109 - Rorschaching

Supernatural Identity: Rorschaching

People see the things they have been conditioned to see. Like a Skinner box the world shapes belief along neurological paths of least resistance. Creating, shattering and reinforcing schema as tectonic forces and weather influence strata. Broad strokes are the necessities for biological life, things like food, sex and shelter but as you hone in variation emerges. You get culture as shared experiences and beliefs. Below that are the individual eccentricities, the things we celebrate or hide. The aspects that separate and make us unique and are ultimately, inalienably personal. As social animals we can communicate them, to an extent that’s what culture is, but no one can really know another person’s mind.

Rorschaching is a type of mental hacking that broaches the gap. Conventional psychotherapy is the cultural equivalent, attempting to inculcate pro-social conformity and acceptance while maintaining its own integrity. Rorschaching piggybacks on it, lensing someone’s issues through a heavily personalized perspective to achieve the same ends. In doing so it also subsumes their passions for yours, temporarily. The primary Unique feature of the Rorschaching identity works as the Therapeutic and Alter Passion features, sharing the capabilities and downsides of both.

For example: after a long period of explaining to your buddy that his poisonous relationship with his mother is really a reflective issue of personal hygiene it suddenly clicks and everything makes sense. A successful roll means he can let go of a hardened notch on his Isolation gauge if he wants, it also means he inherits your fear passion "germs are everywhere" for a number of hours equal to the tens place of the roll.

Alternatively, maybe you blow it. You get too far up your own ass expounding and he realises how fucked up it is to be making serious comparisons between his family and bacteria and how he was so into it. Fumble the roll and it’s the GMs choice of a rank 3-5 Self or Unnatural check (or both if they’re feeling mean about it) for your friend. You probably won’t be hearing from him again for a while.

Naturally this doesn’t always fit the mold of therapy. It can (there are some weird alternative medicines out there), but Rorschaching has more in common with running a cult than a psychiatrist's practice. Given the risks to the target’s sense of self in a lot of cases you’re just trading one type of damage for another and patting yourself on the back because it fits your worldview. It can be abusive and in some cases the user may not even realise they are doing harm. In the worst cases that’s why they’re doing it.