The Madness of Voldemort - was Voldemort never loved anyone

[Jim Ferer]

No: HPFGUIDX 110493

We see over and over, from the Tom Riddle days, Lord Voldemort
pursuing his goals without any regard for others.  He never shows any
remorse, any sense of a human contract, nothing.  He doesn't care
about his Death Eaters, either; they are his tools, rewarded only as
far as needed to keep them working towards his goals. 

Of course Voldemort doesn't love; it's almost a defining symptom of
the evil that fills him that he has no notion of love at all.  Like
many before him, Tom Riddle/Lord Voldemort is a sociopath (psychopath).


Here is a list of sociopathic traits from

http://faculty.ncwc.edu/toconnor/428/428lect16.htm

<<List of Common Psychopathic Traits
Glib and superficial charm; Grandiose sense of self-worth; Need for
stimulation; Pathological lying; Conning and manipulativeness; Lack of
remorse or guilt; Shallow affect; Callousness and lack of empathy;
Parasitic lifestyle; Poor behavioral controls; Promiscuous sexual
behavior; Early behavior problems; Lack of realistic, long-term goals;
Impulsivity; Irresponsibility; Failure to accept responsibility for
own actions; Many short-term marital relationships; Juvenile
delinquency; Revocation of conditional release; Criminal versatility.>>

We don't know about many of these, but every one we've been able to
observe sounds just like our Dark Lord, doesn't it?  Sociopaths have
"glib, superficial charm" [Tom: "I've always been able to charm the
people I needed to"]- got it - "Grandiose sense of self-worth" - oh
yeah - "callousness and lack of empathy" - good night, nurse!
Specifically, LV is an "organized" sociopath (see FBI profile on the
page linked above), comparable to Hitler or Stalin, as opposed to an
"unorganized," more obviously lunatic one.  The description of the
"charismatic" subtype could have been taken out of the biography of
Voldemort that Hermione will probably write some day:

"CHARISMATIC PSYCHOPATHS are charming, attractive liars. They are
usually gifted at some talent or another, and they use it to their
advantage in manipulating others. They are usually fast-talkers, and
possess an almost demonic ability to persuade others out of everything
they own, even their lives. Leaders of religious sects or cults, for
example, might be psychopaths if they lead their followers to their
deaths. This subtype often comes to believe in their own fictions.
They are irresistible." [also sounds like Gilderoy, too, doesn't it?]

LV's early life is tailor-made to produce him. "Some 70% of sociopaths
come from fatherless homes. " (ibid.)  Without love-bonding from the
earliest age, he never learned about or knew what love is.

So Voldemort is about his choices in many ways, but no one starts from
zero.  Harry wasn't a blank slate when he sat under the Sorting Hat,
and Voldemort wasn't a blank slate when he started down the road he's
on now.

Jim Ferer