History Main / ThroughTheEyesOfMadness

* Darwin from ''The Auteur'' sees blood, bones and gore everywhere and everyone as talking, skinless corpses.
* It is ''just about'' possible to read the whole of ''ComicBook/CindyAndBiscuit'' naturalistically as the story of a lonely and disturbed little girl with a disturbingly violent imagination, although the strips from Biscuit's point of view suggest otherwise.
* Whenever ComicBook/{{Deadpool}} is the main character or narrator. His main series that debuted in Secret Invasion is a great example, mainly the first issue showing him seeing the people trying to kill him as admiring fans wanting an autograph. He snaps out of it, but it makes you wonder just how reliable his point of view actually is. I mean, ''he thinks Nick Fury is a talking baby.''

* The first ''ComicBook/HarleyQuinn'' solo comic depicted her as seeing the world around her as a slapstick cartoon universe in which none of the the violence she commits has serious consequences, while in fact she really is killing and maiming people.
* In ''ComicBook/HowLoathsome'', Nick -- a drug dealer -- tells a story of how three German men followed him around, using mind-control powers to mess with his perception until he shot them dead. How much of this was a hallucination caused by drugs, how much is the truth and how much is a lie is never explained.
* ''ComicBook/TheKillingJoke''. Joker's flashbacks.... [[MultipleChoicePast Are they what actually happened or simply a fabrication of his twisted mind?]]

* The ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' story ''Fanfic/AsylumDaemonOfDecay'' has Twilight going to bed after another day with her friends, only to wake up in the titular asylum, where the the nurses and her doctor inform her the life she remembers, was just a side-effect of her new experimental treatment regiment. Instead of becoming the personnel apprentice of Princess Celestia, Twilight apparently had a mental break down, and has been hallucinating her many misadventures. On the bright side, most of her friends and the other characters from the show, are still real in some way or another, [[spoiler: ''but'' sadly her prized assistant and adopted brother is not.]] Though sad, this all seems legit... until Twilight hears [[spoiler: Celestia telling her that the Asylum isn't real and Equestria is in grave danger of dark forces that have created the asylum to trick her]] and Twilight soon starts noticing signs of a conspiracy among the staff and seeing things that may or may not be real, but whether she really is crazy, in some kind of LotusEaterMachine, or both is yet to be made clear.
* The ''Fanfic/GettingBackOnYourHooves'' side story 'Another Happy Mother's Day' is told from the perspective of [[spoiler:the original story's BigBad, Checker Monarch, who [[SanitySlippage went completely insane]] during her VillainousBreakdown at the end. She is completely out of touch with reality to the point that she's created FalseMemories.]]
* This is a strong possibility with ''Fanfic/{{Jessica}}'', especially in the scene in which Cameron realizes who Jessica is, and ultimately [[spoiler:reconciles with her]]. Cameron's friends cannot see the creepy things that he sees Jessica say and do during the game, Cameron is known to have Multiple Personality Disorder, and both of Cameron's alternate personalities are quiet when he is engaging with Jessica during the game.
* Downplayed in one episode ''WebVideo/MyLittlePonyTotallyLegitRecap'', where it's briefly implied the ellagent harp motif that often plays while Rarity's talking, is actually an auditory hallucination she has.
* This is the premise of works based on the ''Fanfic/TheRugratsTheory'', such as the Music/{{Vocaloid}} song. The concept is that ''WesternAnimation/{{Rugrats}}'' is from the view point of a delusional and lonely Angelica. All the babies died before she could meet them.
* In episode 81 of the AbridgedSeries ''WebVideo/UltraFastPony'' Fluttershy has run in with fairies with bad Scottish Accents who mistake her for their god which only she can see...
** In the same episode, we get to see how Rainbow Dash sees the world... insane doesn't began to describe it.
** At the very end of the aforementioned episode, we get to see a talking flower from Rainbow's delusion return, with the rest of the cast seemingly all reacting to it, but don't seem to be surprised, implying they might '''all''' be delusional to some extent. Really puts some things in perspective...
** Earlier in episode 64, after mistaking a random tourist for the Pony Games inspector, the tourist claims to be just a delusion.
** ''Even earlier'', back in Season 1, Applebloom's only friend at the beginning of the episode, Twist, is revealed to be a figment of her imagination. And ''not'' a benevolent one either.

** ''Literature/WyrdSisters'' has several scenes from the perspective of Duke Felmet, and his conviction that the witches are [[OutDamnedSpot making the king's blood reappear on his hands]], however hard he scrubs them with wire-wool and sandpaper...

* ''WesternAnimation/BigCityGreens'': In "Pizza Deliverance", Tina, a girl who works for Mama Roni's Pizza, is to make a delivery to the Green family now living in Smalton, but brushes off her co-workers' fears after seeing a horror movie. Once she gets to the country, she gets lost and feels nervous; eventually, eventually, everything through Tina's eyes appears as a horror movie with a sick green filter, and she begins seeing the Greens as evil marauding zombies out to eat her, prompting her to avoid them as much as possible; in reality, the Greens are mildly confused that she keeps running away from them and not even giving them their pizza, and in the end Tina realizes the Greens are really nice and learns not to believe what she sees in movies.

* ''Literature/AWorldWithoutYou'' revolves around a boy who believes he is a time-traveling superhero at an academy for people with powers instead of his reality of mental illness. Much of the book is spent under the belief he can reverse time and save his "missing" girlfriend, who died by suidice in reality.

* Elizabeth Woods' novel ''Choker'' tells the story of 16-year-old loner Cara Lange, who reconnects with her ChildhoodFriend Zoe after years of being apart, with Zoe claiming to be "on the run" from trouble back home. Zoe helps get Cara get her social life back on track, and even helps her get the attention of her crush. However, things take a turn for the suspicious when girls in town start going missing and turning up dead, and Zoe's behavior becomes increasingly strange. To add to that, no one else besides Cara seems to notice Zoe's existence at all.... [[spoiler: Following a confrontation in an abandoned barn, it's revealed that "Zoe" was merely an imaginary friend Cara had made up during her childhood to cope with her loneliness, and that Cara herself murdered the girls, [[NoMedicationForMe in the midst of a long stint of not taking her schizophrenia medication]]. Cara's parents also reveal that Cara had a habit as a child of blaming Zoe for her own [[TroublingUnchildlikeBehavior disturbing actions]], including poisoning a neighbor's dog that had bitten her.]]
* In the book ''The Devil's Advocate'', this is much more present than in the safe Hollywood'esque film, to the point of getting seriously disturbed as [[spoiler:the protagonist kills his boss.]]
** The movie did have a little of its own mind screw version of this though...

* Creator/TrumanCapote's short story "Miriam" tells the story of a little girl taking over a middle-aged woman's life -- except that the little girl exists only in the woman's head.

* ''Literature/LunarPark''. The narrator is a writer named after the author of the novel: Creator/BretEastonEllis who is an unreliable narrator, because he describes things the other characters don't see or feel. The main character is abusing drugs, some of the hallucinations might be to some extent related to that. Also, there is an intertextual reference to Ellis' novel, ''Literature/AmericanPsycho. ''Ellis' character has apparently also written a novel titled American Psycho and he says: "Patrick Bateman is an unreliable narrator."

* Creator/EdgarAllanPoe is a master of this, especially in "The Tell-Tale Heart". *shudder*

* In Creator/LarryNiven's story "Literature/TheEthicsOfMadness", the protagonist unknowingly [[NoMedicationForMe goes off his meds]] because his autodoc's "refill me" light burns out just as the drug supply is exhausted. Once, he uses another autodoc and gets re-medicated... and when it wears off, he "realizes" that the other autodoc had been tampered with by his "enemy". Not surprisingly, things go downhill from there.

* Truman Capote's short story "Miriam" tells the story of a little girl taking over a middle-aged woman's life. Except that the little girl exists only in the woman's head.

*** This is, however, {{Inverted|Trope}} with No-Bark Noonan, in Novac. He's the resident loon, having been stung several times in the head by Radscorpions (which are bigger than humans) with venom. During a quest to investigate [[spoiler:who killed Boone's wife, Carla]], [[spoiler:No-Bark provides the most accurate and astute account of what happened to Carla; not only does he note that the most normal-seeming people have the most to hide]], [[spoiler:but he bore witness to what was happening, but interpreted it as someone other than the [[RapePillageAndBurn Legion]] abducting his wife into slavery after briefly stopping by the motel's front office.]] [[spoiler:Some espionage work in there reveals that Jeannie May, the somewhat-normal owner of the motel, signed a contract with the Legion to sell Carla into slavery and gave them a free pass to waltz into town to extract her.]]
*** There is a side-quest in the ''Honest Hearts'' DLC, where The Courier has to drink a special tea made by the Sorrows shaman White Bird, that causes his/her vision to go blurry, before fighting "The Ghost of She", a Mythical and large [[BearsAreBadNews yao guai]] said to have fused with the soul of a nameless little girl, after having killed her. When The Courier confronts said yao guai, you find that it's somehow ''on fire'' when it attacks you and after doing enough damage to it, it '''duplicates''' and you're forced to fight four flaming yau guai at once. After killing the original, the Courier's vision returns to normal and the duplicates disappear. While it is likely that this was just the affects of the "tea" and you just killed killed a regular yao guai, considering the ''Fallout'' franchise ''has'' played with adding otherworldly elements before...

* ''Film/{{Spider}}'' (2002) is [[UnreliableNarrator told from the point of view of its protagonist]], a man with schizophrenia who is reliving the traumatic events of his childhood. [[BlatantLies It was definitely not directed]] by Creator/DavidCronenberg.

* The ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' story ''Fanfic/{{Asylum}}'' has Twilight going to bed after another day with her friends, only to wake up in the titular asylum, where the the nurses and her doctor inform her the life she remembers, was just a side-effect of her new experimental treatment regiment. Instead of becoming the personnel apprentice of Princess Celestia, Twilight apparently had a mental break down, and has been hallucinating her many misadventures. On the bright side, most of her friends and the other characters from the show, are still real in some way or another, [[spoiler: ''but'' sadly her prized assistant and adopted brother is not.]] Though sad, this all seems legit... until Twilight hears [[spoiler: Celestia telling her that the Asylum isn't real and Equestria is in grave danger of dark forces that have created the asylum to trick her]] and Twilight soon starts noticing signs of a conspiracy among the staff and seeing things that may or may not be real, but whether she really is crazy, in some kind of LotusEaterMachine, or both is yet to be made clear.

* ''WesternAnimation/BigCityGreens'': In "Pizza Deliverance", Tina, a girl who works for Mama Roni's Pizza, is to make a delivery to the Green family now living in Smalton, but brushes off her co-workers' fears after seeing a horror movie. Once she gets to the country, she gets lost and feels nervous; eventually, she begins to see everything as a horror movie with a sick green filter, and she begins seeing the Greens as evil marauding zombies out to eat her, prompting her to avoid them as much as possible; in reality, the Greens are mildly confused that she keeps running away from them and not even giving them their pizza, and in the end Tina realizes the Greens are really nice and learns not to believe what she sees in movies.

** In the second half of Season 5, the team are based over a rift to a "fear dimension" which occasionally sends forth YourWorstNightmare. Since Fitz's greatest fear is that he's more like his Framework persona, the ruthless head of HYDRA known as the Doctor, than he likes to think, it's unsurprising when the Doctor emerges from the rift, has an argument where he calls Fitz weak, and then operates on Daisy to restore her powers against her will, since it's the only way to close the rift and regualar!Fitz is too weak to do it. Only when Gemma bursts in in the middle of the operation do we learn that the Doctor did ''not'' emerge from the rift. When he interacts with Fitz, this is happening in Fitz's head ''the way it has been ever since he left the Framework''. When he interacts with others, it's just Fitz, who has let the Doctor persona take over to do "what needs to be done".

* The terrifying "The Repairer of Reputations" in Creator/RobertWChambers' ''Literature/TheKingInYellow''.

* ''LightNovel/TheRisingOfTheShieldHero'':

* This provides the twist ending for the ''Series/MastersOfHorror'' episode "Imprint". After all the horrible events that the disfigured prostitute tells Christopher and the revelation of a Siamese EvilTwin, he shoots the prostitute and it turns out to be Komomo all along -- the HookerWithAHeartOfGold he was trying to find. Christopher was actually driven completely insane from what's implied to be guilt for raping and killing his sister and the entire story was part of his hallucinations.

* ''Series/TheOuterLimits1995'': In the episode "The Voyage Home", this is played with. The three-man crew of a spaceship are slowly going mad after returning from a mission on Mars. At one point the pilot suddenly transforms into an alien creature in front of the engineer, who jettisons him into outer space. Except when the third guy (the doctor) shows up when this is going on, the 'alien' one looks completely normal and begs him to stop their insane colleague. [[spoiler:It turns out that they were both aliens who had assumed their shapes, and the engineer was the last real human on board.]]

** ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'':
*** In the episode "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS6E19FrameOfMind Frame of Mind]]", where something like this happens... well it's safe to say the episode was about Riker. Maybe.
* Subverted in the Amazon version of [[Series/TheTick2016 The Tick]], where in the first couple episodes, Arthur, who always wanted to be a superhero, and has had a history of paranoia and hallucinations, keeps seeing a super-hero named The Tick -- but conveniently, silent and invisible whenever anyone but Arthur is around. Thus, we, the genre-audience, start to believe that Arthur has invented The Tick and we're seeing another of Arthur's hallucinations -- and by the second episode, Arthur comes to that realization himself, too... incorrectly. It was just a hilarious coincidence that nobody saw or heard him.

* ''Series/TheWheelOfTime'':

* ''Series/{{Wilfred}}''. The protagonist Ryan sees Wilfred not as a dog, but a man in a dog costume. Often, even though Ryan generally looks after Wilfred for a neighbor, the viewer can't always be sure if Wilfred's really there or not. And Ryan once spent an entire episode hallucinating in his basement, during which Wilfred and a passing stranger (who isn't really there at all) put him through various games. In another, Wilfred allegedly sneaks hallucinogenic drugs into his tea. This becomes a bit of fridge horror when one considers that Wilfred really is just a dog, meaning Ryan likely drugged it himself without even knowing. During the resulting drug trip, Wilfred murders Ryan's "spirit guide" to prevent Ryan discovering the truth about who/what/why Wilfred is. And in a recent episode, it's suggested Ryan somehow set himself up to be framed for mass money fraud without being aware and blaming it on Wilfred (it turns out Ryan's girlfriend was out of her mind and did it herself at the instruction of her own Wilfred hallucination -- this one French). Couple all of this with the series' many dips into Ryan's past, revealing many dark and traumatic aspects of his life and psyche, and it can be very difficult to figure out which parts of episodes are real and which parts are just in Ryan's mind.

* In ''Film/EdenLog'', the man perceives the rape attempt as if he is making love with [[spoiler:the botanist]]. We are shown what is happening from his warped perspective, interspersed with shots of him violently attacking and about to rape the woman.

* ''Anime/FateStayNightHeavensFeel'': In the second film, ''Lost Butterfly'', Sakura Matou suddenly finds herself in a lovely fairy tale world surrounded by cute creatures and food and happily starts playing and feasting. In reality, she is wandering through the city killing everyone in her path with a shadow monster.

** Implied in some adaptations of King's novel ''Literature/{{Carrie}}''. After the [[SignatureScene infamous moment]] where Carrie is humiliated by having pig's blood dumped on her, she thinks the students are all laughing at her, when they've really been [[StunnedSilence shocked into silence.]] In some adaptations, NiceGuy Tommy was even calling them out on the prank while this was going on in Carrie's head.

* Wiki/SCPFoundation: [[http://www.scpwiki.com/scp-1499 SCP-1499]] is a gas mask that is at first described as sending the wearer to an EldritchLocation populated by {{Humanoid Abomination}}s. The addendum to the exploration log reveals that it really just sends them to another part of the world and alters their view to think they're in such a place.

* Similar to the ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' example below, the ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' story ''Fanfic/{{Asylum}}'' has Twilight going to bed after another day with her friends, only to wake up in the titular asylum, where the the nurses and her doctor inform her the life she remembers, was just a side-effect of her new experimental treatment regiment. Instead of becoming the personnel apprentice of Princess Celestia, Twilight apparently had a mental break down, and has been hallucinating her many misadventures. On the bright side, most of her friends and the other characters from the show, are still real in some way or another, [[spoiler: ''but'' sadly her prized assistant and adopted brother is not.]] Though sad, this all seems legit... until Twilight hears [[spoiler: Celestia telling her that the Asylum isn't real and Equestria is in grave danger of dark forces that have created the asylum to trick her]] and Twilight soon starts noticing signs of a conspiracy among the staff and seeing things that may or may not be real, but whether she really is crazy, in some kind of LotusEaterMachine, or both is yet to be made clear.

** Princess Rose, who is obsessed with the story ''Literature/TheFrogPrince'' sees her Frog cards as handsome princes, while everyone else sees them as giant frogs. After Judai beats her in a duel and she angrily walks off, he suddenly sees the spirit of an actual frog prince (as in a tiny humanoid frog resembling [[Franchise/TheMuppets Kermit]] wearing a prince costume) watching over her. He admits her prince was real, but she ironically cannot see the spirit.