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{{trope}}
{{quote|"''By the honor of pep talks!''"|'''[[
Writers sometimes try to add depth to their characters by giving them some sort of [[Single
After a while, it may be felt that the character has to lose this flaw. In [[Real Life]], deep-seated psychological traumas take years to deal with and cure even in the best case scenario, and most require a lifetime of treatment. In fictionland, however, [[There Are No Therapists]]; fortunately, [[Freudian Excuse]], [[My Greatest Failure]], the [[Heroic BSOD]], [[In the Blood]], and [[Dysfunction Junction]], no matter how extreme, can be cured with a simple [[Whoopi Epiphany Speech]], growing [[Bored
Frequently administered by a [[Warrior Therapist]] or [[Psychologist Teacher]]. Might be heading into [[Discredited Trope]] territory.
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Failed attempts of giving this kind of therapy might come across as [[Activist Fundamentalist Antics]].
{{examples
== Straight examples ==
=== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ===▼
▲== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==
* In ''Genkaku Picasso'' 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.
* In ''[[Shugo Chara]]'', {{spoiler|Nikaidou-sensei's [[Heel Face Turn]] 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 ''[[Oruchuban Ebichu]]''. Ebichu's alter ego, Ebichuman, is a combination superhero and marital counselor whose superpower is the ability to sense people's sexual hangups.
* This is pretty much what the last two episodes of ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]'' are about, but the otherwise straightforward dialogue is accompanied by such abstract visuals that people tend to classify it as a [[Mind Screw]].
* In the [[Tona Gura]] 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 ''[[
* Similar to [[Star Wars|Darth Vader]] below, this is what happened to <s>Darth</s> [[The Dark Side Will Make You Forget|Yomi]] from ''[[Ga
* Hinagiku of ''[[
=== [[Comic Books]] ===
* In the [[Marvel Universe]], Doc Samson uses this with [[Incredible Hulk
=== [[Film]] ===
* In ''[[Inception]]'', {{spoiler|Dom Cobb finally confronts the dream projection of his long-lost wife, accepting her demise}}.
* In the movie ''[[Airplane!]]'', ex-pilot Ted Striker was unable to fly as a result of having led a disastrous air raid in the war. He's cured, and able to save the day, when he's told that one of the pilots who died on the raid, in his last words, approved of Striker's decision to continue the attack.
* In ''[[Star Trek V:
* Darth Vader in ''[[Star Wars]]'' is probably the ultimate example of this. 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. Then he's shown to have been completely redeemed. It kind of works in context, but it seems like Vader got off easy by dying, as he didn't have to make amends for his actions over the long-term.
* The end of ''[[The Machinist]]'', 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.
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* This is the entire plot of ''Good Will Hunting''. Emotional trauma stemming from years of abuse can be cured by repeating the phrase, "It's not your fault" over and over until the other person starts crying.
** Well, that *was* the climax of a long series of therapy sessions, not just a single event.
* Hilariously played with in ''[[What About Bob?]]'', 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 (trope)|epiphany]].
=== [[Literature]] ===
* In ''[[The Dark Tower]]'' series' second book, ''[[The Dark Tower
* Done painfully straight in the last book of Piers Anthony's ''Mode'' series, in which 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.
* The ''[[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.
* Dandra's magically-induced split personality disorder takes a few moments of [[Battle in
* Flinx, star of [[Alan Dean Foster]]'s ''[[Humanx Commonwealth]]'' universe, gets over his [[Wangst]] in record time in ''Flinx Transcendent'', the [[Grand Finale]] 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.
* In [[The Wheel of Time]], Rand al'Thor spent 12 books gradually going mad due to the taint of the Dark One on the male half of the True Source and also the influence of Lews Therin, the man of whom he is the reincarnation and who exists as a voice in his head, that man having been driven completely insane by the taint before his death. Then, when he begins to feel desolate and hopeless about the state of the world and {{spoiler|almost kills his [[Muggle Foster Parents|dad]] during a heated argument}}, he retreats to the top of the mountain that was created by Lews Therin's death throes and considers destroying the world with his awesome powers. {{spoiler|Fortunately for him and the world, he suddenly realizes that he has an opportunity to right Lews Therin's wrongs, so he instead uses his powers to destroy the artifact that made it possible for him to destroy the world, spontaneously integrates a sane version of the Lews Therin personality, and spends the 13th book fixing the stuff he screwed up during Book 12 because he was too busy shutting himself off emotionally.}} The greatest epiphany he has during this moment is that {{spoiler|there were never really two voices in his head -- it was always just him. He would never hear the "voice" of Lews Therin again.}}
* In ''[[
=== [[Live Action Television]] ===
* ''[[
* Alex P Keaton from ''[[Family Ties]]'', when Greg died in a car crash.
* There was an episode of a talk show (Maury, possibly) 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. By pickles. To the audience's mocking laughter.
* ''[[Wiseguy]]''. Frank McPike and Roger Loccoco decide to snap local kingpin Mark Volchek out of his phobia of death by recreating the final scene of his favourite horror movie so it has a happy ending. Mark Volchek refuses to accept this and storms out the door, only to run into someone who he thought [[Trouble Entendre|had been killed]] in an earlier episode. Not surprisingly, Volchek faints. He does get better though. Somewhat.
* [[Buffy the Vampire Slayer|Buffy]] has a number of
* When ''[[Monk]]'' realized the source of his pathological hatred of nudists, he pretty much got over it. It's made less grating by the fact that up until that point, he hadn't been able to permanently fix ''any'' of his many psychiatric problems.
** Of course 'getting over it' just means he doesn't impulsively and immediately accuse them of any and all crimes. He still is visibly disgusted and goes out of his way to avoid them.
** A better example would be the last episode, where Monk's issues are all severely diminished after he solves Trudy's murder.
* ''MASH'' relied rather heavily on this trope at times. In ''Quo Vadis, Captain Chandler?'', Captain Chandler was in serious need of an epiphany. He doesn't get it, but another victim who was unable to save his younger brother in battle, literally went into amnesiatic shock and couldn't remember a thing. His memory only returned after Dr. Freedman, Hawkeye and B.J. hypnotise him and stage a battlefield scene. And then, of course, how could we forget {{spoiler|Hawkeye himself, during the finale? It takes around half an hour into the episode before Dr. Freedman is able to force Hawkeye into remembering what triggered the nervous breakdown.}}
* Lt. Barclay on ''[[Star Trek:
* In the ''[[
* In ''[[Kamen Rider Double]]'', {{spoiler|Shotaro}} after being driven insane with fear by the Terror Dopant, causing him to scream his head off at even the slightest noise, {{spoiler|Philip basically telling him goodbye forever while leaving him a cryptic message on how to reverse it, Shotaro not only reverts to normal, but allows him to breakthrough his instinctive fear of Ryubee/Terror, which had been planted during their first meeting and prevented him from confronting him throughout the series.}}
* [[
=== [[Video Games]] ===
* ''[[Trauma Center|Trauma Center: Under the Knife 2]]''. After {{spoiler|losing his Healing Touch in the heat of an operation, and being unable to get it back, Derek goes back to his first Hospital to get help from old friends. Long story short, they push him real hard and he gets it back. [[Status Quo Is God]].}}
=== [[Western Animation]] ===
* The CGI animated series ''[[Roughnecks
== Aversions ==
=== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ===▼
* In ''[[Fruits Basket]]'', pretty much 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
▲== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==
* In ''[[
▲* In ''[[Fruits Basket]]'', pretty much 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 [[Epiphany Therapy]], 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 ''[[Hayate the Combat Butler (Manga)|Hayate the Combat Butler]]'', Hinagiku is able to withstand heights when she has a strong reason to after Hayate takes her out onto the balcony of the student council office and shows her the cityscape.
** Less detailed, but still implied is her fear of anyone she admits to loving disappearing also seems to be with her.
** Implied with both of these is that if Hayate were to vanish from her life, they would return stronger than ever and are nowhere near cured yet.
* ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam 00]]'' has Louise, who has some deep-seated revenge issues, as well as having to overcome forced evolution into a telepathic Innovator and being partially mind-controlled by the [[Big Bad]]. [[The Movie]], set two years later, shows that she's still in the hospital getting treatment for PTSD, among other things, and while she's definitely getting better, she's far from cured.
* Across the entirety of ''[[Bitter Virgin]]'', 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.
=== [[
* The Martian Manhunter had a deep seated fear of fire as his [[Achilles' Heel]], which made the second most powerful being in [[DC Comics]] Earth vulnerable to matches. Thanks to some epiphany therapy with a flame
* An issue of ''[[X-Factor (
=== [[Film]] ===
* The entire second half of ''[[Vertigo]]''.
** Hitchcock does it again 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.
* Jamie in [[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.
=== Literature ===
* Averted in ''[[Nineteen Eighty
* The hilarious short story "Ailurophobe" by Anthony Boucher 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.
* Averted in the ''[[In Death]]'' series. Eve Dallas, the main character, begins the series plagued by nightmares, repressed memories, and other baggage you'd expect from a [[Dark and Troubled Past]]. Subsequent books see her slowly get better with the help of her [[True Companions]], especially Mira and Roarke, but to date she still struggles with the lingering emotional damage.
=== [[Live Action Television]] ===
* Angel of ''[[
** This is turned on its head in an episode where we see how agonizing it is for the evil Angelus to be trapped inside the brooding but heroic Angel - he screams in horror when forced to relive a night when Angel saved a puppy. He quickly gets over this problem when he remembers that he can still torment ''Angel'', no matter what happens in the outside world.
** In another vein (ahem), Angel also ''had'' an epiphany that was a ''subversion'' of [[Epiphany Therapy]]. He realized that the fight against evil doesn't end, because there's no big
* ''[[Supernatural (TV series)|Supernatural]]'' averts this so much it gets annoying after a while. In ''All Hell Breaks Loose'', Dean seems to be crawling out of his self-loathing pit of despair and having a bit of hope but when it comes to the next episode? He's telling Sam how the prospect of being dragged down to hell is like a light at the end of the tunnel. And in ''Dream A Little Dream Of Me'', he makes a beautiful revelation about how his Dad was an absolute arsehole but fast-forward to four episodes later and he's back to being the devoted, scared-out-of-his-mind soldier. As of late season 4 he appears to finally be thinking about making some progress, being outright told that for all his problems he doesn't have license to whine quite so much, and gently mocked for taking such a depressed mindset. It is partially valid, but the writers seem to have realized that no matter how much it is he can't keep whinging, and the multiple Epiphany Therapies may be having an effect.
* [[Buffy the Vampire Slayer|Buffy]]'s character arc in Season 6 is one big fat aversion of this trope. It takes her the entire season to get over the traumas of dying, being yanked out of Paradise, and then having to claw her way out of her own grave.
=== [[Video Games]] ===
* In ''[[Tales of the Abyss]]'', Guy has an intense phobia of being touched by women. He eventually recalls the suppressed memory of the incident leading to his phobia and gets a little better, but he's by no means cured.
* In ''[[The Suffering]]'', it takes Torque the length of the entire game to come to terms with his psychological issues as he slowly figures out [[Karma Meter|what sort of person he is]] and his fragmented past. Oh, and fights a giant monster representing his psychological trauma, because it's just that kind of game. Even ''then'', when the sequel rolls around, it turns out he's not actually cured, and facing the demons of his past causes a relapse. It still doesn't take years, but it's hardly an instant "have an epiphany and you're better" cure.
=== [[Web Comics]] ===
* Refreshingly averted in ''[[
{{quote|
** It was kinda played straight with Susan. Her years of hating men were pretty much permanently erased by spending one evening [[Gender Swap
*** She'd also been working under the theory that all men were afflicted with raging, barely-controllable hormones. Learning first-hand that the male libido wasn't as overwhelming as she'd believed switched her from believing in male inferiority to redirecting her hatred to more... ''specific'' targets.<ref>
**** Not really "redirecting to", more like "homing in on". She already hated her father, and her hatred of men in general stemmed from that. But after Grace's party, she seems content to hate only her father and not let it taint her opinion of men in general.
* In [[Questionable Content]], they make mention of this trope when Faye finally explains why she gets so defensive. It's a very good example of deconstruction, so I think I'll just quote it:
{{quote|
'''Marten''': Couldn't we just make out now and worry about everything else later?
'''Faye''': Sure, if you want to trade one night of fun for me freaking out, running away, and never coming back.
'''Marten''': Well shit. I was almost letting myself hope that you'd be all "Man, it sure feels good to get all that off my chest! Let's go have sex!"
'''Faye''': If trauma were that easily dealt with, psychologists would work pro bono. }}
=== [[Western Animation]] ===
* It looked like things were going this way at the end of "Thrill of the Hunt" in ''[[Transformers Animated]]'', when [[Shell
* At the end of the ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'' episode "The Beach", the villains have vented their individual examples of [[Freudian Excuse]] 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 [[Villainous Breakdown]].}}
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* Defied on ''[[The Simpsons]]'', with Lisa explaining that her [[Compressed Vice|body image issues]] are a long-standing problem that can't be solved overnight. Of course, [[Snap Back|from the next episode we never hear of them again...]]
** Also parodied in the episode where Marge is cured of her fear of flying.
== Subversions ==
=== [[Comics]] ===▼
* Subverted in the ''[[
▲== [[Comics]] ==
▲* Subverted in the ''[[Incredible Hulk (Comic Book)|Incredible Hulk]]'' comic. The Hulk is being given therapy by Doc Samson with the help of a hypnotist to merge his multiple personalities. It seems to work, but it later turns out the "merged" Hulk is just another personality, and Doc had to take shortcuts because there really wasn't the time for a complete cure. Of course, for the Hulk the psychological problem is part of the premise, so [[Failure Is the Only Option|it's never]] [[Status Quo Is God|going]] [[Reset Button|away]].
* A cartoon from ''[[The Far Side]]'' features a therapist's technique for dealing with the fears of heights, snakes, and the dark...trapping a man in a darkened elevator suspended off a skyscraper roof and full of snakes.
=== [[Film]] ===
* Parodied in the film ''[[Analyze This]]'': Mobster Paul Vitti has been seeing a psychologist, and makes a breakthrough that leaves him in tears. Unfortunately, it comes at the worst possible
** Also parodied several times throughout the movie, where 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 beneath. Of course, he ends up still screwed up.
* Averted, then subverted in ''[[The Woodsman]]''. Walter does have an epiphany, but that epiphany seems to be that
=== Literature ===
* Subverted in [[Robert A. Heinlein]]'s ''[[Starship Troopers (
* Played with in the [[X Wing Series]]. 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 [[Reasonable Authority Figure]] rather than prone to [[You Have Failed Me...]] 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.
** Seemingly played straight with the team's approach to snapping Myn Donos out of his [[Heroic BSOD]], but he still has severe issues that he only really overcomes after two more books' worth of trauma.
=== [[Live Action TV]] ===
* ''[[The Sopranos]]'': Tony frequently experiences epiphanies in therapy, but they never "take". He always reverts back to form, sooner or later.
* ''[[How I Met Your Mother]]'': When Marshall's very-much-loved
* In the ''[[
* Parodied on ''[[Malcolm in
=== Theater ===
* In ''[[Next to Normal]]'', 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.
*** "The one thing that's sure is that there is no cure, but that doesn't mean we don't fight."
=== [[Video Games]] ===
* Subverted repeatedly in ''[[Mass Effect]]''; 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 [[Video Game Cruelty Potential|committing suicide]].
** Shepard him/her self can be played this way, depending on the player. "I did what I had to."
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Hollywood Psych]]
[[Category:Madness Tropes]]
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[[Category:Heel Face Index]]
[[Category:Psychology Tropes]]
[[Category:
[[Category:
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