Viewers tune into television shows for entertainment, and that often comes from watching others attempt to work out their troubles. When those troubles are internal, mental health professionals are often introduced to guide characters through anxiety, grief, or simply the fallout from bad life choices.
If the characters are lucky, they might have an excellent therapist who listens and helps them to become more self-aware, like Dr. Linda Martin in Lucifer, who even manages to make the devil himself nicer. But sometimes therapists are incompetent or oblivious, causing additional damage, and some lack any ethics at all. Whether they are inept or actively dangerous, none of these doctors should have a license.
Tobias Funke - Arrested Development
Bizarre things happen as a matter of course in this show, but one of the most unbelievable is that Tobias was ever a psychiatrist, let alone the head of that department at a hospital. At the start of the series, he has lost his license, but it wasn't due to a violation of ethics, such as sleeping with a patient. Instead, Tobias made a mistake that no one who has ed a basic R course would make - performing R on a man who was only sleeping.
Though Tobias isn't running a practice, he still dispenses advice to family and friends (poor Buster), all the while being consumed by a plethora of his own issues, such as his "Never Nude" syndrome or when he accidentally becomes a ed sex offender.
Arnold Wayne - Mad Men
It is both infuriating and disheartening to realize that Dr. Wayne was likely typical in his attitude toward female patients in the 1960s. When Betty seeks his help, it is clear that he doesn't see women as fully functioning humans. He repeatedly violates client-patient confidentiality and even refers to Betty's mental state as "child-like" simply because her worries are concentrated on the spheres of home and children.
Though he isn't intentionally harming his patient, it is happening regardless. The only truly good outcome from Betty's sessions is when she realizes that Dr. Wayne has been reporting to Don, allowing her to realize just how controlling Don has become.
Josh Cohen - Good Girls
Dr. Cohen is not a bad doctor when the audience first meets him. He listens to Annie, and the fact that she is being vulnerable at all with another person instead of pushing them away or making a joke is a sign that she truly wants to make progress. However, by a few more visits, viewers can tell that Annie is making the mistake of becoming fixated on Josh, and he is clearly aware of this, as well.
The responsible thing to do would have been to refer her to another doctor, not come to her apartment after she had attempted to kiss him. Josh allows his attraction to Annie and his flattery at her attention to override his better judgment as a therapist, ultimately failing Annie.
Evelyn Vogel - Dexter
It isn't uncommon for people who have experienced trauma to be drawn to the mental health field, desiring to help themselves and others. Dr. Vogel, who sees both Dexter and Deb, is well-meaning but blinded by her own past.
Due to her son's issues, she wants to believe that people with murderous urges can be guided, and her help was instrumental in creating Harry's code, which was a force for good in Dexter's life as far as keeping him from killing innocent people. Ultimately, though, Dr. Vogel can't separate her own feelings from her treatment of Dexter, which does more harm than good.
Jean Halloway - Gypsy
Unlike the prior entries, Jean is fully aware that her behavior toward her clients is completely over the line of professional ethics. She doesn't find herself gradually attracted to a patient or get lost in her own baggage; she deliberately seeks out people her patients discuss and inserts herself in their lives for her own amusement.
Jean is a doctor who needs to be a patient because she treats her practice as a personal choose-her-own-adventure soap opera. She assumes a different name and leads a double life with no concern for how her actions will hurt her patients or her own loved ones.
Fiona Wallice - Web Therapy
Fiona is driven by her ego, need for validation, and furthering her career and reputation. As a narcissist, Fiona isn't interested in helping her patients due to empathy. Instead, she focuses more on what her patients can do for her. From practically blackmailing patients and sexually manipulating them to having them spy for her, Fiona does what she wants.
This is immediately evident from the fact that Fiona is offering counseling sessions with no kind of training or accreditation, and she seems to honestly think that three-minute therapy sessions will be effective. She has little sense of right and wrong, and her questionable past demonstrates she hasn't learned from earlier mistakes.
Ike Hershkopf - The Shrink Next Door
The most terrifying aspect of Ike's character is that he is based upon a real psychiatrist. Ike is a con man with a degree and he uses his intelligence and knowledge of personality types to target patients like Marty and Miriam.
He methodically cuts away any systems they have in their lives and convinces them that he has their best interests at heart. His ulterior motive is simple - he wants money and enjoys the control he is able to exert over his patients. Whereas some other bad therapists are too wrapped up in their own lives to be fully aware of the damage they do, Ike is completely aware of his actions, tipping the scale into evil.
Hugo Strange - Gotham
Though a town with a reputation like Gotham probably can't attract first-rate medical talent, just about any psychiatrist would be preferable to Dr. Strange. His position of authority at Arkham Asylum is a giant red flag, and this feeling is justified as the audience learns that Dr. Strange's attempts to "rehabilitate" patients are simply a cover for his ongoing experiments to resurrect the dead.
Strange's only motivation is a scientific breakthrough, not for the good of humanity, but to prove his intellectual superiority and ensure his legacy. He cares about no one except himself.
Oliver Thredson - AHS: Asylum
Thredson has a license, but he definitely shouldn't. Having been abandoned as a child, Oliver has the stereotypical backstory of a villainous psychiatrist, and the show touches on all the tropes. Though he is a brave enough character in AHS to work at the asylum, and he advocates for a more scientific approach to therapy, he has an alter ego who is a serial killer.
He delights in many forms of abuse and torture and his position at the asylum gives him access to a victim pool, which he doesn't hesitate to take advantage of.
Hannibal Lector - Hannibal
As a therapist, Dr. Lector runs a successful practice and helps many patients, proving he is fully capable of practicing ethical and effective therapy, despite the fact that he has no conscience and takes great pleasure in toying with the people he finds interesting, such as Will and Bedelia.
Hannibal hides diagnoses, shares confidential information, and plants ideas, winding others up to see how they will react and leaving them hovering over the breaking point. He isn't acting from deep trauma or his own mental illness. Instead, Hannibal savors the damage he inflicts, whether physical or mental.