Forgiveness

[sistermagpie at earthlink.net]

No: HPFGUIDX 188688

> Magpie:
> > I don't think he was ever even described as having an illness. I didn't think he became a different person (thus someone who would make a different choice to show he was different) with Harry's blood.
> >   
> 
> Bart:
>     A couple of years back, I wrote a post showing how Morty was clearly 
> depicted as being depicted as a sociopath/psychopath. The current 
> Wikipedia article <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychopathy> on 
> psychopathy is a good starting place to decide for yourself (according 
> to the article, while a psychopathic criminal in the UK could go to the 
> hospital rather than prison, in fact, as there is no known treatment for 
> psychopathy and that attempts at treatment tend to make the make matters 
> worse, in practice they get sent to prison instead).

Magpie:

But him seeming like a sociopath doesn't mean we're dealing with a psychological problem with Voldemort that makes him different from the rest of the characters. If he's a sociopath an injection of virtuous Harry blood shouldn't help him.

Pippin:
There are hints that the reconstructed Voldemort is not quite the person that he was. He does things that seem out of character for his earlier self: forgiving his errant Death Eaters, rescuing Bella from the ministry even after she failed him, and at one point in DH being aware that not trusting is a choice.

Magpie:
I think that's working backwards, needing some sign that he's different and making up a past for him that makes him OOC where we never saw the previous character. It never seemed to me that he was being particularly remorseful or compassionate by doing those things.

Pippin:

Anti-depressants can cure the chemical imbalance that causes depression, but until the patient learns (and chooses) to stop thinking like a depressed person, the symptoms don't go away.

Magpie:
I really don't see anything like this psychological theory anywhere, with Harry's blood being like some kind of medication. (And even if it was like this theory, thinking like a depressed person would still be the fault of the depression and not the person.) It seems to me more just like Harry's taunt to Voldemort. His choices show what he is and what he's always been--which isn't a person with a mental disorder, but an evil person. He continues to be an evil person and make the same choices as always. If Harry's blood gave him some sort of capacity for remorse it remained outside of his actual character, same as some of Harry's bad behavior was down to Voldemort's soul bit. If it had any effect it was just to reinforce what he'd always been, somebody who didn't feel remorse.

-m