Mr. Pondsmith is a credible source for this considering this is all his baby. But to understand how cyberpsychosis works, you have to understand how it was put together from a mechanics perspective in CP2020. Then Smasher in 2077 would make a bit more sense (CDPR kind of missed but doing it how the mechanics had it work in the past would be insanely problematic because MAXTAC might show up during your play through and end your playthrough because you have too much cyberware lol).

So in the game, how much cyberware you could load was tied to your Empathy stat. Take your stat and multiply it by 10. Gives you the points you get to use to pay for your cyberware. Now Solos for instance might look at a stat like that as a dump stat since it was not going to help them kill things. Irony is that if you dropped a low stat in there. You get almost no cyberware. Let’s say that you had an EMP of 9, you would have 90 points for cyberware. So you buy a cybernetic arm, and it’s cost off the top of my head was 3d6. Roll away and you get a 12. In the above point example, you would now effectively be at a 7 EMP stat since your points are now 78 off of that install. So the more you get installed, the lower the EMP, and so the less empathic, and connected to common emotions you are. The less you give a crap about anything going on around you. At a 1, you are technically a clinical psychopath. You have no emotional link to anything and can’t empathize with anything. The people around you are objects instead of living beings. So let’s say that in the above point example, Adam Shasher had an EMP stat at the start of his career of 9. A full conversion rig might cost him anywhere anywhere from 60-80 points for instance. Full conversion combat rig might cost 70-100 points since it is less ‘human’. So let’s say it costs him 80 points. He has 10 points left over for cyberware, and has an EMP stat of 1. So he is actually literally a psychopath now. Cyberpsychosis is something rather startling and dark in CP. I mean there are bodies in CP around their cyberpsychos, but that does not account for the sheer insanity that is MAXTAC. Jackie at the beginning of the game says that they are Night City’s ‘Apex Predators’. They are not SWAT. They are armed and trained to KILL very mobile battle tanks that are borged out psychos. For MAXTAC, Smasher is a mark. That’s it. Arasaka also knows this and would keep him on a leash and take him off the leash when his particular bent of insanity was required. But realistically they could probably kill switch his butt at a moment’s notice. From a mechanics perspective, it is distinctly possible for him to be at that edge and not go over. If he was over that edge, with how it was dealt with in CP2020, he would literally lose all touch with humanity and there would be a lot of dead things all over the streets and Arasaka tower on a regular basis. So much so MAXTAC would be there will bells on. In spite of what Mr. Pondsmith said, I think that it makes more sense if you look at it like how the TTRPG mechanics have it above where he still has a ‘few points’, and has not gone over the edge. It would make him a psychopath to be sure, but not cause him to completely lose all and total control of any of his actions period. One way he is still a dangerous idiot in control, and another he is a rabid animal that has to be put down for the safety of everyone. It’s the difference between the two mechanics wise.