Occlumency redux, redux

[nrenka]

No: HPFGUIDX 139443

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "a_svirn" <a_svirn at y...> wrote:

> 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. 

'Damaged' was JKR's adjective.  The modifier was mine, and a bit of 
an extrapolation.  It seems applicable in some situations, although 
not all.

>  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. 

I'd argue that shutting himself off from his memories, repressing 
them (also JKR's word), it may not be something that can be done in 
such a scot-free and clean kind of way.  I don't know if it's 
possible to go "Well, I'm going to repress all of my anger and rage, 
but keep my pity vectors wide open."

>  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.

But Dumbledore's detachment is *precisely* the cause of many of his 
errors, although we may disagree about what they are.  For instance, 
I suspect that he underestimated the way that the Dursleys would 
treat Harry.  He's underestimated the depths of Snape's grudges and 
enmity: his admission at the end of OotP seems to point to a 
realization of that, to some extent.  The jury is out, but his 
detachment may well have led to his underestimation of Draco in HBP, 
and a potential misestimation of Snape.  I found this bit, from the 
interview, also interesting:

"I see him as isolated, and a few people have said to me rightly I 
think, that he is detached. My sister said to me in a moment of 
frustration, it was when Hagrid was shut up in his house after Rita 
Skeeter had published that he was a half-breed, and my sister said to 
me, "Why didn't Dumbledore go down earlier, why didn't Dumbledore go 
down earlier?" I said he really had to let Hagrid stew for a while 
and see if he was going to come out of this on his own because if he 
had come out on his own he really would have been better."

There's a distinct plus and a distinct minus to Dumbledore's 
attitudes here.  On the one hand, he wants people to help themselves 
and not interfere in situations.  On the other hand, this means that 
he's *not* interventionist when it may well have helped out and 
changed the course of events profoundly.  Why didn't he try to broker 
some rapprochement between Harry and Snape earlier?  The answer which 
makes the most sense to me is that he wanted Snape to really work it 
out for himself, and the same for Harry.

I humbly submit that *that* one didn't work out to well, so far.

I can see Dumbledore developing a more integrated approach to 
Occlumency, one more subtle and less based upon the walling off 
principle...but actually, he's not the most emotionally healthy 
character, either.  And Lupin, who probably has some Occlumency 
skills, does fall into a similar category (hush, Pippin :).  I don't 
think that the pattern is an arbitrary one.

-Nora chills and reads and organizes her room (if not her mind)