Despite what everyone else thinks, you know that it isn’t the technology that molds society; it’s the people. You've always found humankind an interesting conglomeration of opposites, so you have dedicated your life to finding out what makes them tick. Regardless of the flavor, the study of humanity is more than just a passion, it’s an obsession. You infiltrate, observe, record, and set up experiments. You’re not just a people watcher, you’re a Shrink.

What you look like

    It depends on when you look. When meeting with other Shrinks, you appear professional and well groomed. Suits and dresses are common, but some opt for more casual sweaters, blouses, and slacks. When you're studying other yogangs, however, your dress varies tremendously, depending on whom you're observing. You try to match the subjects’ style or blend into their environment. This means high class for GoldenKids and leather for GoGangers. Many of you even have taken a hint from the Facers and taken to using masks and wigs to blend in even further.
    If there is any constant throughout the Shrinks, it's a recording device. After all, going to the trouble of blending into the surroundings is fairly useless if you can't record your observations. Many carry small cameras or personal comps. Some hold audio recorders, due to their easy concealment. Some look towards the past and carry paper and pens. Regardless, a Shrink without some recorder feels naked. You know how delicate memories are, so they don't trust them at all. Unfortunately, your recorders can backfire and expose you, but the risk of detection is worth the data.

Subculture

    Everyone knows how to think. No matter how contrary or bizarre it may seem; it’s a method that works for them (most of the time). The ISA knows that everyone uses the same basic blocks to construct their mind, and they use that knowledge to scare, brainwash, advertise, whitewash, and control the population. Now, you know the secrets. Well, some of them. It's very difficult to get information these days. The ISA has essentially banned the subjects of psychology, sociology, anthropology, and just about anything else that would clue people into their mind games. Those of you with the urge to study the mind have had to perform your own experiments and make your own observations. As a Shrink, you're always watching, listening, studying, and recording. If an aerodyne explodes over the highway, you'll be the one watching the witnesses. Sometimes this obsession has gotten your goboys into trouble, since they watch the riot rather than run from it. But you know that you have to; only through those observations will you unravels the mind's mysteries.
    Your studies put you in a very dangerous situation, since you intentionally watch and study (or as outsiders read: spy on) a variety of groups. Some groups don't mind too much (as long as you carefully explain your reasons), but most view you as dangerous loose ends. Many of you have become very adept at disguise in order to hide and thus keep your organs inside your body.
    The Shrinks, as a whole, are very individualistic. Part of the reason is all the cloak and dagger. Also, too many Shrinks trying to study the same group can throw off the observations or put their lives at risk. In order to prevent mishaps like these, you maintain distance from each other but keep an incredible grapevine open at all times. It's rumored that a message can cover the state in less than an hour.
    Your need space, but you need data and input from other Shrinks even more. In order to meet this need, the node holds a seminar once a week. No one has to attend, but everyone is invited. Everyone in the node who has a paper tells the grapevine what, when, and where they are presenting; then everyone who is interested shows up. The data and conclusions are presented, dissected, evaluated, and copied. This leaves all of you free time to study, by filtering the massive amount of data and not bogging you down with information you don't need.

Belonging

    The Shrinks were a difficult yogang to join. You loved to people-watch and the study the mind, so you were already halfway there. Next, you had to publish a paper, which meant you performed a study and then let the members examine your methods and results. They saw insight, diligence, creativity, and respect for the scientific method, so they conditionally accepted you. They spent the next few months training you in the finer points of study, especially the ethics of research. The ISA’s mangling of the social sciences to meet its perverted needs has disgusted almost all of the Shrinks, so they made sure you knew how to use your knowledge wisely. After you satisfied them that you knew the ethics, equipment, methods, and theories, they inducted you as a full-fledged member.
    Dismissal from the Shrinks takes a very serious breach of conduct. If someone reports betrayal to the Corps or misuse of subjects, the node calls a panel. Usually, the most senior members sit on it. If the panel finds the accused guilty, they are cut off from the node. This means they receive no equipment, no data, no opportunities to promote their theories, and no access to any of the node's meetings. If the crime was very serious, they may find their face splattered over a half dozen Vidiot broadcasts, marking them to everyone in the area. While it's not impossible, re-admission of a dismissed Shrink is extremely rare.

Allies and Enemies

    The Shrinks make almost every yogang uncomfortable. Knowing that there are kids studying your actions and the fundamentals of mind control is worrisome if nothing else. Some yogangs will take this even further and actively hunt Shrinks, especially the MegaViolents, Squats, and NetWorkers. The closest things to allies you have in the yogang culture are the Vidiots, who share the observer mentality. Your two yogangs converse freely, although both of you watch each other. The Rads, GlitterKids, and MallBrats will all use help from the Shrinks in order to stay a step of two ahead of trends, but are very uneasy with the arrangement.

Slang

On couch: studying
Propper: one who studies the mind for money
Fripped: to mess up
Boxed: corporate
Node: a Shrink yogang
Gone to a hanging: gone undercover
Puppeteers: the Corps
Show the ice: to tell the whole truth

Yogang Skill: Insight (Int)

    The mind is an incredibly complex maze, and it would be a joke to say you knew every twist and turn. But you can honestly say that you understand it better than most. This means that you can steer through other people's psyches. You can negotiate. You can interview. You can interrogate. It's all old hat to you since you use it everyday to get your precious data (equivalent to the Edgerunner skills Interview, Interrogate).

Using your Insight (Int) skill:

• You have to be able to understand and speak to your subjects to study them. You may use Insight - 1 instead of GenSpeak.
• You know how mind control works, so you can resist it better than the average person can. You receive +3 vs. all forms of non-pharmaceutical mind control.
• You have spent at least part of your life studying linguistics, so you can identify accents, languages, and sometimes deduce information about the speaker (native vs. non-native, education, etc.).

1) Tell me your name, age, and sex.
2) Describe yourself
3) Aside from your v-trodes, pick four things that you're carrying

• Personal comp
• Interface mask
• Video Camera
• Snoopbox
• Voice stress analyzer
• Knife (handy for MegaViolent attacks)
• Kevlar T-shirt (AR 2)
• 10 datachips (pick what's on them now)