Psychotic

Characters who suffer from extreme psychosis (not at all to be confused with psychopathy, which are, in fact, opposites). Psychosis itself is not an actual condition but rather a symptom of many other illnesses, the most common conditions associated with high-levels of psychosis include dissociative disorders and schizophrenia. Psychosis can also be caused by drug or alcohol abuse and people who suffer from psychotic conditions often become more violent or unstable if they engage in drug and/or alcohol misuse.

Psychotics are very insane, having little to no understanding of what they are exactly doing or the severity of their actions; to qualify as a psychotic, a character must be shown to have the following patterns in most media they appear in:

• False beliefs: Psychotics will hold false beliefs that are nevertheless seen as fact, this means they often see the world in a very different manner to others and may hallucinate a wide array of phenomena. This makes them often appear to exist in their own world.
• Unpredictable behavior: Due to lacking an understanding of reality versus fiction, many psychotics will have extremely unpredictable behavior, this can be seen as one of the key differences between psychosis and psychopathy. While psychopaths can control their behaviors, a psychotic can not, thus they are much more notably ill or unstable and would be classed as "insane" in most settings.

IMPORTANT: Do not use this category for any and all "mentally ill" villains, only use it for characters who display all the signs and symptoms of someone who is suffering extreme psychosis, for any ill-defined or otherwise questionable behaviors that do not fall under extreme psychosis, use "Mentally Ill". In fact, do not add the psychotic, mentally ill or dissociative categories on the same villain as the three categories are different types of mental illnesses and adding them all on the same page would be redundant.

Psychotic villains can be tragic, since many of these types of characters can barely understand what they are doing and suffering from immense psychosis on a daily basis can be considered a sympathetic factor if these villains suffer with mental health more than the average mentally ill villain.

However, much like mentally ill villains, psychotic characters can qualify as Pure Evil if they have zero redeeming qualities or sympathetic traits and manage to hit all the criteria and possess a clear moral agency, even in spite of their psychosis (e.g. Kefka Palazzo, many versions of the Joker (DC), Frank Booth, Patrick Bateman, Cletus Kasady, Peter Stegman, Jerome and Jeremiah Valeska, Edwin Epps, William Wharton, Malcolm Graham, Cale Erendreich and Frau Engel).

While not always the case, a good way to tell a psychopath from a psychotic is an old saying of "cold-blooded psychopath, hot-headed sociopath". In other words, a psychopath is cold, calculating and in control of their actions while a psychotic sociopath is far less apt at controlling their actions or emotions; this is why psychopaths are much better at hiding their aggression or violence while most psychotics are incapable of doing so and are thus much less capable of blending in with mainstream society.

Of course, not all sociopaths are psychotic. Simply having extreme mood swings is not enough to be classed as suffering psychosis unless it is accompanied by strange behaviors and beliefs, often of a paranoid, delusional, or misanthropic nature. If left unchecked, these can lead to violence towards themselves or others. If in doubt, please do not attempt to "self-diagnose" a character, put them under "Mentally Ill" unless they are specifically said to suffer from, or exhibit all the signs of, a specific disorder.

A psychopath/sociopath will almost never fall under this category because they are always aware of reality, are in control of their own actions and are extremely calculating while a psychotic is most often in very poor control of their own actions and have a twisted perception of reality (though psychotics can’t be judged by our systems much like barbarians as the formers may also be intelligent enough to hit the Mastermind category.). The exception to a psychopath qualifying is if they're also somehow driven to psychosis, but the categories should not be intermingled.