Tom, evil, choices

[delwynmarch]

No: HPFGUIDX 134460

Juli wrote: 
"Actually, current psychiatric theories, say you are not born with any
"disease" or personality. Your genes may pre-dispose you to a certain
type of personality, but in no way is it definitive. Psychiatric
diseases are multi-factorials, they result from the combination of
genetics, up-raising, culture, choices, and experiences. Say both your
parents have OCD (obsessive - compulsive disorder), then you have the
OCD genes, but it does not mean you will have OCD. The same goes with
any psychopathic personality."

Del replies:
I know that. But IMO Tom Riddle fits the bill completely: bad genes,
bad inborn dispositions, no compensating upraising or culture and way
too many opportunities to express his bad tendencies. According to
some specialists, that's the perfect combination of factors to create
the ultimate psychopath.

Juli wrote:
"He was raised in an orphanage, a place without much love, but still,
an OK environment, AFAIK he wasn't molested, abused, or mistreated."

Del replies:
He was missing the most important ingredient though: love. Not being
abused is not enough. It's the famous case of the Romanian orphanages
(if it's true), where the kids were fed and clothed, but some of them
let themselves die out of sheer lack of love. Tom never had the love
of a mother, or of any family, and nobody in the orphanage seems to
have given him real, deep love. Add that to the fact that he himself
was screwed-up enough to not have a natural instinct to love, and it
becomes clear that Tom NEVER had a meaningful relationship with
ANYONE. I think that's way enough to produce a highly abnormal, maybe
even sociopathic, personality, even in a very young kid.

Juli wrote:
"He did all the mistreating, he bullied kids, he enjoyed making them
hurt. It is not normal, he was told (by Mrs Cole) that it was wrong,
then by Dumbledore."

Del replies:
Yes, but he had no reason to care what anyone told him. Remember how
Harry completely ignored what Snape told him about going to Hogsmeade
in PoA, but he felt horribly bad when Lupin told him pretty much the
same thing? That's because Harry had a positive relationship with
Lupin that he didn't have with Snape. Since Tom had NO positive
relationship with anyone, nothing anyone said mattered to him. 

Juli wrote:
"When he started at Hogwarts he had a fresh start, but he chose the
path he had already taken. The path of evil."

Del replies:
You see it as a fresh start. I highly doubt Tom saw it that way. I
think for him it was just another step on his way. In order for it to
be a fresh start, Tom would have needed to figure out that his
previous path was wrong, and that he needed to change. But Tom did not
see things that way at all.

Juli wrote:
"Remember Harry was raised in much worse conditions than Tom (IMO),
and he's not a psychotic killer, with delusions to rule the world.
He's an OK kid."

Del replies:
1. Harry doesn't come from a genetically highly deficient background.
2. Harry most probably didn't have a screwed-up personality to start with.
3. Most importantly, Harry had LOVE, lots of love, in his first 15
months, to support him. Those first months are the time when a baby
learns to bond with his mother. If a baby can't bond at that time, the
risks are higher that it will have personality problems later, and
much higher-than-normal problems in bonding with, having compassion
for, and simply loving other people. Harry had this bonding
experience, Tom didn't. That's a HUGE difference between the two boys.

Juli wrote:
"Tom, from a young age started making his own choices, he was very
independent, he trusted no-one, he was pretty self-sufficient."

Del replies:
Hum, yes, and actually those things are *warning* signs IMO, signs
that something might not be quite right with the kid, that he is
having psychological difficulties. Not being able to trust adults or
comrades is often a huge warning sign that something is seriously
amiss in RL kids.

Juli wrote:
"He chose to take those two kids to the cave, he chose to kill a
rabbit..."

Del replies:
We don't know what happened in the cave, and we have no proof that Tom
killed the rabbit intentionally. Those two incidents could have been
nothing more than accidental magic brought on by extreme emotions. And
even if he chose to do those things, so what? Since he lacks any
compassion for other people, he wouldn't see the wrong in doing what
he did to them. 

Juli wrote:
"He made many choices that eventually led him to the evil person he's
become. Could he have changed? Yes, definitively. Think of Draco: he
was born in a pure-blooded family, very racist, feeling superior, he's
father's a bad guy, his mother's no angel either, still, he's not
evil. He has made his choices: he chose to lower his wand and not to
kill Dumbledore. He chose. He chose to do whatever it took  to protect
his family."

Del replies:
Once again, you're comparing two VERY different kids. Draco had LOVE
in his life. We know now for sure that his mother loves him very very
much. And we can infer from the way he reacts to people insulting his
mother that he has a bond with her. So there's no comparing Tom and
Draco, for me. They are simply not in the same category.

Juli wrote:
"So, yes Tom chose to become evil, every step he took took him deeper
into the darkness, he knew what he was doing, but it didn't stop him,
he became what he wanted."

Del replies:
Oddly enough, I agree. Tom always wanted to become LV, somehow. I
agree with that. But I personally think that he NEVER saw ANYTHING
else as a valid alternative. He never felt love (either given or
received), nor compassion, nor even sympathy. He never knew in his
heart what friendship is like. So all those things that seem worth it
to us, like family and other meaningful relationships, didn't matter
AT ALL to him. They didn't attract him in the least. They were
pointless, useless, of no value whatsoever, to him. He also never felt
like he was a part of any society, he always felt he was different,
special, apart. So working on making society a better place obviously
would never have appealed to him. No, the only thing that was EVER
important to LV was himself, and nobody and nothing ever made him
think that maybe something else might be more important.

I don't believe he ever CHOSE to be so self-centered. That's just the
way he was born, and nothing in his upbringing ever countered that. He
never learned to relate to anyone else, to bond with anyone else. Love
and compassion are not things that he rejects: they are things that
*he doesn't know*, as the Prophecy says. And where there is no
knowledge, there can't be choices. 

To put it in an extreme way: LV never chose to be Evil, it's just that
he never knew Good, he was never presented with Love in a way that
could reach through his inborn barriers. He did not reject Good and
Love, he simply never felt them, never understood them.

Just my opinion, of course.

Del