Voldemort good/bad.

[delwynmarch]

No: HPFGUIDX 139900

Rebecca wrote:
"But I do have to stress that an upbringing such as (Tom's) is not
guaranteed to bring about the development of a psychopath."

Del replies:
Agreed, absolutely.

>From what I gathered, the creation of a psychopath apparently requires
the combination of three elements:

1. A wrong nature

2. A wrong nurture

3. A wrong opportunity

Tom had all three of them, according to canon:

1. His inborn nature was not normal. We are told that he didn't cry
much as a baby, and the feeling I get from the orphanage's director's
explanations is that he always made his caretakers slightly uneasy.

2. As we discussed previously, he most probably never had a true
chance of bonding and experiencing love.

3. He was powerfully magical, and he had nobody to keep a check on
him, so he was able very early in life to exert his power on others.

Had any one of those three circumstances been different, things would
probably have turned very differently.

Rebecca wrote:
"Yet (David Pelzer) has somehow managed to become a normal and
emotionally sound individual, fully capable of love and generosity. A
lack of love at a young age can bring about some terrible problems,
but it is not certain that this will happen, as David Pelzer can testify."

Del replies:
I think that David Pelzer probably did have problems (though I am not
implying psychopathic traits, don't get me wrong), but that he found
it in himself to overcome them. I can't imagine that someone with his
background wouldn't have any problems at all.

His books sound fascinating by the way.

Rebecca wrote:
"I still maintain that Harry would not have become like Voldemort if
he had been raised in Tom Riddle's stead. Neither would Tom Riddle
have become a brave and generous boy like Harry if he'd been loved for
14 months and then raised by the Dursley's."

Del replies:
I don't think there's any way we can know for sure. The second
proposal I very much agree with, because I think that it would have
taken much more than 14 months of love to correct the faults in Tom's
inborn personality, and also that he would have had to be raised in a
wizarding family all his youth, so his use of magic would be kept
under control.

But as for Harry... He has a strong capacity to hate when he wants to,
his father was quite a bully, his maternal aunt isn't a model of
niceness either. So I don't know what kind of inborn personality he
was born with. We also have reasons to believe that a significant part
of the love he feels now comes from his mother, not from himself. And
when under the strong negative influence of LV in OoP, he did give in
once in a while to his anger and even to cruelty. He even goes as far
as threatening to use magic on his Muggle cousin, which is
disturbingly reminiscent of what Tom did as a child (probably not a
coincidence, though). So between the many, various, and sometimes
diametrically opposed influences Harry is living under, I find it
pretty hard to determine what exactly Harry's own original personality
looked like. But if I had to bet, I'd say he didn't have the right
nature to become a psychopath. Things like the way he instinctively
offered to share with Ron in the train in PS/SS make me feel like his
innate nature is too much on the good side to be perverted to the
point of psychopathy.

Rebecca wrote:
"But I cannot think of any circumstances under which Tom Riddle could
have been raised to produce a 'nice', 'brave', 'selfless' or 'caring'
person. I don't believe that it was in his nature."

Del replies:
Once again, we will never know. But I think it is too harsh a
condemnation to say that some kids out there will never be any of
those things, no matter what kind of help and upbringing they receive!
Being nice, brave, selfless and caring are not just things that one
can have as an innate makeup. They can all be learned. Most people do
have to learn one or several of those qualities, in fact. Many
unpleasant kids learn to be nice when they feel loved and appreciated.
Many scaredy people learn to be brave when they find the right support
to accompany them. Many ego-centric people learn to be selfless when
somehow forced to engage in service projects. And many cold people
learn to be caring, when thrown in many different situations. There's
no way I would say that even a kid like Tom couldn't learn those
things, and learn to like them too! Isn't it what "A Christmas Carol"
is about after all? About the fact that even the most embittered,
cold-hearted people can change? And my Christian values most
definitely support the concept that *everyone* can change their
nature, if they can find the right kind of help before it is too late.

JMO, of course,

Del