A fascinating pair of questions, especially the second one! I'd argue that most virtual personae would be highly likely to "inherit" significant mental disorders. To take the most common disorder, depression, my assumption would be that since the disorder affects so many of the factors that would enter into the creation of a persona, the persona would display indications of depression. To be metaphorical, the original person with the disorder is the filter through which the persona is created, so the filter would affect the characteristics of what passes through it. As to whether a persona could develop "independent" disorders, that's particularly thought-provoking. I'd be less certain than I would be of my assertion above, but I'd tentatively answer yes. The degree of independence would be the bigger question for me. To stay with the example of depression, if a person who is not depressed creates a persona which begins to display symptoms of depression (and it is not a deliberate choice), is it projection?
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