History Main / EpiphanyTherapy

* In ''Manga/ShugoChara'', [[spoiler: Nikaidou-sensei's HeelFaceTurn is encouraged by Suu's Remake Honey making his Shugo Chara that he thought he had killed (which threw him into an emotional breakdown) come back and talk to him. It leaves, but it is pointed out by Suu that he had said "See you again," and was therefore not gone forever.]]
* Parodied on ''Anime/OruchubanEbichu''. Ebichu's alter ego, Ebichuman, is a combination superhero and marital counselor whose superpower is the ability to sense people's sexual hangups.
* ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'': This is what the last two episodes are about, but the otherwise straightforward dialogue is accompanied by such abstract visuals that people tend to classify it as a MindScrew.
* In the ''Manga/TonaGura'' anime, a turning point is reached when Kazuki [[spoiler: views her own childhood diary and realizes that Yuuji hasn't changed; the young gentleman she remembered was a rose-colored fantasy. He was always playful and a bit rambunctious.]]
* In ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'', for most of his life, Gaara has been hated by everyone around him for [[SealedInsideAPersonShapedCan being a jinchuuriki]], 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. [[DefeatMeansFriendship Then 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: Then he becomes a {{stoic}} variation of the KidAppealCharacter among the 5 Kages.]]
* Similar to [[Franchise/StarWars Darth Vader]] below, this is what happened to [[strike:Darth]] [[TheDarkSideWillMakeYouForget Yomi]] from ''Anime/GaReiZero''. Basically, she experienced a barrage of trauma and this led her to slaughtering lots and lots of people. But she did realize how much she loves her little sister Kagura [[spoiler: [[ShootTheDog as Kagura killed her to stop her]] RoaringRampageOfRevenge]], [[DyingAsYourself allowing her to die as herself]]. [[spoiler: This is repeated in the final volume of the manga.]]

* In ''Manga/FruitsBasket'', all of the Sohma family have deep-seated emotional problems, and while Tohru helps a number of them quite a lot, progress is realistically slow. For example, in the manga, [[spoiler: it seems like Tohru discovering Kyo's true form is going to be a case of EpiphanyTherapy, but Kyo is largely unchanged in the next volume - just somewhat happier and more trusting of Tohru. He still has major issues around being the cat from the Zodiac.]]
* In ''Anime/WhenMarnieWasThere'', the encounter with Marnie helps Anna to overcome her deep-seated [[ParentalAbandonment abandonment issues]].

* Across the entirety of ''Manga/BitterVirgin'', Hinako, who has suffered repeated rape at the hands of her stepfather, makes a few baby steps towards recovery, while acknowledging that she may never be free of her pain. Still, she considers the steps she has made, such as [[spoiler: being able to begin a relationship with Daisuke]], "miracles", which she never would have thought herself capable of.
* ''Manga/TheKurosagiCorpseDeliveryService'' tends to avert this. Most of the cast have some manner of psychological issue or other, and learning what caused it and confronting it gives, at best, some manner of closure that helps in the healing process. Notably, Sasaki is still actively seeing a therapist and taking antidepressants, a decade after seeing her family killed before her eyes and after the crew gives her the opportunity to forgive one of the killers to his face and exposing the other.
* In ''Manga/OuranHighSchoolHostClub'', Tamaki does this to [[spoiler: his grandma Shizue]], revealing to the latter that his father had taught him about all the things she had loved, such as Japanese movies and shows, when she thought he didn't care for them. It helped [[spoiler: his grandma]] realize that [[spoiler: her son]] still loves her.
* In ''Manhua/GoddessCreationSystem'' Mingluan acts out because he's dissatisfied with being an inferior version of his older brother by engaging in hobbies he doesn't really enjoy while hiding his true self. When he overhears Xiaxi telling the story of the ugly duckling to a crying little girl it affects him deeply, causing him to take actions that are more in line with what he wants and what he's truly good at. It doesn't immediately make him happier, however, because it emphasizes his disconnect with his family.

* ''Franchise/MarvelUniverse''

* The ComicBook/MartianManhunter had a deep-seated fear of fire as his AchillesHeel, which made the second most powerful being in Creator/DCComics Earth vulnerable to matches. Thanks to some epiphany therapy with a flame-powered hottie, he managed to remove the fear... only to discover it was a mental block placed by the {{Precursors}} to avoid his species becoming [[AlwaysChaoticEvil psychotic fire demons]] drunk on power.

* Lovingly defied in ''Fanfic/{{Daemorphing}}''. Rachel understanding she has anger issues doesn’t fix them, nor does two allies dying in front of her to keep those issues from getting her killed. Tobias finding a real family doesn’t fix the damage his aunt and uncle did and Marco’s extra-strength PTSD doesn't go away with some eureka moment, just goes down to the level of the rest of the cast after extensive work with a therapist.

* In ''Film/{{Inception}}'', [[spoiler:Dom Cobb finally confronts the dream projection of his long-lost wife, accepting her demise]]. It makes sense in this case because he is deep inside his own mind and the deeper layers are said several times to be more influential on the person than the upper layers.

* In ''Film/StarTrekVTheFinalFrontier'', the villain uses Epiphany Therapy as a [[PsychicPowers psychic power]] to gain control of people, basically earning their loyalty by helping them deal with their pain over past issues.
* In Creator/FritzLang's ''Film/SecretBeyondTheDoor'' (1948), the heroine (Joan Bennett) is able to bring her husband (played by Creator/MichaelRedgrave) out of his psychotic frame of mind by revealing to him that [[MommyIssues it wasn't his mother who locked him up as a child after all]].
* ''Franchise/StarWars'': Darth Vader murdered thousands of Jedi and probably millions of other people over twenty years, stood by while the billions of inhabitants of Alderaan were killed, force-choked many of his own subordinates, tortured Han, and generally helped maintain a reign of terror over the entire galaxy, yet when he saw his son being electrocuted, he quickly decides he's been wrong all along and kills the Emperor.
* The end of ''Film/TheMachinist'', where [[spoiler: Reznik finally accepts having killed a boy in a car accident, turns himself in to the police]] and at the very end is seen sleeping peacefully for the first time in a year.
* In ''Film/{{Nell}}'', the title character's [[DoesNotLikeMen fear of male sexuality]] can be cured instantly by going skinnydipping with Liam Neeson. It makes a bit more sense in context, but not much.

* Hilariously played with in ''Film/WhatAboutBob'', where the title character, while tied up with explosives strapped to him, manages to turn the situation into a metaphor that gets him over his mental issues, while using a literal application of the metaphor to escape his situation. The "played with" part is that he ''never'' realizes he's actually in danger and believes the whole thing's a constructed roleplaying scenario designed to cause this sort of epiphany.

* ''Film/ThePresidentsAnalyst'' is abducted by a Soviet agent but gets out of a forced defection by engaging him in friendly conversation and getting him to realize he only became a spy out of fear of his father, a high-up in the KGB who arrested his mother in a Stalinist purge. The analyst says he could probably cure him, but it would take years and he couldn't do it if he was sent to Russia.

* The entire second half of ''Film/{{Vertigo}}'' is a subversion. Scottie only overcomes his fear of heights [[spoiler:''after'' watching Judy/"Madeleine" fall to her death. Once again, his acrophobia prevented him from saving the woman he loved.]]

* Jamie in Film/{{Shortbus}} claims to have had a sudden epiphany during his first therapy session with Sophia, who tells him that that kind of thing doesn't just happen and therapists don't hand out epiphanies like candy - most progress won't happen in a blinding flash of insight, and even when it does it typically only occurs after a lot of work.
* Parodied in the film ''Film/AnalyzeThis'':
** Mobster Paul Vitti has been seeing a psychologist and makes a breakthrough that leaves him in tears. Unfortunately, it comes at the worst possible time -- he's in a gunfight with rival gangsters, and unable to fight back, causing his psychologist to say, "Paul, you have to channel all this nice grief into a murderous rage." At the end of the film, they both agree he still needs therapy.
** Vitti repeatedly thinks he's cured after minor epiphanies (some of which don't necessarily apply) and leaves treatment despite his psychologist insisting that there's much more buried underneath. Of course, he ends up still screwed up.

* In ''Film/TheGame1997'', Conrad (played by Sean Penn) signs his brother and film protagonist Nicholas van Orton (played by Michael Douglas) up for a game that helped bring him back from being bored and disillusioned.
* In ''Film/IronMan3'', Tony, who had been suffering PTSD and panic attacks throughout the movie is apparently cured when Harley asks him over the phone, "why don't you just build something?", which is enough of an epiphany to instantly snap him out of the panic attack he was having at the time and then appear to be fine for the rest of the movie.

* In ''LightNovel/SwordArtOnline'', Sinon has a severe phobia of guns in general (and the Type-54 "Blackstar" in particular) due to being a victim of armed robbery when she was eleven. She tries to conquer this phobia by playing a gun-based MMO, but it's only partially effective: she doesn't suffer from her phobia in-game, but it does little to counteract it in real life. By the end of the story, she gets some emotional catharsis that helps her a bit, and she's able to hold it together when faced with a model gun for a couple of minutes, but she still freaks out in private afterward.
* ''LightNovel/KokoroConnect'' deals with a group of teenagers' emotional hang-ups. Often, they will appear to have dealt with an issue in one arc, only for it to come back with a vengeance a few arcs later and need to be dealt with again. In particular, it is suggested that Yui, while she gets a lot more confident over the course of the series, will have to continuously deal with her [[DoesNotLikeMen androphobia]] for years to come, possibly for the rest of her life.

* In Creator/PiersAnthony's ''Mode'' series a single telepathy-assisted Epiphany Therapy session in which Colene confronts a few specific traumatic experiences completely cures her major depression and other psychological problems. It's telepathy, after all.
* The ''Literature/{{Trapeze}}'' series generally plays this straight, although the fact that it's much less {{Anvilicious}} about it than other series makes it easier to swallow.

* "Ailurophobe" by Creator/AnthonyBoucher had the main character go through this therapy to cure his morbid fear of cats (he couldn't even stand to hear words including the syllable "cat"). Under hypnosis, he realized it derived from an early childhood incident when he nearly died because of an abusive nanny named "Kitty." He was cured of fearing cats; now he had a phobia of ''women''. Ironic, since it was his fiancee who'd wanted him to get over the original phobia.
* ''Literature/InDeath'' averts this. 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.
* Creator/RobertAHeinlein:
** In ''Literature/StarshipTroopers'', soldiers pass off "shaking" (a condition caused when a person is under combat stress for quite a while) as normal, but they often use hypnosis for a quick cure (it appears to be mixed with efficient counselors, too.)
** In the short story "Ordeal in Space", the protagonist was accidentally [[DramaticSpaceDrifting cast into space]], causing him to develop acrophobia and forcing him to give up space travel. He hears a kitten stranded on a ledge outside his room, nerves himself up to go out and rescue it, and finds that he can now stare into the night sky without fear.

** To be fair, he had been planning to betray and overthrow the Emperor long before that so he could rule the galaxy himself, he was just afraid and didn't think he was yet powerful enough to successfully destroy Palpatine. And he knew what he was doing was evil, he was just so broken that he didn't care about anything else until he found out he had a son. It's more like seeing Luke stand up to the Emperor gave him the courage to finally do the right thing and destroy the man regardless of the consequences to himself.

*** This was later altogether retconned away to establish that Samson had really just created a new, if more stable, alternate.

*** This was later altogether retconned away with TherapyDoesNotWorkThatWay to establish that Samson had really just created a new, if more stable, alternate.

** An issue of ''ComicBook/XFactor'' has the team going to therapeutic with Doc Samson (the universe's resident superhero psychiatrist). It helps some of them a little and makes no difference to others. Then much of the original team goes back to him... and it's noted by Samson that they're significantly more messed up.
** Doc Samson uses this with [[Comicbook/IncredibleHulk Bruce Banner/The Incredible Hulk]] to merge his different personalities into one. This was later retconned away with Therapy Does Not Work That Way to establish that Samson had really just created a new, if more stable, alternate.
** In Ultimate X-Men, Professor Xavier helped a washed-up martial arts student become a competent fighter by telepathically fixing her mental blocks.
** Cleverly averted in ''ComicBook/DarkAvengers.'' Norman Osborn pulls this on The Sentry to shake him out of an existential crisis, essentially just getting him to accept the "The Void" isn't real and he's in total control of his own life. Not only does this fail spectacularly, it sets up that Norman is transparently doing the same thing to his Goblin persona; trying and failing to convince himself that he's stable and will continue to be so as long as he keeps up the act.

See also ArmorPiercingQuestion, ColdTurkeysAreEverywhere, CompressedVice, NotHimself, RegainedMemoriesSequence, ResetButton, SnapBack, and WeWantOurJerkBack. Definitely not to be confused with either PercussiveTherapy or 'wall to wall therapy', though they both are known for resolving the situation pretty quickly, too (for very different reasons). Contrast with MentalHealthRecoveryArc.

* In ''Manga/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. Some stories, particularly [[spoiler:[[UsefulNotes/{{transgender}} Hishida]]'s]] ''do'' acknowledge that the person still has a lot work to do in taking their step forward.

* ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'' : This is what the last two episodes are about, but the otherwise straightforward dialogue is accompanied by such abstract visuals that people tend to classify it as a MindScrew.

* In ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'', for most of his life, Gaara has been hated by everyone around him for [[SealedInsideAPersonShapedCan being a jinchuuriki]] , 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. [[DefeatMeansFriendship Then 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: Then he becomes a {{stoic}} variation of the KidAppealCharacter among the 5 Kages.]]

* ''Manga/HayateTheCombatButler'': Hinagiku is fearful of loving someone because of her parents abandoning her, and her older sister, when she was younger. When she falls in love with Hayate, he breaks her of the fear, but it's still presented as a strong influence in her life.

** An issue of ''ComicBook/XFactor'' has the team going to therapeutic with Doc Samson (the universe's resident superhero psychiatrist). It helps some of them a little, and makes no difference to others. Then much of the original team goes back to him... and it's noted by Samson that they're significantly more messed up.

* ''ComicBook/ThePowerpuffGirls'' story "Bow Jest" (issue #20) had Blossom rendered helpless and lacking in confidence after Buttercup steals her hairbow. After Mojo Jojo steals it, believing it to wield some untapped power, Bubbles clocks him, takes the bow, slams it on Blossom's head and lights a match under her butt about it. It works.

* The ComicBook/MartianManhunter had a deep-seated fear of fire as his AchillesHeel, which made the second most powerful being in Creator/DCComics Earth vulnerable to matches. Thanks to some epiphany therapy with a flame powered hottie, he managed to remove the fear... only to discover it was a mental block placed by the {{Precursors}} to avoid his species becoming [[AlwaysChaoticEvil psychotic fire demons]] drunk on power.

* Lovingly defied in ''Fanfic/{{Daemorphing}}''. Rachel understanding she has anger issues doesn’t fix them, nor does two allies dying in front of to keep those issues from getting her killed. Tobias finding a real family doesn’t fix the damage his aunt and uncle did and Marco’s extra-strength PTSD doesn't go away with some eureka moment, just goes down to the level of the rest of the cast after extensive work with a therapist.

* In Creator/FritzLang's ''Film/SecretBeyondTheDoor'' (1948), the heroine (Joan Bennet) is able to bring her husband (played by Creator/MichaelRedgrave) out of his psychotic frame of mind by revealing to him that [[MommyIssues it wasn't his mother who locked him up as a child after all]].

* ''Film/ThePresidentsAnalyst'' is abducted by a Soviet agent but gets out of a forced defection by engaging him in friendly conversation, and getting him to realize he only became a spy out of fear of his father, a high up in the KGB who arrested his mother in a Stalinist purge. The analyst says he could probably cure him, but it would take years and he couldn't do it if he was sent to Russia.

* ''Film/TheWoodsman''. Walter does have an epiphany, but that epiphany seems to be that EpiphanyTherapy just doesn't happen, and he will take time to change, but can overcome his demons as long as he doesn't give into them.

* Creator/AlanDeanFoster's ''Literature/HumanxCommonwealth'': Flinx gets over his {{Wangst}} in record time in ''Flinx Transcendent'', the GrandFinale of the series. This after spending the last... oh, six novels moping about how humanity doesn't deserved to be saved, he doesn't want to save it, and how his life sucks because he's a manufactured human rather than a natural one.

** Kell Tainer starts out both stiff with terror at the man who killed his father (who, of course, is part of the squadron he joins) and with the nasty tendency to freeze up in panic when outnumbered in combat with teammates relying on him. He gets his epiphanies, finding that one, Janson is a ReasonableAuthorityFigure rather than prone to YouHaveFailedMe moments, and two, he'd met the love of his life in the squadron and he knows what would happen if he ran in a fight. They're no longer major issues. Still, he's always going to be uncomfortable around Janson, and he still gets the shakes and anxiety when he goes into missions.

** Angel also ''have'' an epiphany that is an ''aversion'' of EpiphanyTherapy. He realizes that the fight against evil doesn't end, because there's no big win -- so you just keep fighting every day.
%%* ''Series/{{Apocalypse}} does this to a unsuspecting volunteer named Steven.

%%* ''Series/{{Charmed|1998}}'': Issues didn't tend to stay cured, whether they were fears of losing each other, the desire for a normal life or realising that relationships require compromise to make them work.

* ''Series/{{Friends}}'': The character's emotional issues - albeit treated in a light-hearted manner - are either consistently present or phased out through CharacterDevelopment. Ross's jealousy and paranoia (caused by his wife cheating on him with another woman), stick around right until the final episode. Monica's insecurity from her emotionally abusive mother improves as she becomes happier with herself after falling in love with Chandler, but she still feels she has to be perfect at everything. Meanwhile Chandler gets over his CommitmentIssues, but it takes a 4 seasons of him realizing he wants a relationship, 6 seasons of Monica supporting him, and numerous episodes dedicated to his freak-outs to get there.

* Averted on ''Series/{{Lucifer}}. When Lucifer has a breakthrough epiphany that he hates himself, he skips out of Dr. Linda's office thinking that he's cured. As Dr. Linda tries to explain, identifying the problem is only the first step. Sure enough his self loathing, that he can't hide anymore, manifests itself as he is unable to control his powers, and ultimately his devil face (and wings) can't be hidden either.

* ''Radio/{{Elvenquest}}:'' Spoofed in the case of Lord Darkness, whose BadBoss tendencies are pegged as being the result of childhood trauma. He goes and confronts the source, a bullying sorcerer / dietician... and remains a bad boss, much to his henchman's dismay. As Darkness explains, he has moved on from the trauma. Now he hurts minions because he ''enjoys'' it.

* In ''Theatre/NextToNormal'', Diana, who suffers from bipolar disorder and severe depression due to a long-ago traumatic incident, goes through two therapists, countless meds, a suicide attempt, and ECT before having her epiphany - the trauma she suffered couldn't be totally cured by treating her mentally; she needed to let her soul heal. This is not a straight example because Di's solution to this is to leave her family and go live with her parents for a while, to try to stand without the crutch of her husband (who has also been suppressing the same trauma), the bitterness of her daughter (who feels jaded and unloved, and scared of ending up like Di), and the constant reminder of the event that scarred her. She's clearly scared of leaving, but is convinced it's the only way she can distance herself and let go. In another twist of the trope, she had the epiphany all on her own and acted against her therapists' pleas to continue treatment. Basically, Diana has the epiphany but is not cured. She just found the strength to try. We don't know whether it ends up working or not.

* ''Franchise/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]]. Shepard him/her self can be played this way, depending on the player. "I did what I had to."

* ''VisualNovel/TokimekiMemorial 4'' has [[spoiler: Okura Miyako]]. While she initially seems just fine, when the protagonists ask her out on a date, then wonders about a rabbit-doll she carries around and later makes a joke about how she'll become a great wife, due to her wonderful cooking, to some guy in the future, she completely breaks. Her dialogue revolves mostly around [[spoiler: things she and the protagonist did as kids]], showing how important is it to her. [[spoiler: Miyako breaks when she feels that the protagonist only [[PrankDate asked her out on a date as a joke]] ''and'' realizes that he has forgotten, or doesn't care about, their childhood events and that they made the rabbit-doll she carries around together. At this point, Miyako breaks and flat-out goes {{Yandere}} on the protagonist, making him fight the rabbit-doll if he goes on a date with another girl, purposefully cooks him terrible food and gives it to him to eat and overall talks in a very creepy tone of voice.]] The protagonist must date her for a prolonged time when this happens, but the big change comes in one scene where [[spoiler: Miyako lost the rabbit-doll's button eye next to the river and is frantically searching for it. The protagonist "heals" Miyako by telling her that, since they can't find the button, they should give up and rips a button off of his high school uniform and that she should use it for the doll's new eye]].

** During the episode "The Beach", the villains have vented their individual examples of FreudianExcuse and are now feeling much better. So good in fact, that they gleefully trash the house and attack the guests of the cool teens who snubbed them. Interestingly enough, the only one in the group who never actually gets over the problem that gets brought up in the episode is Azula, who seemed to be completely at terms with it. [[spoiler:In the final episodes, it causes her epic VillainousBreakdown.]] Zuko, on the other hand, didn't get over his issues with that situation at the beach either. Uncle Iroh had been working on him for the entire two seasons, but he froze before taking the step that would've taken him completely through his HeelFaceTurn. He finally completes it a few episodes later.

* In ''Film/TheGame'', Conrad (played by Sean Penn) signs his brother and film protagonist Nicholas van Orton (played by Michael Douglas) up for a game that helped bring him back from being bored and disillusioned.

* ''Franchise/StarWars'': Darth Vader murdered thousands of Jedi and probably millions of other people over twenty years, stood by while the billions of inhabitants of Alderaan were killed, force-choked many of his own subordinates, tortured Han, and generally helped maintain a reign of terror over the entire galaxy, yet when he saw his son being electrocuted, he quickly decides he's been wrong all along and kills the emperor.

Although this trope [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools works well to provide closure]] and end a story of struggle on an upbeat note, it can be naive, even dangerous, to think that real-life psychological disorders are so simple. Oftentimes, diagnosing the root of a disorder is just one step on the way to recovery, which may well take years of hard work. Harmful patterns of thought and behavior (like suicidal thoughts, eating disorders, and self-harm) will not break apart just because the patient has [[PuffOfLogic logically located their source]]. Epiphanies can be great sources of clarity and joy but they may or may not last long in the daily grind of thought and action.

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

** The show defied this with Lisa explaining that her [[CompressedVice body image issues]] are a long-standing problem that can't be solved overnight. [[SnapBack From the next episode we never hear of them again...]]

* The ComicBook/MartianManhunter had a deep-seated fear of fire as his AchillesHeel, which made the second most powerful being in Creator/DCComics Earth vulnerable to matches. Thanks to some epiphany therapy with a flame powered hottie, he managed to remove the fear... only to discover it was a mental block placed by ThePrecursors to avoid his species becoming [[AlwaysChaoticEvil psychotic fire demons]] drunk on power.

* ''Manga/TheKurusagiCorpseDeliveryService'' tends to avert this. Most of the cast have some manner of psychological issue or other, and learning what caused it and confronting it gives, at best, some manner of closure that helps in the healing process. Notably, Sasaki is still actively seeing a therapist and taking antidepressants, a decade after seeing her family killed before her eyes and after the crew gives her the opportunity to forgive one of the killers to his face and exposing the other.

* In ''Film/IronMan3'', Tony, who had been suffering PTSD and panic attacks throughout the movie is apparently cured when Harley asks him over the phone, "why don't you just build something?", which is enough to instantly snap him out of the panic attack he was having at the time and then appear to be fine for the rest of the movie.

See also ColdTurkeysAreEverywhere, CompressedVice, NotHimself, ResetButton, SnapBack, ArmorPiercingQuestion, and WeWantOurJerkBack. Definitely not to be confused with either PercussiveTherapy or 'wall to wall therapy', though they both are known for resolving the situation pretty quickly, too (for very different reasons). Contrast with MentalHealthRecoveryArc.

* The ComicBook/MartianManhunter had a deep-seated fear of fire as his AchillesHeel, which made the second most powerful being in Creator/DCComics Earth vulnerable to matches. Thanks to some epiphany therapy with a flame powered hottie, he managed to remove the fear... only to discover it was a mental block placed by non-NeglectfulPrecursors to avoid his species becoming [[AlwaysChaoticEvil psychotic fire demons]] drunk on power.

* In ''Manga/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. Some stories, particularly [[spoiler:[[{{transgender}} Hishida]]'s]] ''do'' acknowledge that the person still has a lot work to do in taking their step forward.

!!!'''In General:'''
* There was an episode of a talk show 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. In psychology, this is known as flooding; surrounding a person with things they're afraid of for a few hours until the fear is extinguished. While it can work if done long enough, there's nicer ways to do it.
!!!'''Series:'''

* Hitchcock averts it in ''Marnie''. The film ends with the title character confronting the source of her myriad psychological issues, but it's clear that she still has a long, hard recovery ahead of her.

** In "[[Recap/BuffyTheVampirSlayerS1E12ProphecyGirl Prophecy Girl]]", she overcame her fear of the Master, by getting killed by him. Killing him in return certainly helped.

* 'Series/HeadingOut'': PlayedForLaughs with a ditzy spiritualist therapist in Sue Perkins' sitcom ': "But don't worry, because your final session ends in three... two... one... CURED!"

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 — [[ScarsAreForever mental scars are]] ''[[ScarsAreForever also]]'' [[ScarsAreForever forever]], after all. In fictionland, however, ThereAreNoTherapists; fortunately, FreudianExcuse, MyGreatestFailure, the HeroicBSOD, InTheBlood, and DysfunctionJunction, can be cured with a simple WhoopiEpiphanySpeech, growing BoredWithInsanity, a friend telling them to [[GetAHoldOfYourselfMan cop on]], confiding in someone about your {{Past Experience Nightmare}}s, the [[ThePowerOfLove strength]] or [[LoveRedeems redemption]] offered by love, or {{sidekick}}s or TrueCompanions 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. (On the plus side, this trope saves the audience a lot of time.)