Forgiveness

[SteveE]

No: HPFGUIDX 188716

Steve replies: Just because you bring out an online checklist of possible symptoms for a mental illness diagnosis doesn't mean a person has that mental illness if they have some or even to some extent all of those symptoms.  The authoritative "checklist" if you will is the DSM-IV codes. Psychologists and psychiatrists use DSM-IV codes as guidelines for diagnosis and to justify institutionalization and use of medication. Also, the DSM-IV codes for example for antisocial personality disorder (where we get sociopathic and pschopathic categories of diagnosis) specifically say that these criteria must constitute a pervasive pattern of disregard for and violation of the rights of others occuring since age 18. 

So LV's behavior as a child and while at Hogwarts wouldn't constitute a legal diagnosis of psychosis or serious mental illness.  It wouldn't have been until after he was an adult that such lables could be legally (in a muggle society) be applied.  There are always exceptions I suppose for extreme cases, but you get the point I'm making.

It's repetitive abnormal behavior that starts out w/ conscious choices that form patterns of behaviour that can result in mental illness. Once LV left Hogwarts and got deeply into dark magic and his behavior became habitual to the extent that he couldn't change that behavior even if he wanted to,(which he consciously didn't) then it can be categorized as a mental illness and you can use whatever checklist you want to try and pin down exactly what kind of mental illness he had. (As long as you keep in mind that these checklist rules must have a pervasive pattern to them over a long period of time and continue after the age of 18). 

One last point here. When you repeat antisocial behavior over and over again it becomes the norm and the subconsious mind accepts it as such. Even if a person becomes mentally ill, they still are able at times to make conscious choices about how they are going to behave.  At some point in time, however, if a mental illness becomes severe enough, those rational concious choices occur rarely and when they do, they are overruled by irrational subconscious factors reinforced by years of repetitive psychotic behaviour.  Then in essence, the mental illness is so strong that conscious choices for rational or normal behaviour are very weak compared to the irrational choices now commanded by the subconsious mind. Eventually w/ seriously mental illness, the rational choices disappear altogether and only the irrational remains. 

Onve LV became mentally ill, he was so far gone that he's not going to change, IMO, even after he got Harry's blood. Although he then gained the possibility of remorse, his patterns of abnormal and antisocial behavior were so entrenched that it would be highly unlikely he would repent and show remorse. And also, it was LV's grand plan to obtain total power in the WW.  Showing remorse and repenting would have certainly been ran counter to that.
>
 Bart:
>     OK, here's Hare's Checklist:
> 
> Factor 1: Personality "Aggressive Narcissism"
>     * Glibness/superficial charm
>     * Grandiose sense of self-worth
>     * Pathological lying
>     * Conning/manipulative
>     * Lack of remorse or guilt
>     * Shallow affect
>     * Callous/lack of empathy
>     * Failure to accept responsibility for own actions
> 
> I would say that Morty and young Riddle exhibit all of the above; it 
> might be an interesting project to go through the canon and find 
> specific references; is there a decent concordance available, by the way?
> 
> Now, for factor 2, Case History, "Socially Deviant Lifestyle". Not quite 
> as clearcut, but close:
> 
>     * Need for stimulation/proneness to boredom (note by Bart: could 
> have been caused by a lack of a body)
>     * Parasitic lifestyle
>     * Poor behavioral control (note by Bart: other literature points out 
> that they hide it very well)
>     * Promiscuous sexual behavior (note by Bart: as far as one can tell 
> from canon, nobody has sex in the WW; children might well be produced by 
> spells. Well, it's hinted that Arthur and Molly might have sex.).
>     * Lack of realistic, long-term goals (Bart: Note the word, 
> "realistic").
>     * Impulsivity
>     * Irresponsibility
>     * Juvenile delinquency
>     * Early behavior problems
>     * Revocation of conditional release
> 
> Finally, let's look at the final two traits:
> Traits not correlated with either factor
> 
>     * Many short-term marital relationships (Bart: OK, that didn't 
> happen as far as we know)
>     * Criminal versatility
> 
>     What happened, not unlike what happened with Adolph Hitler, was that 
> Morty found a bunch of people who would actually go along with his 
> mental illness, which enabled him to continue where most psychopaths 
> stick to smaller, more personal crimes.
> 
>     Bart
>