[HPforGrownups] Why Snape is more culpable for having been loved?

[Bart Lidofsky]

No: HPFGUIDX 171478

From: kvapost <kvapost at yahoo.com.au>
>Sent: Jul 9, 2007 7:57 AM
>To: HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com
>Subject: [HPforGrownups] Why Snape is more culpable for having been loved?
>
>Hi all
>I don't get JKR's statement that "someone had loved Snape and that fact 
>made him more culpable than Riddle, who was never loved. "
>What does having been loved have to do with one's culpability?
>
>Any thoughts? Preferably not from a religious POV, just common sense.

Bart:
A few months ago, in terms of Morty, I did some research on psychopaths/sociopaths (including enough to know that there is still no formal medical diagnosis of either, although the psychiatric community is working on one). In general, one of the ways that sociopathy is differentiated from psychopathy is that sociopathy is thought to have primarily environmental causes, notably never having been on the receiving end of love. On the other hand, Morty's symptoms appear to be more primary psychopathy, which is supposed to be purely biological, rather than secondary psychopathy, whose symptoms are supposedly a combination of biological and environmental. But, after all, Morty is a wizard, and Muggle psychiatry is probably not an exact fit. Now, mind you, had this been a "real world" case, Morty probably would have received more love than Harry did. But Snape at least appears to have had a mother who loved him. And SOMEBODY taught him all those spells coming in.

Harry, on the other hand, had no (canon) excuse for coming out the way he did. Certainly, he was loved for the first year or so of his life, but, after that, he was placed in a house where he not only received no affection, they went out of their way to ensure that he was as miserable as possible (canon: Mrs. Figg saying that Harry enjoyed going to her home, the Dursleys would have not let her babysit). 

So, the question is not why Morty and Snape came out the way they did; the question is, why did HARRY come out so well?

Bart