For him, its like he is a child playing with his very expensive and well looked after toys. But in the beginning, that is all they are to him. (Toys to play with and shape and mold into whatever or rather, whoever he wants.) He is neither good nor bad. He is a part of the dollhouse functions. There to serve and learn and play.
Then there is Alpha. And with his disaster, comes Claire Saunders. He programs her to question him. After all if his toys aren't properly cared for, they might break. (Everyone is his toy.) But Saunders is different. She evolves unlike anything he's seen. She took the mission parameters and changed them. She hates him, with no true reason. He didn't program that. Didn't control that, and for the first time in his short full life, the neurologist is somewhat afraid.
Sierra is different too. She reminds him of what could happen, if people aren't held back from their 'wants' or their 'needs'. She is traumatized and he helped do it. He is destructive. He could hate her, but his secret heart just won't. For the first time he feels for a doll. (Pity and anger.) They live every time he sends the active off to her playmate, Nolan. He pays well to have her beg, and all Topher Brink wants to do is cry.
The first time he thinks of these people as the humans they were (and not just empty bodies) is when he meets Boyd Langton. Langton's concern for Echo is touching, if naïve. He is trying to think of the Doll house as an organization that he must keep running. (At all costs.) Boyd, the only (cop-man-friend) he has, changes him in their short time working closely together.
Topher Brink doesn't sleep now. He thinks and dreams but there is no peace. No sleep for the wicked. Words fill his brain and heart and soul until he just wants to jump into the chair himself. Except he won't because his self-preservation instinct goes too deep. Too far to ever let himself be hurt by his actions or thoughts.
Topher doesn't think of them as toys anymore.