...About Snape - Edgar Bones was killed, with his wife and children...

[Charles Walker Jr]

No: HPFGUIDX 171376

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, Bart Lidofsky <bartl at ...> wrote:

> Specialists in addiction show that the psychological component of
addiction, once belittled, has a physical basis. There is a part of
your brain that feels pleasure. If you overstimulate that part, it
feels great. But if you keep doing it, it adjusts to the
overstimulation, to the point where it feels normal. This, in turn,
means that what are normal levels of stimulation simply don't work any
more. Since pain/pleasure is a primary motivator, your internal
motivations become adjusted to ONLY the overstimulation, hence the
addiction. 
> 
Charles:

Close, but not quite. Addiction has more to do with the adjustment of
neurotransmitters in the brain and neural receptors than the amount of
stimulation. Trust me, I just recently finished a very difficult class
on the subject. 

Bart again:
> <snip> Harry has an addiction to being the hero; this showed up the
most in OOP, where he is in withdrawal. And it's not enough for him to
be the hero; he has to be recognized as the hero as well. Morty uses
this to lure him and his friends to the MoM. DD was probably right; if
Harry is this addicted as it is, think of how addicted he would have
been if he had been brought up in a household where he was thought of
as The Boy Who Lived. He may well have ended up like Gildylocks,
faking heroism, even stealing it from others, to keep the public
adulation. 
> 
Charles again:
I'm sorry, but I really don't see any canon to support your position.
Harry does NOT want attention, the text states it time and again.
Harry wants to be a hero, yes, but in the sense of someone who does
the actual saving, not the guy who ends up in the papers. It is
implied (and almost actually stated) in the text that it is his love
for Sirius that leads him to the DoM, NOT(!) a quest to get in the
WW's heart as the hero of the day.  

Bart again:
> But what does Morty have that gives him pleasure? With his
disconnection, not a hell of a lot. What he needs is to prove himself
to be superior to everybody else. Which was kind of hard with DD
around. Morty needs someone like Snape to tell him that Harry is a
mediocrity who only wins through dumb luck and a lot of skilled help.
Dumbledore's very existence was a continual pain to him. With
Dumbledore dead, Morty knows of no wizard as powerful as he is (based
on the "half prophecy" and Snape's stories, he probably thinks that if
Harry beats him, it would be through sheer luck). 
> 

Charles:
You've somewhat answered your own question. Voldemort seeks power.
That is his drug. That is what gives him pleasure. Yes, Voldemort
needs sycophants. Every megalomaniacal twit needs sycophants, to tell
them how great their power is. As far as DD goes, I think that
Voldemort always thought himself greater, but was faced with the
secret inferiority complex that haunts most fictional super villains.
I think he needed his sycophants to tell him he was better than DD,
but I don't think that Harry really scares him. I think that if Harry
did scare him, Moldybutt would have had Draco going after Harry,
rather than DD.

Charles, who thinks that the Harry bashers are in for a big letdown
when Harry wins.