Freudian Excuse/Quotes

Only a lad
You really can't blame him
Only a lad
Society made him
Only a lad
He's our responsibility
Only a lad
He really couldn't help it
Only a lad
He didn't want to do it
Only a lad
He's underprivileged and abused
Perhaps a little bit confused
It's not his fault that he can't behave
Society's made him go astray

Perhaps if we're nice he'll go away...

—Oingo Boingo, "Only A Lad"

In order to realistically portray such a comfort zone, then, try creating a reason why the character has whatever emotional response you are giving him. The single best way to do this is through childhood experience

—Rich Burlew Emotional Response

Wherever an inferiority complex exists, there is a good reason for it.

—Carl Jung

You wanna know how I got these scars? My father was a drinker, and a fiend. One night, he goes off crazier than usual. Mommy gets the kitchen knife to defend herself. He doesn't like that. Not. One. Bit. He takes the knife to her, laughing as he does it. Then he turns to me, and says "Why...so...serious?" He comes at me with the knife. "Why...so...serious?" He sticks the knife in my mouth. "Let's put a smile on that face!" And ....why so serious?

—The Joker

My daddy is a bastard
My ma's an SOB
My grandad's always plastered
My granny pushes tea
My sister wears a moustache
My brother wears a dress

Goodness gracious, that's why I'm a mess!

—West Side Story

Nothing made him that way. No matter what terrible things happened in his life, no matter what dreadful hungers rose up from his soul, he chose to act on those desires, he chose to do the things he did. He's responsible for his own actions, and no one else.

—Bean

"It doesn't justify it... but it might explain it."

—Detective Olivia Benson, Law and Order Special Victims Unit

"It's not my fault that I'm so evil, it's society, society. You see my parents were sometimes abusive and it made a prick of me."

—Saddam Hussein, South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut

"No. Please. I had a terrible childhood."

—Crow T. Robot imitating Donald Pleasence when it appears that Puma Man might actually beat his ass.

"I'm often asked why my behaviour is so crooked now, but it's a lot clearer when you see what manky loins I sprang from. 'Man hands on misery to man', y'know. Actually, 'This Be The Verse' would have made a killer song. Unfortunately Philip Larkin never got around to writing 'This Be The Chorus', which is essential for chart success. And it has to come on in the first forty-five seconds or Radio 1 won't play it."

—Murdoc Niccals, Gorillaz: "Rise of the Ogre"

"This world may have failed you
It doesn't give you a reason why

You could have chosen a different path in life"

—Within Temptation, "Angels"

"All assassins are fucked up somehow, or we wouldn't be in this profession."

—Travis Touchdown, No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle

They fuck you up, your mum and dad;
They might not mean to, but they do.
They fill you with the faults they had,

And add some extra, just for you.

—Philip Larkin, "This Be The Verse"

"I hate you people for leaving me out of so many fun things. And no don't … say, 'Well that's your fault,' because it isn't, you people had my phone #, and I asked and all, but no. No no no don't let the weird-looking Eric KID come along."

—Eric Harris, before committing the Columbine High School Massacre with Dylan Klebold

"I grew up in a wild hood, as a hazardous youth

with a fucked up childhood, that I used as an excuse"

—Eminem, "Bad Influence"

"What else could I have been? My father was a half-crazed military failure, my mother was a bitch-queen from hell. Yes, I admit I'm nothing. But from what I started with, nothing is up."

—Arnold Rimmer, Red Dwarf

"I'm depraved on account of I'm deprived!"

—West Side Story, "Gee, Officer Krupke"

"My country lay within a vast desert. When the sun rose into the sky a burning wind punished my lands, searing the world. And when the moon climbed into the dark of night, a frigid gale pierced our homes. No matter when it came the wind carried the same thing... Death. But the winds that blew across the green fields of Hyrule brought something other than suffering and ruin. I... coveted that wind, I suppose."

—Ganondorf

Why do you treat me this way?
And why do you try so hard to break my spirit?
I think someone was mean to you,
When you were little,
That's what I think

I think someone was mean to you

—The Mountain Goats, Pseudothryum Song

"You're crazy. That's not the way to deal with it. That's not the way I'm going to deal with it!"

"I am not crazy! This is a perfectly sane and rational response to my traumatic experiences. And if you don't believe me... I'll kill you!"

—Becky Albright and the Scarecrow

You'd think it was because my parents didn't love me, but actually, they loved me a great deal.

—Raj, The Big Bang Theory