History Main / InsaneEqualsViolent

** PlayedWith with Marin, the girl Sam befriends in a mental hospital. Everyone assumes she's violent and crazy, but Sam realizes she's being haunted by the ghost of her brother and he's the violent one.

** Wrestling/DeanAmbrose acts like a crazed animal.

* Common in the [[DarkerAndEdgier grimdark]] Tumblr blogs of ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'', resulting in the likes of [[http://friendlytwilight.tumblr.com/ Friendly Twilight]] (complete with her MadnessMakeover from the episode "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS2E3LessonZero Lesson Zero]]"), [[http://askflutterstalker.tumblr.com/ Flutterstalker]], [[http://ask-crapplejack.tumblr.com/ Crapplejack]], [[http://ask-lil-miss-rarity.tumblr.com/ Lil' Miss Rarity]], [[http://fracturedloyalty.tumblr.com/ Fractured Loyalty]] (Rainbow Dash), and of course, [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS1E25PartyOfOne Pinkamena]] [[Fanfic/CupcakesSergeantSprinkles Diane]] [[http://askpinkaminadianepie.tumblr.com/ Pie]].

** Subverted in the first episode. The serial killer is a mentally unstable man with violent inclinations and an obsession with red-headed women. He was well aware of his problems, however, and went through multiple psychologists in an attempt to control himself. [[spoiler:His current psychologist was dosing him with steroids instead of tranquilizers in order to make his problems worse, all to push the man to kill his wife so that the psychologist could get her fortune.]]

* The main characters of ''Theatre/{{Assassins}}'' are all this trope to some extent. Justified, however, in that they're all RealLife people who were crazy enough to kill a US President.

* ''Series/HoraceAndPete: A surprisingly realistic version. Pete has some sort of disorder that causes psychosis, and this occassionally makes him act out violently, [[SubvertedTrope but this is always due to Pete being terrified by his hallucinations and panicking]]. Everyone (except Uncle Pete, and Sylvie to an extent), avoids holding it against him and make efforts to calm him down when he is like this. Any blame for his uncontrollable actions go directly to his insurance and pharmacy for not putting an effort into keeping him out of the hospital, [[spoiler:especially when they discontinue the medication without offering a replacement for him.]]. The revelation that Pete has ''no choice'' in this matter makes him breakdown sobbing, for obvious reasons.

* ''Series/HoraceAndPete: A surprisingly realistic version. Pete has some sort of disorder that causes psychosis, and this occassionally makes him act out violently,
[[SubvertedTrope but this is always due to Pete being terrified by his hallucinations and panicking]]. Everyone (except Uncle Pete, and Sylvie to an extent), avoids holding it against him and make efforts to calm him down when he is like this. Any blame for his uncontrollable actions go directly to his insurance and pharmacy for not putting an effort into keeping him out of the hospital, [[spoiler:especially when they discontinue the medication without offering a replacement for him.]]. The revelation that Pete has ''no choice'' in this matter makes him breakdown sobbing, for obvious reasons.

* ''Podcast/SickSadWorld'': Subverted. When talking about the Sandy Hook shooter, Mari and Jasmine note that his mental illness alone didn’t account for the murders he committed.

Although [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mental_illness#Epidemiology over one third]] of the world's population qualify as mentally ill at some point, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mental_illness#Perception_and_discrimination media coverage of mental illness]] is mainly comprised of extremely negative and derogatory depictions -- [[MadnessTropes as you can see]] on TV Tropes itself. Incompetence, violence, or criminality are generally the forms that appear in fiction, with far less depiction of 'uninteresting' conditions such as depression, catatonia, or 'harmless' OCD. In 1999, characters in prime time television portrayed as having a mental illness were depicted as the most dangerous of all demographic groups, [[http://depts.washington.edu/mhreport/facts_violence.php with 60 percent shown to be involved in crime or violence.]] Such negative depictions, including in children's cartoons, are thought to contribute to stigma and negative attitudes in the public and in those with mental health problems themselves, although more sensitive or serious cinematic portrayals have increased in prevalence.

* Taken to the extreme in ''Manga/SoulEater''. Insanity, fear, madness, etc. is basically this universe's [[TheVirus Virus]]. You can be infected with insanity, and being insane means that you have the urge to hurt things. By killing humans and eating their souls (which is what insane people do, apparently), one can actually become an Eldritch Abomination. This is how the series' BigBad Asura became the Big Bad -- he was a nervous person who succumbed to his fear, and took the life of an innocent human and consumed their soul in order to gain power. (Ironically enough, consuming the soul of a corrupted, insane person in this series has no negative side effects whatsoever.)

** This results in part because of CharacterizationMarchesOn. The original Batman villains were master-criminals typical of pulp villains with no real motivations. The first Joker dressed in white paint and didn't have silly gag-based antics. After the '50s, where comics were subject to {{Bowdleri|se}}zation, [[Characters/BatmanTheJoker The Joker]] became a harmless villain with gag based antics celebrated in the Creator/AdamWest show. When Dennis O'Neil, Steve Engelhart, and other writers sought to make the Joker menacing again, they had to justify the gag-based elements which had become TheArtifact as well as other motif-themed criminals such as [[Characters/BatmanTheRiddler The Riddler]] which became famous thanks to ''Series/Batman1966''. Their solution was HollywoodPsych, and they added Arkham Asylum into the mix. Since then, all of Batman's villains were described not merely as supervillains but as psychopaths.
** Creator/FrankMiller's ''ComicBook/TheDarkKnightReturns'' partly plays this straight and partly parodies it, by showing how absurd Batman's conflict with supervillains become when made into a discourse among the popular psychology and sociological analysis of prime time cable news. Popular psychologists and careerist shrinks like Bart Wolper try to cure the likes of [[Characters/BatmanTwoFace Two-Face]] via plastic surgery that repairs the bad-half of the face. [[spoiler:It turns out to be the wrong half, the real Harvey Dent was the scarred out part of his face, representing his guilt and self-loathing]]. The book also shows Joker closer to the original Bill Finger characterization as a joyless psychopath who speaks in a CreepyMonotone, although it does this by playing up the FoeRomanceSubtext element to whole new heights. Batman himself in Frank Miller's books is shown to be somewhat of a functional madman most of the time.

** [[ZigZaggingTrope Zig-Zagged]] with Pamela Wilgis, the White Gloves Killer. She claims to have at least eight different split personalities, but there's hints [[ObfuscatingInsanity that she's faking it to get a lighter sentence.]] However, her final conversation with Pembleton shows that there's definitely''something'' wrong with her, Split personalities or no.
* ''Series/IClaudius'' manages to subvert this despite featuring the actual Caligula. His violent / psychopathic tendencies are explicitly shown NOT to follow from his psychotic delusions: he's a killer from childhood but doesn't go mad until after he becomes Emperor years later. Livia and other murderous characters are described as "mad" by other characters, but are not shown as irrational -- even Nero, explicitly called "as mad as... Caligula", is clearly nothing of the kind.

*** In "[[Recap/StarTrekS1E28TheCityOnTheEdgeOfForever City on the Edge of Forever]]" [=McCoy=] does act violent, but it is mentioned that the cordrazine overdose that sent him into the breakdown induced severe paranoia - which could, in RealLife, lead to violent behavior. Besides, all the violence he does use is focused towards escaping these perceived enemies. Once he lands in the past, he's more confused and scared than violent.
*** In "[[Recap/StarTrekS3E5IsThereInTruthNoBeauty Is There in Truth No Beauty?]]" Marvick, who goes insane after seeing [[EldritchAbomination Ambassador Kollos]], lands the crew in serious trouble, but not because he's violent - because he's delusional, and managed to send the ship right out of the known galaxy in his terrified escape attempt. Spock, in his temporary bout of insanity due to the same cause ''is'' violent, but then again, Vulcans have been mentioned to have a serious predisposition towards violence which led them to eschew all emotions to avoid destroying themselves.

** [[PlayingWithATrope Played straight]] with Castiel after he absorbs 50,000 souls from Purgatory in order to become powerful enough to defeat Raphael. He was always a soldier willing to kill to achieve his goals, but in this case he goes completely off the rails and kills thousands of his fellow angels when they won't accept him as the new God.

** Wrestling/CodyRhodes is often emotionally unstable, has suffered several mental breakdowns and may have some form of dissociative identity disorder. His brother Wrestling/{{Goldust}} may be crazy or just weird.

** [[CardCarryingVillain Yuuki Terumi]]. though he can come across as quite affable and contained in his Hazama guise, can also completely [[AxCrazy lose his shit]] [[HairTriggerTemper at the drop of a hat]]. It also slips into gameplay; while he's in his Hazama guise, his fighting-style most of all looks like Music/MichaelJackson-ish dance moves and, for some fridge brilliant characterization integration, revolves around baiting the opponent into making mistakes, perfectly fitting his ManipulativeBastard tendencies. When he lets loose for real, though, his fighting-style switches to sheer {{Sadist}}ic VideoGameCrueltyPotential with [[AttackAttackAttack few defensive options but some of the highest damage outputs in the game when on the offensive]]. Come the fourth game in the series, it's revealed that he's actually [[spoiler:[[Myth/JapaneseMythology Takehaya Susanoo no Mikoto]], JerkassGod [[SatanicArchetype extraordinaire]], and though he lays off the [[LaughingMad Maniacal Laughing]] madness for a while, his ultimate goal of usurping the [[DeusEstMachina Master Unit: Amaterasu]] and turning reality into [[ToCreateAPlaygroundForEvil a cesspool of terror and despair where everyone kills each other]] [[GroundhogDayLoop on loop]] reveals that he's]] way more insane than previously believed.

* Discussed and defied in ''VideoGame/{{Devotion}}''. [[spoiler:Mei Shin has an anxiety disorder, but it is clear to the viewer that she's a scared little girl who both needs and wants help. However, Feng Yu becomes enraged (due to the social stigma associated with mental illness at the time) when a hospital suggests that Mei Shin sees a psychiatrist, because his daughter is "not a lunatic". His ignorance towards Mei Shin's condition turns out to have disastrous consequences.]]

* Kefka Palazzo from ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI''. It says a lot about a character when his madness makes him TheDreaded on both the protagonists' side of the conflicts ''and'' the villains'. An [=NPC=] in ''Final Fantasy VI'' states that Kefka is a PsychoPrototype, having lost his mind after receiving the empire's first experimental Magitek Infusion, and in ''VideoGame/DissidiaFinalFantasy'' it's implied that the process has made him unable to feel anything at all, except for when he is giving into his destructive urges.

* Played straight and averted in ''Literature/{{Pyrrhic}}'' with some of the students. As a part of the experiment, they are forced to kill, but others were already verging on crazy before it. Some, like Tyra, thought that they were vampires, while others, like Jackson have begun to disassociate from reality due to [[spoiler:what is heavily implied to be Danson messing with his mind]]. However, Jackson's is treated with respect, due to the circumstances and was perfectly [[spoiler:sane before the experiment.]] Others like [[spoiler:Marie]] play this straight.

* In the ''Machinima/YogscastMinecraftSeries'', there are the following examples:

** Subverted again in "Tremors". A man walks into the precinct carrying a shotgun and ranting about how he's "the knight" who killed "the queen". Sherlock immediately works out that the man is schizophrenic with a delusion rooted in Middle Ages chivalry and is able to talk him into surrendering the shotgun. The subsequent investigation reveals that "The Queen" is his girlfriend who actually murdered by her doctor to cover up his questionable treatment of her heart condition. The doctor took advantage of this trope to frame the boyfriend by manipulating him into thinking he shot her.

** [[Characters/BatmanCentralRoguesGallery Mr. Freeze]] is usually one of the few clear aversions in Batman's rogues gallery despite usually being incarcerated at Arkham because the facility can cater to his odd medical needs, as he's not "mad" in the least and is instead just a cruel pragmatist driven by anger, grief, revenge, and hatred. He was turned into a straight example for the New 52 driven by his obsession with Nora who in this reality he's never known and his delusions of a relationship with her (and then soon reverted to his previous version, since the change was highly unpopular).

* ''Series/{{Elementary}}'': Subverted in the first episode. The serial killer is a mentally unstable man with violent inclinations and an obsession with red-headed women. He was well aware of his problems, however, and went through multiple psychologists in an attempt to control himself. [[spoiler:His current psychologist was dosing him with steroids instead of tranquilizers in order to make his problems worse, all to push the man to kill his wife so that the psychologist could get her fortune.]]

[[folder:Films]]

* ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooCampScare'': In one of the campfire stories, Jerry [=McCreedy=], aka the Woodsman, is said to have been driven insane from head trauma, and he roams the woods with an axe. Of course, [=McCreedy=] was already mean before going mad, which would give him an additional reason to become violent after losing his mind.

* Common in the [[DarkerAndEdgier grimdark]] Tumblr blogs of ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'', resulting in the likes of [[http://friendlytwilight.tumblr.com/ Friendly Twilight]] (complete with her MadnessMakeover from the episode "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS2E3LessonZero Lesson Zero]]"), [[http://askflutterstalker.tumblr.com/ Flutterstalker]], [[http://ask-crapplejack.tumblr.com/ Crapplejack]], [[http://ask-lil-miss-rarity.tumblr.com/ Lil' Miss Rarity]], [[http://fracturedloyalty.tumblr.com/ Fractured Loyalty]] (Rainbow Dash), and of course, [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS1E25PartyOfOne Pinkamena]] [[FanFic/{{Cupcakes}} Diane]] [[http://askpinkaminadianepie.tumblr.com/ Pie]].

--->'''Shepard:''' Say goodnight, Manuel. [''SHEPARD PAWNCH'']\\

* ''Franchise/DragonAge'': Played with. The Qunari teach that without the stabilizing influence of the Qun (their religion), their people will invariably go insane and start murdering indiscriminately. People who have left the Qun are called "Tal'Vasoth," and they are almost exclusively some of the worst bandits and murderers anyone has ever heard of. However, it's strongly implied that there's a lot of SelfFulfillingProphecy going on; Qunari soldiers [[CripplingOverspecialization are never taught how to do anything but fight]], so if they leave the Qun they have no choice but to turn to banditry to survive. And since they've been told that people like them are all insane murderers who will be killed on sight, they have no reason to keep their violent instincts under control. Qunari from other castes are able to live perfectly peaceful lives when they leave the Qun, but the Qunari don't mention them because they don't fit the narrative.

** This results in part because of CharacterizationMarchesOn. The original Batman villains were master-criminals typical of pulp villains with no real motivations. The first Joker dressed in white paint and didn't have silly gag-based antics. After the '50s, where comics were subject to {{Bowdleri|se}}zation, [[Characters/BatmanTheJoker The Joker]] became a harmless villain with gag based antics celebrated in the Creator/AdamWest show. When Dennis O'Neil, Steve Engelhart, and other writers sought to make the Joker menacing again, they had to justify the gag-based elements which had become TheArtifact as well as other motif-themed criminals such as [[Characters/BatmanRoguesGalleryPart2 The Riddler]] which became famous thanks to ''Series/Batman1966''. Their solution was HollywoodPsych, and they added Arkham Asylum into the mix. Since then, all of Batman's villains were described not merely as supervillains but as psychopaths.

** [[Characters/BatmanRoguesGalleryPart2 Mr. Freeze]] is usually one of the few clear aversions in Batman's rogues gallery despite usually being incarcerated at Arkham because the facility can cater to his odd medical needs, as he's not "mad" in the least and is instead just a cruel pragmatist driven by anger, grief, revenge, and hatred. He was turned into a straight example for the New 52 driven by his obsession with Nora who in this reality he's never known and his delusions of a relationship with her (and then soon reverted to his previous version, since the change was highly unpopular).
* ComicBook/{{Deadpool}} becomes more unhinged than usual during the Black Box story arc of ''ComicBook/CableAndDeadpool''. Even though he can't remember it later, it is revealed that [[spoiler: he murdered a terrorist who was living on Cable's island]]. When asked why he did it, he replies that he doesn't know. Since his mind is more out-of-whack than usual, he just killed for no reason. However, Deadpool was pointlessly violent long before he was portrayed as insane.

* PlayedWith in ''Film/TheGuilty''. Iben unwittingly kills her infant son Oliver during a psychotic episode under the belief that she's letting snakes out of his abdomen. However, she displays no aggressive tendencies and is horrified when she realizes what she has done.

** ZigZagged with Pamela Wilgis, the White Gloves Killer. She claims to have at least eight different split personalities, but there's hints [[ObfuscatingInsanity that she's faking it to get a lighter sentence.]] However, her final conversation with Pembleton shows that there's definitely''something'' wrong with her, Split personalities or no.

* In Music/PoetsOfTheFall's "[[https://youtu.be/BAh6ay9QDtE?list=PLjACqN5i5sDUEienDV52g85W6J7chzLXV The Happy Song]]," the VillainSong for Mr. Scratch of ''Videogame/AlanWakesAmericanNightmare,'' this is the opinion of the AxCrazy ''singer'' as he [[EvilGloating smugly]] admonishes the listener for failing to realize that referring to himself as a "psycho" was NotHyperbole.

* ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'': In "Meet the Pyro", the other classes talk about how scary they are, cut with images of them causing horrible destruction. However, when [[ThroughTheEyesOfMadness we see the Pyro's view]], it turns out they see the world as a [[TastesLikeDiabetes colorful wonderland]] where they're bringing candy and happiness to the other classes. Of course, the real-world effects of the Pyro's insanity are the same.

What's more, the fictional psychotic will not only be invariably violent, they'll actually be ''more'' lethally effective than a sane person. Count on the villainous psychotic to be a nigh-unstoppable assassin who's mastered OffscreenTeleportation rather than, say, a poor deluded individual uselessly arguing with or attacking their own hallucinations, or getting caught during their very first crime because they weren't trying to escape. Expect [[PowerBornFromMadness plenty of ridiculously heightened abilities]], ranging from super-strength to [[FeelNoPain freakish imperviousness to pain]].

What's more, the fictional psychotic will not only be invariably violent, they'll actually be ''more'' lethally effective than a sane person. Count on the villainous psychotic to be a nigh-unstoppable assassin who's mastered OffscreenTeleportation rather than, say, a poor deluded individual uselessly arguing with or attacking their own hallucinations, or getting caught during their very first crime because they weren't trying to escape. Expect plenty of ridiculously heightened abilities, ranging from super-strength to [[FeelNoPain freakish imperviousness to pain]].

** [[Characters/BatmanRoguesGalleryPart2 Mr. Freeze]] is usually one of the few clear aversions in Batman's rogues gallery despite usually being incarcerated at Arkham because the facility can cater to his odd medical needs, as he's not "mad" in the least and is instead just a cruel pragmatist driven by anger, grief, revenge, and hatred. He was turned into a straight example for the New 52 driven by his obsession with Nora who in this reality he's never known and his delusions of a relationship with her.

* In the second volume of ''ComicBook/UnstoppableWasp'', A.I.M. attacking G.I.R.L. sets off Nadia's undiagnosed Bipolar Disorder. When the rest of Nadia's friends confront her upon realizing something was wrong with her, they end up aggravating her problems (which were already bad due to sleep deprivation) and she goes violent on them. [[spoiler:When she comes down from that high and realizes what she's done, she's nearly DrivenToSuicide, but is saved by one of her other friends.]]

* ''Series/HomicideLifeOnTheStreet'': The killers in "A Many Splendored Thing" and "Subway" are mentally ill. [[SympatheticMurderer They're treated fairly sympathetically, and the former even turns himself in out of guilt.]]

* ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'' series' backstory has [[TheCaligula Emperor Pelagius the Mad]]. Living up to his nickname, he was both utterly insane and, especially later in his life, prone to outbursts of AxCrazy violence due to his insanity. After his madness became too publicly apparent, he was institutionalized and died only a few years later. In ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim Skyrim]]'', [[MadGod Sheogorath]]'s Daedric quest involves [[PetTheDog posthumously curing Pelagius]] of whatever madness ailed him.