The inner Snape (was:Re: Grey laundry - depression) longish

[jwcpgh]

No: HPFGUIDX 76887

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "The Crashing Boar" 
<crashing.boar at n...> wrote:
>   If he was such an outsider or an outcast, there was no way he 
could have been inducted into a group which was formed and operated 
in secrecy and which therefore had to have at least a minimal level 
of 'trust' between its members <snip> Most of the Order actively show 
they are using him, don't like him, and are not his friends, so what 
would be the attraction, if those were the reasons he decided to 
betray LV and the DEs?
> 
>   As for his physical appearance, he has obviously put a lot of 
effort into it.  He no longer hunches or moves like a scuttling 
spider, but protects himself with an intimidating stance, attitude 
and way of dressing.  <snip>   > 
>   Dawn

Laura:

Ah, the ever-puzzling Severus.  I agree that his behavior doesn't 
look like depression, nor do I think it's any kind of sociopathic 
syndrome.  My guess is that his behavior is the adaptive strategy he 
found would work best for someone in his position.  Sometimes people 
who have been deprived of a healthy emotional environment go looking 
for the love they didn't get, and they become very social.  And 
sometimes it's the opposite.  Snape has learned not to trust anyone 
except himself.  He arrived at Hogwarts already very  familiar with 
the dark arts, which he must have seen as the best self-protection 
available.  His relations with his fellow Slytherins couldn't really 
be called friendship per se-more like an alliance based on a common 
interest.  You never get the idea that the gang with whom Snape hung 
out in school went bowling together or whatever wizard kids do for 
fun.
And I don't think the DEs had a social relationship either, so 
whatever network Snape was part of after Hogwarts didn't provide any 
emotional support for him.  The secretive nature of the DEs would 
just reinforce his trust-no-one-but-himself strategy.
Dawn's point about SS creating his teacher persona is a very good 
one.  He may not be liked (I wonder if even Draco really *likes* him) 
but he's damn well feared.  No one's going to mess with this guy ever 
again. Of course, no one's going to invite him over for tea, 
either.   
Now Snape is playing the double-agent game, and that can't be good 
for his self-esteem, whatever he has of it.  If you've ever read 
Graham Greene or John LeCarre, you learn that spies don't think much 
of themselves because they know that they are professional betrayers, 
even if it's for a good cause.  (Whether this is true in real life, I 
don't know, but that seems to be the literary convention.)  And if 
you're a double agent, you must have incredible inner confusion about 
what it is you believe and who you truly are.  The sheer mental 
effort of keeping up that level of deception means you don't have a 
lot of energy for much else-like healthy relationships.  
I don't agree that most of the people in the Order don't like Snape-I 
don't see any evidence of this in the text.  The only person who 
really hated Snape is (apparently) gone.  No one else fights with 
him.  Even Remus is trying to get along with him.  So here's his 
chance to break out of his isolation with people who understand and 
respect the difficulty of what he's doing.  Will he allow them to 
break through his isolation?  We'll see.

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