Psychodesign

'Will a self.' Active, successful natures act, not according to the dictum `know thyself', but as if there hovered before them the commandment: will a self and thou shalt become a self.
-Friedrich Nietzsche, Assorted Opinions and Maxims.

Neuro-linguistic programming is simply the zig-zag and swirl of menorgs and disorgs acting under the suction and pressure of the morphogenetic field.
- Clark Brooks

If you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change your attitude. Don't complain.
- Maya Angelou

Psychodesign is to psychology what engineering is to science. Not just understanding, but the practical application to the real world. Psychodesigners can change the psyche of their clients, both as a treatment for problems and for enhancing the clients in a variety of ways. It is a dangerous ability, since it is quite possible to subvert a person's entire mind.

Psychodesign requires proper tools: at the simpler levels just hypnosis and some drugs, at higher levels advanced scanning equipment, virtual reality and electromagnetic induction devices as well as time for therapy. On Dionysos psychodesigners have special offices with all the necessary equipment, usually tastefully hidden away when not needed. A Dionysian psychodesign treatment might look like something in between of a traditional therapy session, hypnosis, a drug trip and a visit to Dr Frankenstein - or something completely different, since psychodesigners usually tune their methods completely after the patient.

System

Psychodesign is handled with a complex skill check where the difficulty depends on the task and the number of successes tells how permanent it will be. Each check corresponds to one or more hours of therapy.

Temporary changes	1 successes
Short term (one day)	3 successes
Medium term (a week)	6 successes
Long term (a month)	9 successes
Permanent (a year or more)	12 successes

The difficulty depends both on circumstances and what the psychodesigner tries to do:

Put in backdoor /conditioning (makes subsequent attempts to psychodesign easier)	Easy
Heds (produces a pleasant mental state)	Easy
Create emotional state	Average
Find backdoors and submarines	Tough
Change memories	Hard-Formidable depending on complexity.
Change Traits	Hard
Change values	Challenging
Change personality Challenging	Challenging
Change sexual preferences	Formidable
Create "mental disorders"	Easy-Formidable, depending on type.
Increase mental attribute	Tough-Gruelling depending on original level.
Create Demon	Tough
Build new person	Gruelling

Modifiers:

Lack of equipment	+1 to +3, depending on how important equipment is lacking. Advanced psychodesign does not work without certain equipment.
Rush job (half an hour per roll)	+1
For every point of client WIL above 12	+1
Backdoor	-1 if the backdoor is Ordinary, -2 for a Good backdoor, -3 for an Amazin backdoor.
For every point of WIL below 7	-1

Psychodesign on oneself is possible. Many standard treatments, states and demon templates are described in the Orphic Canon, the psychodesign counterpart of the "rubber handbook" of engineers

Demons, independent subpersonalities "running in the background" allows the owner to divide his or her skills in different directions. Very well developed demons can give the owner new perks and flaws like observant or paranoia; the cost is either paid using skill points or balanced between a perk and a flaw. It should be noted that psychodesigners should be careful about using demons since they will also have access to psychodesign; there are several cases where the demons have used psychodesign or psychology against them.

Terminology

Abrek	Keyword making someone go into a trance.
Angel	"watch demon", a subprocess inserted to monitor a psychodesign or possibly warn the owner if he attempts something dangerous.
Atha	"quick fix" in psychodesign.
Cleansing	To clean out the mind from old programs, submarines and athas, usually by prolonged ecstasy, fear or illumination.
The Clay	The human mind.
Closing the gates	Finishing psychodesign treatments, locking the changes in place and making them unalterable.
Cog	An unitary cognitive schema.
Cognicide	To wipe out a mind, either deliberately or accidentally.
Dissolve	To make somebody more flexible, plastic or changeable. Can also mean total personality change.
DNS	Dark Night of the Soul, temporary depressive and negative state induced to launch a major illumination.
Hed	Hedonic change, a modification purely for pleasure.
Hedon	A unit of pleasure, something that cause somebody to experience pleasure
Gateway	Posthypnotic suggestion inserted to make the person able to return to a certain mental state ("When you open the box you will feel as calm as you feel now")
Imprinting	Placing a person in a flexible mental state, give her a strong impression and then return to normal. Results in personal change.
Leviathan	Hidden or remaining psychocode.
Logos	The high level metaprograms of a person.
M-valley	Memetic attractor, a way of thinking that supports itself and can spread from person to person.
Parenes	The admonitions usually given to clients undergoing certain psychodesigns.
Pit	A very deep valley, a state impossible to get out of on one’s own. Could be a psychosis, bad trip or fanatical belief.
Post	Posthypnotic suggestion
Psychocode	"programs" of the mind.
Salt	To make somebody or something more rigid, stable and permanent. Extremely rigid people are jokingly called Lot’s wives.
Valley	A state that is self-supporting, an atractor of a dynamical system.
V-valley	Value attractor, an attractor in a person’s value system
Water	Mental energy, attention, libido. The limited mental resources that can be redistributed into more optimal ways with psychodesign.