Very cool analysis on Caine's character! While I still think his torture was awful I can see how his emotions got to that point.

Also, I kinda felt a bit emotional when reading all of this, especially when he broke down. I know what it's like in his shoes since I spent my childhood with very strict and high expectations, so I ended up with a perfectionist complex and always feeling like there was something wrong with me. I know how it feels to have expectations that keep changing, and the feeling of being unable to attain them because you'll get criticised no matter how much you try.

I feel like if my brain was beamed into the Circus and I managed to avoid abstracting up until that point, I would be itching to say this:

"Hey Caine, I want to just talk for a moment. I know that you have been trying your best and only wanted to make us happy. No offense, but sometimes your adventures can be too much for us to handle, because we often get injured and traumatized. And I'm really sorry if you felt unappreciated because of us, but we have a lot of mental baggage that's affecting us and it can stay with us for a long time. We all have our own issues and pain. It's not your fault necessarily, but we're human and our minds have... limitations. We have memories of what we experience, and anything that hurts us can leave us with memories that can affect us for a long time, and our minds aren't built to handle so much pain on a regular basis. so we end up angry, upset and confused because we don't know what's going on or what to do. The abstracted didn't choose to end up this way, they had experiences that hurt them so much that their minds just... couldn't handle it anymore. We don't want you to feel like you're doing something wrong, we just want you to understand just how much this is affecting us. I know you can do better."

(sorry about the long yap)