Occlumency redux, redux

[a_svirn]

No: HPFGUIDX 139442

nrenka wrote:

> Let's break this apart.  Harry has problems with Occlumency 
because 
> he's emotionally damaged, and his emotions are too near the 
surface.  
> This fits with the problems he had in the attempt to shut himself 
off.
<snip> 


a_svirn:

Well, I am not a psychologist either, but it strikes me as odd that 
you would call "emotionally damaged" someone who – we've been told 
on numerous occasions – has the greatest ability to love in the 
whole Potterverse. 


nrenka wrote:
> 
> I'm not a psychologist, but it struck me that connecting emotional 
> repression to this magical skill puts a very decidedly negative 
spin 
> upon it.  Look at two characters who we canonically know can do 
> Occlumency--Draco and Snape.  JKR right out tells us that Draco 
shuts 
> down his pity; he refuses to let himself feel for other people. 

 a_svirn:

There is that of course, but it's not pity Harry had trouble of 
shutting down, but rage and hatred. I'd say it wouldn't be such a 
bad thing if he learned to do that. 

nrenka wrote:

> Draco cuts himself off from empathy and at least one understanding 
of 
> what love is, via his isolation and consequent devaluation of 
other 
> human beings.
<snip> 

 a_svirn:
It's a pretty big leap you make. Yes, the practice of Occlumency 
requires a certain (high, in fact) degree of detachment, but it 
doesn't mean that it should lead to any "devaluation of human 
beings".  Take Dumbledore – he is adept in both detachment and 
Occlumency, yet he values lives of others and very much so.