Think Like a Shrink Review

A psychologist and a psychiatrist walk into a toy company… Sounds like the set-up for a joke, right? And maybe playing the game Think Like a Shrink will make you laugh. That’s because this adult party game gives each player their turn on the “couch” getting psychoanalyzed by the other players.

To play, lay out the clock game board and give each player a set of six different Emotion cards. Each player’s Meeple will start at 12 on the clock, and you’ll place a Prompt card face down in the middle of the clock. Then draw five Snapshot cards and lay them face up around the outside of the board. 

The oldest player gets to be the first “patient”. She flips overs a Prompt card and reads it aloud to the other players, or “shrinks”. The Patient then secretly chooses one Snapshot that she associates with the Prompt. She must find a way to associate one of the Snapshots with the Prompt, no matter what that association is: something she feels, a previous experience, a song she heard, etc. The Patient writes all of this down on the dry erase journal. 

While that happens, the Shrinks come up with their own predictions about which Snapshot the Patient chose, why she chose it, and which emotion the Patient associates with the Prompt/Snapshot combo. Once everyone is ready with their predictions, on a count of three, all Shrinks simultaneously point to the Snapshot they think the Patient chose. The Shrinks then get a chance to explain their reasons, and they finish by laying down the Emotion card that they think the Patient was feeling. Then, the Patient reveals her journal. 

Each Shrink gets one point for each correct prediction. So if a Shrink predicted the correct Snapshot, the correct Emotion card, and the correct reason why the Patient chose the Snapshot, that Shrink would earn three points and move their Meeple three numbers on the clock. 

Continue the game by laying out five new Snapshots and a new Prompt card. The first player to get their Meeple to the number 10 on the clock (because a session is only 50 minutes) is the Top Shrink and wins the game.

The game comes with 200 prompt cards, 160 snapshot cards, 36 emotions cards, a clock game board, a dry erase journal, a dry erase marker, and six meeples. You can play the game with 2-6 players ages 17 and up.