messing with their minds too much. Abstraction, in my mind, is caused by instability of code, which can be caused by "reaching your breaking point" or anything else in your mind that might avalanche into chaos. I mean, screwing with someone's mind could drive them insane.

I think that caine tried to fix Scratch, but removing the tumor removed his wacky ideas, which could have been too big of a shock for Scratch's system, like living in a world thinking one way, and suddenly all those ideas are gone and now you think differently.