How has Adam Smasher not fallen to cyberpsychosis?

[Cafe]

The dude is 97% machine and he seems to function just fine without going into a rampage. Does Arasaka have some secret tech to keep him from going bananas?

[CloudSeeker]

Are you sure that he wasn't nuts in the first place? Pretty sure he can't go much more psycho then he already was. Pretty sure the original game clearly stated this guy was completely nuts and only wanted to kill people. Metal is better after all, right?

[ItzMeN4t3]

Yeah idk maybe if you already have a mental illness before you get chromed up it doesn't effect you but I know they say something about empathy but they also say in the show about how big omes body is in general before getting different cyberware but idk I feel like we still are all just speculating.

[V Knives]

It's a myth.

[['w']]

Because he was already insane, nothing to loose to a psychosis

[Ballistic Drop]

Ofdimaelr původně napsal:

C O R N původně napsal:

Plot-hole oops

No way this game can't have those !
It's a 10/10 story driven RPG masterpiace !

More likely that the backstory is a lot deeper and the showrunners chose to simplify his part of the story because he wasn't a major contributor.

Not a plot hole, the in game history from back in the TTRPG was that cyberpsychosis is a mystery. IIRC from my old RPG days, Smasher was able to fully embrace the chrome and his psychosis was channeled through his bloodlust.

My personal theory involves the idea that Smasher really doesn't exist any more and that he is an engram.

[Weaver]

Smasher just wasn't inherently susceptible. He was already a cold blooded sociopath long long before he became mostly Chrome. Someone with no attachments, who doesn't feel lonely or sad or empathy isn't going to have any emotional stressors, be bothered by violence, care about his humanity or anything else. This all makes Smasher extremely mentally and emotionally stable.

You can see what Mike Pondsmith has to say on the subject of Cyberpsychosis on Reddit:

"Okay, so time to (partially) explain CYBERPSYCHOSIS.

First of all, Cyberpsychosis is a disorder that in part depends on the subject's overall internal susceptibility. Just like every person who drinks a lot at parties doesn't end up an alcoholic in the gutter, not everyone who gets loaded up on cyberware is going to automatically go cyberpsycho. You have to have an inherent susceptibility, which (in the TRPG) is represented by the player's Humanity Stat. Humanity is not just a measure of *one* aspect of personality, but an overall measure of several elements including the subject's ability to emphasize and relate with others, their ability to absorb and rebound from mental and physical stressors, their ability to show compassion and flexibility to others, and whether they are able to balance their worldview through other methods.

So, in some ways, I tend to treat cyberware as an addiction--heavy anabolic steroid use being my favorite model. Not everyone who juices ends up crazy mad with roid rage. But those who are more susceptible to the need to take more steroids are more likely to hit a point where they do flip into roid rage. (Take a look at this article from Livescience [https://www.livescience.com/38354-what-is-roid-rage.html](https://www.livescience.com/38354-what-is-roid-rage.html) for a pretty good idea of how roid rage works--notice that it's got the same basic profile as cyberpsychosis).

David's starting Humanity was probably already pretty high. And before things went to crap, he had a loving mother, a career path, and no more hassle than the average poor guy in a wealthy Ivy League school. So he had lots of buffer. But even so, he still, even after losing all that, was able to make friends, build a replacement family, and (after some prompting) even get a girlfriend. And a mentor (Maine) to create a supportive father figure. So he could definitely handle the stress of added cyberware up to a point.

Most people in Night City don't have the level of Humanity to pull this kind of stunt off without going cyberpsychotic. So David is one in a million. And that's why Arasaka wants him.

V is a different case. We don't know V's background, but even if V was a full on Corpo, they were able to hold it together even when they ended up with a dead Rockerboy in their heads (Yah, tell me about it; Johnny Silverhand's been in *my* head for the last three decades.) In fact, having Johnny in their head probably helped V, because Siilverhand's rage and attitude probably acted as a buffer for the psychological hits V is taking. It's like having a time share with a guy who's already half cyberpsycho and doesn't mind if V slaps stuff on their shared body; he's already crazy and violent.

So that's a rough explanation of the roots of cyberpsychosis. If I ever get band width, I'm going to start writing/posting some stuff about what I had in mind as I put together the Night City universe. But for now, you'll have to go with what I've got here. Have fun, and remember not to chip mili-spec cyberware, like your mother warned you about.

And no, cyberpsychosis isn't caused by AI net demons. Gimme a break, chooms!"

[chriszewski]

I'm 3 hours late but

"Wiise fwom youw gwave!"

[❌ Peath]

From Arasaka ending we learn that to instal engram you need a compatible host.
V is immune to psychosis due to the engram in his brain, and when Adam was meat pasted by RPG what was left of him was moved to Arasaka.

Can they save a life from a meat paste, or rather would Arasaka invest to do so? Or would they run a test on their Soulkiller program and engram Adam's psyche?
Then, using what's left of his brain and giving him a borg body they got a perfect killing machine that's loyal and not affected by cyberpsychosis.

He's nuts regardless, but he was so befrehand too.

[V]

Cafe původně napsal:

The dude is 97% machine and he seems to function just fine without going into a rampage. Does Arasaka have some secret tech to keep him from going bananas?

You don't get cyberpsychosis when you have all around tune ups and monitoring from a company like araska mhm, he has a good insurance plan and all around all expenses paid coverage for that borg butthole of his.

[Ballistic Drop]

ఆ původně napsal:

jeoshua původně napsal:

They don't have to be in the game to be part of the lore.

Borgs in general are extreme cases of Cyberization, Isaac. That's what I mean.

Yeah but only 1 in the entire massive night city? Its unbelievable.

Why unbelieveable? This is a world where coprorations are bigger than governments and can pretty much do anything they want.

Consider this: Biotechnica is pretty much the only source for the "meat" NC residents have access to. A ton of clues exist in game and in the lore to imply that the meat is at least partially people. If that is kept secret, why not a combat borg that is copyrighted by one company and due to that strictly controlled, being practically non-existent to 99.9999% of the population at large?

Hell, those two items alone would make for a great TTRPG campaign goal. I really need to find a local gaming group, COVID wiped that out.

[Bisexual Offender]

Cyberpsychosis is just regular psychosis, Adam is a complete sociopath, having a psychotic brakedown is highly unlikelly in his case.

[spasti696969]

Everyone is different when it comes to stuff like that. My brothers and I have never had a single cavity due to a genetic predisposition against them. My dad and his side of the family got them but my mom and her side never did, and it passed on to me and my brothers.

[Nono]

Want to know his secret?
He's psycho all the time.

[V]

Sand Guardian původně napsal:

Cyberpsychosis is just regular psychosis, Adam is a complete sociopath, having a psychotic brakedown is highly unlikelly in his case.

Cyberpyschosis and being a psychopath are completely separate things, being a psychopath you still have control of your mind, senses and you are conscious of your choices....Cyberpsychosis is a loss of conscious thought and reason and a loss of control over the senses.

But if you do mean ''psychosis'' as you said and not psychopathy then that's fine but Adam smasher doesn't have psychosis he's fully conscious and aware of his actions and makes choices without any impairment whatsoever....he's just a bad borg person that's all.

[Kodaxmax]

I mean it's psycosis, it's litterally the same as non cyber psycosis. it has a hug range of potential symptoms and causes, coveres a near infinite array of actual diganosis. Like real life "psycosis" laymen and archaic "doctors" just apply the label to behaviour they don't understand.

A fairly stable socipath that has a life they enjoy taking a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ of drugs in real life, isn't gonna fundamentally change much. Thats basically what adam smasher is. He chose this life and body, it's what he wanted.

But some poor kid who watches his mum bleed out, while the EMS workers she worked for ignore her and then gets a mega implant and joins a violent gang? Thats more than enough to tramatize anyone, even before drugs and fantasy cybernetics are invovled.
Cybernetics have alot of parrels with drugs, hell they are even addictive.

So think of it kinda like that chrome jockey = drug addict, cyber psycosis = drug ♥♥♥♥♥♥. Everyone has iudfferent tolerances to drugs and drugs tend to amplify your worst aspects.

And consider soley from the point of view of being cybernetics. Consider what replacing parts of your brain and body could do to your mind. Consider what losing a limb can do to you mentally IRL.

So to answer the orignal post. He just happens to have a stable mind that's not only comfortable with his cybernetics, but enjoys them. While he might be a murderous sociapath of some kind, hes still stable, thats the way he always was. No doubt theres probably some tech/ drugs helping out, as is sometimes required with real life mental health, but for the most part it's just who he is.