Sirius: Sensory Deprivation and Slashing the Fat Lady

[Judy]

No: HPFGUIDX 47509

Audra said:
>>>>I propose that Sirius was suffering from 
the effects sensory deprivation and
solitary confinement from his time in Azkaban....
Some possible effects of sensory deprivation 
and solitary confinement (which I
will refer to now as SD and SC for brevity's sake)
that mimic PTSD are: vivid
fantasies, hyper-responsivity to external 
stimuli, free-floating anxiety, and
extreme motor restlessness. Other possible
effects of SD and SC include doubt
of oneself and troubles in determining what
is real, problems with controlling
impulses (sometimes with random violence), 
and emergence of primitive
aggressive fantasies.<<<<

 
Well, the symptoms certainly fit some of Sirius' behaviors in PoA. 
The problem I see, however, is the timing.  While Sirius probably
*was* sensory-deprived in Azkaban, he had been out of Azkaban for
about 10 months by the time of the Shrieking Shack scene. He certainly
wasn't deprived of sensory stimulation or opportunity to exercise
while on the run.  (A line from a John Denver song is now floating
through my head: "You fill up my senses like a night in a forest.")  
Yes, he was presumably still deprived of *human* contact (unless he
was having people pet him as a lovable stray), but the symptoms listed
above sound like they are caused by lack of sensory stimulation and
being confined without exercise. I would expect things like
hyper-responsiveness to dissipate within days of exposure to normal
stimuli, similar to the way newly exposed skin on one's fingertip is
sensitive for just a day or two after cutting one's nail very short. 
There is also still the question of why the symptoms would resolve by
GoF, if they did in fact persist for the whole year of PoA. 

I still think that if one wants an explanation for Sirius' behavior (I
mean, an explanation other than the obvious one that he just has a
really nasty temper), the best possibility is some sort of
as-yet-undefined syndrome caused by dementor exposure.  Hey, the
dementors were still hanging around throughout PoA, so that's a
convenient explanation of why the symptoms persisted all year and yet
were suddenly gone a couple of months later!  (Not that I subscribe to
this theory, myself.) 

In the same post, Audra mentioned Sirius' slashing the Fat Lady, and
said:
>>> Slashing the portrait -- This was an aggressive reaction, but I
would like to point out that the portrait was only an object, and I
consider it to be the equivalent of breaking down a door.<<<

Audra later said, in response to Shane's claim that the Fat Lady seems
embarrassed:
>>> The characters in the paintings do appear to carry out many
complex behaviors, but we do not have proof that they experience
emotions and thoughts in the same way we do....a computer-simulation
that is made to look like a person could be programmed to reproduce
actions that mimic embarrassment and shame, or even fear and pain, in
response to certain input, but am I actually committing mass homicide
when blow the arms, legs, and heads off fleeing computer-simulated
people while playing Vice City on my PS2?<<<

What could possibly constitute proof of emotion?  We are encountering
a problem much discussed in philosophy, the "problem of other minds."
 Since emotions and thoughts are private, there is no way to prove
that *anyone* else has them, even other humans.  Suppose Lucius Malfoy
claimed that it is the soul that enables one to perform magic, and
that therefore muggles' lack of magical ability means that they are
simply automatons that seem to have feelings but really don't.  There
would be no way to prove him wrong. 

The Fat Lady would certainly pass the famous Turing test of
intelligence. However, the Turing test only proves *sentience*
(thoughts and feelings) if one assumes that intelligence is impossible
without sentience.  So, that's not much help. 

Whether magic paintings are sentient has been debated here before. 
Certainly, JKR doesn't make it clear.  However, the paintings
certainly show far more intelligence than do the pictures in a video
game.  Figures from the paintings move around from picture to picture,
visiting each other and even having parties.  I'd say that the books
strongly imply that at least some of the paintings, including the Fat
Lady, have emotions. For example, Violet, from a painting in the
anteroom off the Great Hall, is described as being indignant, and the
Fat Lady tries to soothe her. (GoF, ch. 17.)  

The strongest evidence that the paintings are sentient, though, is
what happens *after* Sirius slashes the Fat Lady.  Most of the other
paintings refuse to take on her job, which implies that they have free
will.  Sir Cadogan takes the job, but acts unpredictably, letting
Sirius back in. The staff of Hogwarts then enter into negotiations
with the Fat Lady, persuading her to return by offering guards for
her.  They don't just change the spell on the painting, or reprogram
her.  These interactions strongly imply that the paintings are
inhabited by beings who act independantly and can make decisions.

Kiricat asked:
>> if the portraits are lving beings, isn't it somewhat creepy that
they must live their "lives" confined to the world of canvas and
frames? Maybe after Hermione frees the house elves, she can free the
portrait people.<<

The portraits seems to be inhabiting something of a parallel universe
that connects all the paintings and is quite extensive.  Sir Cadogan
rides around on horseback, various portrait people visit each other,
etc. They don't really seemed to be trapped.  Perhaps the portraits
are just their homes, and that's why they spend so much time there. 

By the way, even if Sirius had been *told* the Fat Lady had no
feelings, it would still take a certain lack of empathy to attack
someone who exhibited a full range of emotional behaviors and *seemed*
to be suffering as a result of your actions.  And, making it worse is
that Sirius knows the Fat Lady; he would have had daily interactions
with her when he was a student, because she guarded the Gryffindor
door since at least Molly and Arthur's time at Hogwarts.  (This is
assuming that Sirius is a Gryffindor -- I can't remember if canon
actually says he is.) 

-- Judy Serenity