Does cheat! supercede a restriction from a curse/madness?

[Mathgeni]

Playing Cthulhu a player had the Madness Bibliophobia. The question arose of whether that player could use a cheat! on necronomicon to circumvent the restriction of the madness?

My claim is that the item doesn't loose it's characteristics of being a book/icon item and as such the player with the madness would be unable to use the item while possessing the madness. Another player claimed that the player could use the necronomicon because the cheat! lets you use an item you would otherwise be unable to use.

I believe this to be an overuse of the cheat! since a cheated item, for example, of armor would still be subject to a curse targeting armor. Cheat! doesn't mean an item has no characteristics anymore or curses would never be able to apply to a specific piece of cheated equipment.

Feedback would be much appreciated so that we are able to approach that situation correctly in future games and similar situations.

[Andrew Hackard]

If you suffer from a restriction disallowing a specific type of Item, Cheat! will let you circumvent that restriction, precisely because the card lets you use an Item you couldn't otherwise use. It's no different from using an Item barred to your Class with a Cheat! card.