Basic Trope: During therapy, the patient is lying on a couch like the one in Sigmund Freud's office.
- Straight: Bob is talking about his mother while lying on a fancy couch.
- Exaggerated: The therapist he's talking to bears a strong resemblance to Dr. Freud.
- Downplayed: Bob is slouching, but is still mostly upright on the couch.
- Justified: The therapist wants his patients to be as comfortable as possible, but still wants his office to look nice.
- Inverted: The therapist is lying on the couch telling his problems to Bob.
- Subverted: Bob is lying on a couch in a furniture store, crying Manly Tears and talking about his overbearing mother.
- Double Subverted: The furniture store in question doubles as a psychiatrist's office, and the sales associate is also a fully-certified psychiatrist.
- Parodied: Bob is complaining because the couch is on top of him.
- Zig Zagged: Dr. Freud redecorates his office a few times.
- There is a couch and a few chairs. Some patients sit on the couch or one of the chairs, some lie in it, and the Shell-Shocked Veteran who lost his legs in The Great Offscreen War stays in his wheelchair.
- Averted:
- Bob does not lie on such a couch during therapy, but sits in a regular chair.
- Bob does not go to therapy.
- Enforced: All Psychology Is Freudian.
- Lampshaded: Bob points out that he's always lying on the couch during his therapy sessions and likens it to characters in therapy treatment from movies.
- Invoked:
- Bob goes to the psychiatrist's office, and is told to lie on the couch.
- When offered eitheir a couch or chair, Bob goes with the couch.
- Exploited: The Shrink has placed the couch in his office as a self-deprecating joke to help put the patient more at ease.
- Defied: The office in question has no couch, and the psychiatrist does not believe in Freudian psychology, preferring more modern and accepted theories instead.
- Discussed: Alice and Bob talk about their friend Cecil who is a therapist. Rumour has it that Cecil's patients have to lie on a couch.
- Conversed: "Have you ever noticed that if there is a psychologist who treats people in fiction, the patients will always lie on a couch? What's up with that? Is Freud still so popular?"
- Played For Laughs:
- Bob is whining about something trivial on the couch, such as dropping an ice cream cone.
- Bob gets a little too comfortable and starts falling asleep.
- Played For Drama: Bob is upset over something serious, like being molested by a Pedophile Priest during childhood.
- Played For Horror: Bob is crying over something horrifying, like his cousin in Demonic Possession.
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