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| Mental patient | |
| Classification: | Miscellaneous |
| Associated franchises: | DC Universe DC Extended Universe Dracula Nightmare on Elm Street |
| Associated films: | Bram Stoker's Dracula Freddy vs. Jason Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors, A |
| Associated programs: | Blood Drive Gotham |
| Associated comics: | Batman Vol 1 Detective Comics Vol 1 |
| Character examples: | Harley Quinn; Joker; R.M. Renfield |
| Related articles: | Mental health facility; Psychiatrist |
A mental patient is a loony. For whatever reason, these people have suffered from circumstances in their lives that have made it impossible to deal with reality. In the best of cases, they receive treatment from a respectable psychiatrist or mental health facility. In the worst of instances, they are remanded to a sanitarium because they're a five-star certified whack-a-doodle. In some cases, a criminal might fake having a mental condition in order to go to a mental hospital rather than to prison.
Head cases come in all shapes and sizes. Some are just folks who find life too difficult to deal with in on a day-to-day basis. Other are full-bore nutters whose idea of a good time is to skin their neighbor's face off and then make origami out of it while whistling the theme song to The Andy Griffith Show. The most violent of mental patients are usually psychopaths with severe dis-associative disorders as well as those who may even suffer from schizophrenia.