It’s not normally a good idea to leap in front of a speeding car during the dark of night, and if you realise that momentarily after you have just done so, it’s equally not a good idea to stay in the path of the car and try to outrun it. But rabbits, often badgers, and no doubt in lands where such wildlife is commonplace, raccoons do the same. Thinking like an animal, in certain situations, can be very dangerous, and sometimes can hardly be considered as thinking at all.
But in other situations, a different way of thinking can be more effective than the first solution that springs to the human mind. Of course, asking “what would Don Draper do?” and attempting to solve a problem in the style of a hero is not a new idea. Yiffy role-playing is all about thinking as your character, and acting in a different way from how you would behave in reality. The natural progression is combination of these two ideas, to tackle difficult or troubling situations in reality by asking how your role-play character would see the situation, or taking it a step further from that, and setting yourself in-character for the duration, or a portion, of the troubled time.
In a job interview, for example, when the nervousness creeps in, and the fingernails beg to be bitten, slipping into a character that would handle the questions with more confidence and lingual finesse is likely to be a comfort, to lighten the situation, and perhaps even make it an enjoyable experience. Of course, it’s best to keep the largest part of it in your own mind, glomps and yiffs may not go down too well should you choose to take on the persona of a role-play character as a way of dealing with being arrested.
In very extreme situations, the brain will automatically split-off a new personality. This is known as schizophrenia. Though it’s unlikely, almost impossible, that schizophrenia could arise as a side effect of thinking in the mind of a role-play character, it’s sadly likely that others, if allowed to see it, could misinterpret it as a loss in sanity.
Use it wisely, though, don’t leap out in front of speeding cars,
and furring the edges of reality might just make it more bearable.
Furry Times 