History Main / InUniverseCatharsis

* The Dark Truth on ''EliStone'' can be used for this, if this troper remembers correctly. However, it's usually used for other things.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Touhou}}'', [[WhoWantsToLiveForever immortal]] Fujiwara no Mokou constantly kills and is killed by her also immortal [[TheRival rival]]; [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tale_of_the_Bamboo_Cutter Princess Kaguya]]. She appreciates the brutal and endless stalemate.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Touhou}}'', [[WhoWantsToLiveForever immortal]] Fujiwara no Mokou constantly kills and is killed by her also immortal [[TheRival rival]]; [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tale_of_the_Bamboo_Cutter Princess]] [[http://en.touhouwiki.org/wiki/Kaguya_Houraisan Kaguya]]. She appreciates the brutal and endless stalemate.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Touhou}}'', [[WhoWantsToLiveForever immortal]] Moukou no Fujiwara constantly kills and is killed by her also immortal [[TheRival rival]]; [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tale_of_the_Bamboo_Cutter Princess Kaguya.]] She appreciates the brutal and endless stalemate.

* In KushielsDart, Phedre goes to the temple of Kushiel to atone for her role in the death of her master and the things she had to do when a captive of the Skaldi. Kushiel himself is said to be the patron of a very harsh mercy, attended by masked priests and priestesses who inflict painful rituals on those who come seeking atonement.

* In ''{{Touhou}}'', [[WhoWantsToLiveForever immortal]] Moukou no Fujiwara constantly kills and is killed by her also immortal [[TheRival rival]]; [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tale_of_the_Bamboo_Cutter Princess Kaguya.]] She appreciates the brutal and endless stalemate.

* ''MassEffect2'': [[BreakTheCutie Jack]] is '''not''' what you would call a well adjusted individual, owing in no small part to the [[PlayingWithSyringes horrific experiments]] performed on her. The mission to secure her loyalty has you guiding her through the abandoned facility where these experiments were performed and dealing with some of the remnants of her past, before setting a BigBulkyBomb in her old cell and blowing the lab to smithereens. Afterwards, she becomes... well, slightly less AxCrazy. The achievement you get for completing the mission is even called "Catharsis."

There is also a more serious form of catharsis where psychological ills are healed through ceremony or painful experiences. Basically, usually as a major plot point, a character either seeks or inadverdently goes through an experience that normally only a NightmareFetishist might seek, and it helps them deal with a medical, psychological, etc. condition. [[CatharsisFactor When a story does this for a reader in the real world]], it's a SubjectiveTrope. When it occurs InUniverse, it's less subjective.

* As did ''Series/{{Babylon 5}}''; in one episode, a mentally disturbed Earth - Minbari war veteran reenacts arthurian legend with Delenn as a means of finding peace.
** Earlier in the same episode, the same veteran gets in a fight with some Downbelow thugs, and gets helped out by G'Kar, who recounts how it felt shortly afterwards:

---> '''Marcus Cole:''' Well, they said I was carrying around a lot of repressed anger.
---> '''Lennier:''' And?
---> '''Marcus Cole:''' I'm not repressed anymore!

* In ''AnalyzeThis'', Robert De Niro shooting the couch probably counts, as it was likely extremely cathartic for his character.

[[AC:{{Literature}}]]

* The ''StarTrek'' franchise has touched on overcoming psychological issues through cathartic experiences on multiple occasions.
** ''StarTrek V: TheFinalFrontier'': Sybok uses his unique ability to share with and help conquer a person's greatest emotional trauma to gain the trust of most of the crew.
* As did ''BabylonFive''; in one episode, a mentally disturbed Earth - Minbari war veteran reenacts arthurian legend with Delenn as a means of finding peace.

* Max's monologue in the normal ending of ''MaxPayne 2'' (concluding with "I had a dream of my wife. She was dead. But it was all right.") suggested that Max underwent a catharsis after [[spoiler:the death of pretty much anyone he ever cared about, including Vlad and Mona]], finally breaking away from the self-destructive path that Michelle and Alex's deaths put him onto. [[SequelReset Part three says otherwise.]]

* ''MassEffect2'': [[BreakTheCutie Jack]] is '''[[{{Understatement}} not]]''' what you would call a well adjusted individual, owing in no small part to the [[PlayingWithSyringes horrific experiments]] performed on her. The mission to secure her loyalty has you guiding her through the abandoned facility where these experiments were performed and dealing with some of the remnants of her past, before setting a BigBulkyBomb in her old cell and blowing the lab to smithereens. Afterwards, she becomes... well, slightly less AxCrazy. The achievement you get for completing the mission is even called "Catharsis."

* ''MassEffect2'': [[BreakTheCutie Jack]] is '''[[{{Understatement}} not]]''' what you would call a well adjusted individual, owing in no small part to the [[PlayingWithSyringes horrific experiments]] performed on her. The mission to secure her loyalty has you guiding her through the abandoned facility where these experiments were performed and dealing with some of the remnants of her past, before setting a {{BFB}} in her old cell and blowing the lab to smithereens. Afterwards, she becomes... well, slightly less AxCrazy. The achievement you get for completing the mission is even called "Catharsis."

* Max's monologue in the normal ending of ''MaxPayne 2'' (concluding with "I had a dream of my wife. She was dead. But it was all right.") suggested that Max underwent a catharsis after [[spoiler:the death of pretty much anyone he ever cared about, including Mona]], finally breaking free of the self-destructive path that Michelle and Alex's deaths put him onto. [[SequelReset Part three says otherwise.]]

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* ''MassEffect 2'': [[BreakTheCutie Jack]] is '''[[{{Understatement}} not]]''' what you would call a well adjusted individual, owing in no small part to the [[PlayingWithSyringes horrific experiments]] performed on her. The mission to secure her loyalty has you guiding her through the abandoned facility where these experiments were performed and dealing with some of the remnants of her past, before setting a {{BFB}} in her old cell and blowing the lab to smithereens. Afterwards, she becomes... well, slightly less AxCrazy. The achievement you get for completing the mission is even called "Catharsis."