There Are No Therapists/Playing With

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Basic Trope: There are no therapists around to advice or assist any of the cast members, no matter how much they need help.

  • Straight: Jason is an unwilling soldier in a secret war against Complete Monsters. Lance is an orphan who acts like a Blood Knight to hide his death wish. Molly is a Stepford Smiler with a manipulative mother who doesn't cope well with her daughter's extracurricular activities. None of them get professional help for their problems.
  • Exaggerated: Every member of the cast has a host of problems. Nobody ever gets help and they get worse as the series progresses.
  • Justified: They can't tell anybody about The Masquerade. And even if they did, nobody would believe them.
    • There are no therapists. Seriously. They were banned or something.
      • The series takes place before the advent of psychology.
    • The characters in question are all unable to pay for therapy.
    • The Big Bad is a therapist himself, and manipulates the other therapists into not helping Jason and co.
    • The Five-Man Band doesn't need any actual therapy. A Survival Mantra is all they need.
    • The therapists all have mental problems themselves.
    • The therapists are all afraid of being driven crazy by their patients.
    • Jason and his comrades work for an organization (or come from a cultural background) where seeing a shrink is considered a sign of weakness (or is otherwise bad) and avoid therapists to keep up appearances.
  • Inverted: Jason, an ordinary guy, is forced into a Bedlam House and ends up with a host of problems as a result.
  • Subverted: Jason, Lance and Molly go to regular counseling with a Secret Keeper.
  • Double Subverted: However, the therapist turns out to be a Treacherous Advisor.
    • However, the therapist ends up being even more in need of therapy than Jason, Lance, and Molly...
  • Parodied: There's absolutely no therapists in the universe, which means pretty much everyone has mental problems.
    • Jason is constantly complaining about having no one to confide in, but everyone he meets suggests he go to a therapist, half his friends are therapists, the other half are constantly suggesting their therapists, and therapists frequently approach him and offer their services. However, Jason is addicted to the attention he gets from moaning and comes up with increasingly feeble excuses not to go into therapy.
  • Deconstructed: Without any sort of emotional backup, the heroes ultimately self-destruct, dooming the world to destruction.
  • Reconstructed: Without any outside emotional support to rely on, the heroes instead become Fire-Forged Friends and a solid team, ultimately allowing them to save the world and earn their happiness.
  • Zig Zagged: The cast can get by without help by relying on each other, but there are situations where that isn't enough and they get close to self-destruction, occasionally to the point where they stop a friend from killing him/herself. After they save the world/break the Masquerade/whatever, then they move on, get the help they need, or self-destruct, whatever the case might be.
  • Averted: There are therapists available, and the characters can see them anytime they need to (during regular office hours)
  • Enforced: The writers are intentionally going for a Dysfunction Junction.
  • Lampshaded: "With all the crap they go through, you'd think they would have a therapist on call."
  • Invoked: Anyone who'd want to join this outfit would have to be crazy, so no complaining that you need to see a shrink or something once you get back from the field. For those of you who do make it back, anyway.
  • Defied: "Okay, you guys. We are not doing the angst-suicidal-Byronic-misery thing. All of us are going to a therapist RIGHT. NOW."
  • Discussed: "With the issues some of our group have, it's amazing none of us have been committed, let alone gone to therapy."
  • Conversed: "Why do none of these characters ever take advantage of the psychological assistance that must be available to them?"
  • Played For Laughs: The Dysfunction Junction of the characters is gradually driving them all up the wall in increasingly absurd ways.
  • Played For Drama: Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds.

Y'know, this page has got me bummed. Maybe I should go back to There Are No Therapists...wait, what do you mean, "what's that?"

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