Sociopath!Voldemort, and a bit about Lupin and Snape

[Judy]

No: HPFGUIDX 47069

Rita the Catlady said:
> educate me about sociopaths and psychopaths. Same thing?

The short answer is yes, although which term a researcher uses
sometimes reflects theoretical orientation.  The term "Anti-social
Personality" means the same thing, too. ("Anti-social" here means
"harmful to society"; it has nothing to do with being unfriendly,
since people with this type of personality can be quite charming.) 

Voldemort is a very extreme case of a sociopath / psychopath /
anti-social personality. The definition fits him extremely well. 


Rita quoted Post # 46398 by Anakin Bester:
>>>> generally, psychopaths do not have long 
 term goals for themselves. They indulge in self gratifying behavior 
 and keep it up so long as it's entertaining, then throw it aside
when 
 they get bored (This describes their treatment of people too <<<<

Rita then said:
> ANYWAY, it seems to me that Tom Marvolo Riddle DOES have a
long-term 
> goal, or at least a long-term motivation: his feeling that he was 
> terribly wronged by his Muggle father, resulting in his anger
against 
> his father and his hatred against all Muggles, resulting in his 
> on-going desire for revenge on Muggles and everyone else.

I wouldn't say that sociopaths don't have long-term goals. They
certainly get bored easily, they have little concern about future
punishment, and they generally don't delay gratification.  But none of
this prevents a person from *having* long-term goals; it just makes it
more difficult to *achieve* long-term goals. (This is in contrast to,
say, frontal lobe damage, which can destroy a person's ability to
conceive of the future.) 

Voldemort has long-term goals of revenge, immortality and power, but
does things that reduce his chances of achieving these goals. Perhaps
an inability to delay gratification is why Voldemort tortured Harry in
the Graveyard, when it would have been safer to just kill him
outright? 


Rita also said:
> I've read 
> somewhere that sociopaths don't have any feelings at all, therefore 
> assume that no one else has any either, that everyone else is just 
> faking it, and therefore they learn to fake it very well, but does 
> that (if true) mean that sociopaths don't feel that sort of 
> self-pitying rage and hatred? 

There is no way to compare emotions between people, since emotions are
purely internal experiences. Therefore, there is no way to be certain
of what sociopaths actually *feel*. My guess is that they lack many,
but not all, emotions.  When sociopaths are about to experience pain
(say, dental work) they lack the normal physiological fear response
that other people have, which probably means they have little sense of
fear.  Judging by their external behaviors, they also seem to lack
empathy, remorse, and the capacity to love.  They often anger easily,
though.  My guess is that humans have several different emotional
systems; sociopaths lack (at least partially) the ones dealing with
fear, love, and empathy, but not the one(s) involving anger.  

Of course, Voldemort isn't a real person, so there's no guarantee that
his personality works the way a real person's would. However, the
emotions he has are ones sociopaths often have; the ones he lacks are
ones that real sociopaths lack. I think that JKR came up with a
believable personality for him. 


On the urgent question of whether Snape will buy his way back into the
Death Eater circle by presenting Dumbledore's head on a platter, Rita
said:
> when this conversation began, the purpose of Snape being accepted 
> back by  Voldemort was so that Snape could spy on Voldemort for 
> Dumbledore. What is accomplished by having Snape in place as a spy
> for a side that no longer has a leader? 

I agree completely. Killing off Dumbledore just so Snape could spy
would be a lousy trade. If Dumbledore dies so soon, the "Light Side"
is doomed. So, I'd say that presenting "Dumbledore's head on platter"
[someone please generate an acronym for this!] is possible, but not
until Book 6, or more likely, Book 7. 

Rita also made three other points that I whole-heartedly agree with:
1) Lupin might have been executed (or murdered) if he had killed Snape
2) If unhappy people become ghosts, Snape would be a prime candidate
for ghosthood
 - and -
3)If asked why Lupin would deliberately get himself in trouble by
attacking a fellow student, Snape no doubt would have replied "Don't
ask me to fathom the way a werewolf's mind works."

-- Judy Serenity, who is working on a reply to Eileen