LV never loved anyone

[fanofminerva]

No: HPFGUIDX 110634

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "huntergreen_3" 
<patientx3 at a...> wrote:
> Del wrote:
> > As an aside : can one truly *choose* hate and evil if they've 
never
> > experienced love and goodness ?
> > And : wouldn't the fact that Tom never cared for anyone indicate 
a
> > major mental disease (not unexpected considering the
> > circumstances) ?
> 
> Julie replied:
> >>I am looking at the diagnostic criteria for Antisocial 
Personality
> Disrder, a.k.a."sociopath" or "psychopath" in the DSM-IV, and TR/LV
> certainly meets the criterial. It has been hypothesized in research
> involving psychopathy that these folks do lack the ability to love,
> have empathy, show remorse, etc. [snip] Some have described folks 
> like this as being born without a conscience. This certainly seems 
to 
> describe Tom.<<
> 
> HunterGreen:
> Just to clarify, psychopath and sociopath are not the same thing. 
A 
> psychopath is someone who doesn't understand the difference 
between 
> right and wrong, and a sociopath does, but doesn't care. I think 
> sociopath would definitely describe Tom, as he is intelligent 
enough 
> to understand that he is breaking rules, but lacks the empathy and 
> compassion (and indeed a conscience) to care. His actions as a 
> teenager reflect that. The basilisk was wrecking havoc on the 
school 
> (I assume although only one person died, and that was more an 
> accident than anything else) and he only stops it when it becomes 
an 
> inconveinence for him. He doesn't care about someone dying or 
other 
> students being afraid. He's aware that its wrong, but he doesn't 
care 
> until it affects HIM in a negative way.

We use the terms interchangeably, mainly because we deal with impact 
on others.  And in all actuality, neither are used diagnostically 
anymore.  It is all under "Antisocial Personality Disorder."  That 
was the point of my post, that Tom Riddle fit the profile of a 
person with Antisocial Personality Disorder.  I didn't want to use 
simply "antisocial" because many people misuse this term when they 
really mean "asocial."  That's why I mentioned the other terms, to 
clarify I meant the disorder, following up on the previous post.