEvilInACan being a jinchuuriki]] and has had numerous assassination attempts upon him by his father and was forced to kill his uncle, the only person to show him sympathy (which was just an act). The Ichibi prevented him from being able to sleep, boosting his psychological trauma. He was very possibly the most AxeCrazy, psychotic character in the series, certainly in Part I. But once he gets his ass kicked by Naruto and he has a few dozen episodes/chapters to let this sink in, though, he's just one of the guys. [[spoiler: And then he becomes a {{stoic}} variation of the KidAppealCharacter among the 5 Kages.]]

* In ''KamenRiderDouble'', [[spoiler: Shotaro]] after being driven insane with fear by the Terror Dopant, causing him to scream his head off at even the slightest noise, [[spoiler: Philip basically telling him goodbye forever while leaving him a cryptic message on how to reverse it, Shotaro not only reverts to normal, but allows him to breakthrough his instinctive fear of Ryubee/Terror, which had been planted during their first meeting and prevented him from confronting him throughout the series.]]

** In the season 9 premiere, Brennan and Booth are barely speaking after their broken engagement (after [[SerialKiller Pelant]] blackmailed Booth into breaking it off) until Brennan finds the bar that Booth had been frequenting and meets Aldo, an ex-priest who was an army buddy of Booth's during his career as a sniper and was now a bartender. During their conversation, Aldo reminds Brennan of what Booth's Catholic faith means to him and that Booth still loves her as deeply as before. By the end of the episode, Brennan, who in the past had chafed at using the word "Faith" in any context, admitted to herself and to Booth that she had absolute faith in him, and that they would work things out.

Writers sometimes try to add depth to their characters by giving them some sort of psychological problem -- [[SingleIssuePsychologgy always exactly one, neatly-explainable problem]]. Maybe they [[DoesNotLikeMen hate men]] due to a previous abusive relationship. Maybe the memory of their dead little sister keeps getting them down. Or perhaps [[CartwrightCurse constantly having their girlfriend]] [[WomenInRefrigerators locked in a refrigerator]] causes them to drive potential [[LoveInterests lovers]] away due to [[ItsNotYouItsMe fear for their safety.]]

Writers sometimes try to add depth to their characters by giving them some sort of [[SingleIssuePsychology psychological problem]]. Maybe they [[DoesNotLikeMen hate men]] due to a previous abusive relationship. Maybe the memory of their dead little sister keeps getting them down. Or perhaps [[CartwrightCurse constantly having their girlfriend]] [[WomenInRefrigerators locked in a refrigerator]] causes them to drive potential [[LoveInterests lovers]] away due to [[ItsNotYouItsMe fear for their safety.]]

* This is the entire plot of ''GoodWillHunting''. Emotional trauma stemming from years of abuse can be cured by repeating the phrase, "It's not your fault" over and over until the other person starts crying.
** Well, that *was* the climax of a long series of therapy sessions, not just a single event.

** The EstrogenBrigadeBait jokes just write themselves, don't they?

* Subverted repeatedly in ''MassEffect''; Commander Shepard can encounter quite a number of traumatized and emotionally disturbed individuals, and has the opportunity to talk almost all of them into getting professional therapy... or [[VideoGameCrueltyPotential committing suicide]].

* ''Series/{{MASH}}'' relied rather heavily on this trope at times. In ''Quo Vadis, Captain Chandler?'', Captain Chandler was in serious need of an epiphany. He doesn't get it, but another victim who was unable to save his younger brother in battle, literally went into amnesiatic shock and couldn't remember a thing. His memory only returned after Dr. Freedman, Hawkeye and B.J. hypnotise him and stage a battlefield scene. And then, of course, how could we forget [[spoiler:Hawkeye himself, during the finale? It takes around half an hour into the episode before Dr. Freedman is able to force Hawkeye into remembering what triggered the nervous breakdown.]]

* There was an episode of a talk show (Maury, possibly) that featured a girl with a fear of pickles, which affected her job performance as a waitress to the point of her refusing to serve any dish with said garnish in it to any of her customers. The host's proposed treatment was to have nearly a dozen stagehands emerge from the audience onto the stage and from each of the stage entrances, each one holding a plate with a sandwich topped in pickles and wearing the most evil shit-eating grins you've ever seen. The guest screamed hysterically and tried to escape in several different directions before she was surrounded. By pickles. To the audience's mocking laughter.

* Averted in ''[[Literature/NineteenEightyFour 1984]]'', [[spoiler: Winston]] recalls a traumatic experience and bemoans that recording it has done nothing to avert the pain he feels about it.

* Averted in the ''InDeath'' series. Eve Dallas, the main character, begins the series plagued by nightmares, repressed memories, and other baggage you'd expect from a DarkAndTroubledPast. Subsequent books see her slowly get better with the help of her TrueCompanions, especially Mira and Roarke, but to date she still struggles with the lingering emotional damage.