Soul health vs. psychological health (Face it, there is a reward for being )

[Jen Reese]

No: HPFGUIDX 140372

> Pippin:
> I think we can say now that the wizards are not as vulnerable to 
> psychological injury as we are. If really dangerous
> Dark Wizards only pop up once every hundred years or so, if serial
> killers are so rare that Slughorn is shocked at the very notion,
> if Draco, despite being raised by the Malfoys and schooled in 
> Slytherin, is still salvageable...then they're just way tougher
> than you'd think.
> 
> Even though they hurt just as much as we do, even though when 
> you prick them they bleed,  it takes a helluvalot more to damage 
> a wizard than one of us -- we saw that in Umbridge's office, we
> saw it again in a different way in HBP.

Jen: I was wondering after OOTP how the WW could be so dismissive of 
emotional injury. Then we got more on the concept of the soul, and 
how important the soul is to this particular story, and some of my 
problems resolved. 

HBP convinced me the health of the soul is a much more important 
concern in the WW than either physical or mental health, at least 
with the group of characters we're meeting. Since the heart of the 
story is about a person who purposely injured his soul vs. one with 
an untarnished soul, the focus really does make more sense to me 
now. 

The soul seems to be much more vulnerable in the WW, and much more 
open to injury from the powers of dark magic. 

The banter between Dumbledore and LV made this idea clear--there's 
love magic and dark magic, and a huge part of being a magical person 
is choosing which road to go down. One keeps your soul healthy and 
strong, and the other is degrading and injurious. 

>From Harry's example we find out a magical person don't have to be 
perfectly well behaved to have an untarnished soul! His soul health 
is due to never following the road to dark magic, even though he's 
been a victim of some serious threats on his soul, like the curse 
that failed and his link to LV's thoughts and feelings.


Jen