Maya's diagnosis and the possibility that she's a psychopath - Page 8

Originally posted by: HadhSeJyada

Flattered that you are!

Skipped most of what I have to say, yet again I see!

Originally posted by: HadhSeJyada

Bold are my replies

Replies in blue :)

Edited by aditi97 - 8 years ago

Originally posted by: ---Khushi---

You're very good at assumptions, I can see...

I haven't commented on the rest as I have nothing new to say to u, n I don't wish to repeat the same points over n over again...

[Shoutout to CaputDraconis for providing me with the idea (her username, more specifically) and the motivation to dig in deeper into the domain of psychopaths in fiction(her post in this case)]

I'm going to be assuming that we all here have read the Harry potter books or at least watched to movies. If someone hasn't, please pardon me.

Now cutting to the chase,

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We all are aware of Mr., oops, Lord Voldemort, who's also known as Tom Marvollo Riddle.

He's been the most famous antagonist in the fiction universe, with all due credits of the phenomenon the HP series have been.

He's a true psychopath, not just from my diagnosis, but from majority of us in this field.

Some of the evidences:

Elizabeth Davis (2011) in her research posed the problem of interpersonal relationship in construction of the sympathetic, modern monster using Mary Shelley's Creature and J.K. Rowling's Voldemort as examples. Davis touched on the idea that Voldemort is indeed Psychopath and Self-Destruction 30 psychopathic; nevertheless he is a character that should be empathized with.

The researcher then stated that to understand Voldemort one has to understand firstly the roles of others in his life. Voldemort is rejected and disappointed by the family relationships he primarily yearned for, plus he is unable to reach out to others around him due to the lack of skills in doing so. Both the Creature and Voldemort begin as humans; however, because monsters are outsiders, they are unable to participate within the bounds of human society, and they instead are forced to construct their own identities (Davis, 2011). It would seem that Voldemort, unable to fit into society turns to creating his very own identity where people would recognize and acknowledge his existence. The research's strength can be found in the focus placed on interpersonal relationship within characters, which in one way or another contributes to how Voldemort chose his path in life.

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1. Glib and Superficial Charm: Scores 2

Voldemort is charming and slick. He exudes an aura of superficial appeal and attraction when engaging with others. Throughout the book, he has gathered but a group of loyal followers, not friends. This superficial charm of his can be seen since his early years, as he would charm his professors and he believed that he was favoured greatly his professors with his handsome looks and outwardly modest behaviour. Most of the time when he does so it is for an ulterior motive which is normally for personal gain of desirable items or information. During his teenage years, he charmed his way with practiced hesitation and modesty, just to extract desired information out of his own professor. He puts on a cold smile and use insincere words to charm a lady who is infatuated with him of her treasures.

2. Grandiose Sense of Self Worth: Scores - 2

Since he was young, Voldemort had reigned control over his fellow peers are the orphanage. He would use his magic, though he did not know he has magical powers, to bully and scare the other children. When he was told he is a wizard, he was excited and readily believed 2 Psychopath and Self-Destruction 81 himself to be special, nothing like others. Voldemort, whose name was Tom, hated his given name as there are many others around him who are named Tom, this resulted in the creation of his new name - Voldemort.

He holds pride over the exploration of magic he has done, feeling that he has gone where no others in the wizarding world has ever even dreamed of. Voldemort sees himself as the greatest wizard of all, and that others are merely his tools to success.

3. Need for Stimulation or Proneness to Boredom: Scores - 1

Voldemort who was as a child, had felt the need to take 2 of his peers from the orphanage up to a cave, just to scare them. He has used his magic powers to overpower others, misusing magic to even kill a rabbit. This portrays the presence of need for stimulation or proneness to boredom when he was of a young age. However, as he entered school. He was able to control his actions and is a seemingly very well-educated boy. After his childhood incidents, he had never portrayed such characteristics.

4. Pathological Lying: Score - 2

Pathological lying is another characteristic that can be seen since the early years of Voldemort's life. He would, without the knowledge of the adults, bully and scare other children with the use of magic. When asked about what had happened, he had lied plainly that nothing happened. During his school years, he had gathered a group of followers and is involved in nasty incidents, which he was able to avoid being linked to. He is portrayed as a good-looking, orphan, smart and hardworking student to the teachers, but in fact he was never true about whom he really is. His shrewdness and sneakiness had earned him praises from most of the teachers, who failed to see his wrongdoings.

5. Cunning and Manipulativeness: Score - 2

Since his teenage years, he had been conning and manipulating those around him. His group of followers have been controlled and manipulated, thinking that they are his friends, to answer to his biddings. It was also then he had executed a scheme to cover the murder of his own father and grandparents by manipulating his own uncle. He manipulated the memory of a house elf to confess to a murder case, where he was the real murderer. Voldemort had killed the woman just for personal gain of two items she had. When he does not get the information he wants, he would torture others with curse spells until they give in to him. He mercilessly manipulates others just for his own gain, or revenge.

6. Lack of Remorse or Guilt: Score - 2

When Dumbledore visited Voldemort at his orphanage, he was caught red-handed for taking things from other children in the orphanage. However, when he was caught, Voldemort showed neither remorse nor guilt. He was not remotely abashed by what he did, and he certainly did not care about how other children felt when they lost their things. Instead of apologizing and regretting what he had done, he actually pride himself in being able to take items from others, showing that he is stronger and more powerful than they are. Voldemort killed people around him mercilessly; as long as there is something he wants he would not think twice about killing others. When he finds out that one of his followers has what he wants, Voldemort cold-heartedly killed him and showed no sadness and remorse.

7. Shallow Effect: Score - 2

Voldemort throughout his life, trusted no one, and he had always been a loner, he had no one he called friend. This was seen even from his early childhood years when he was offered help, he had crudely declined saying that he has always done things by himself. He had no friends at the orphanage he came from, and he had never called it home.

During his school years, he gathered with him a group of devoted followers who claimed that they are his friends, and know all about him. While the fact is, Voldemort never had friends, and never wanted one. He never told anyone anything about himself and he had always led a secretive and shallow life with no real relationships. He charmed those who he found to have what he wants, forming shallow and insincere relationships with them.

8. Callousness and Lack of Empathy: Score - 2

Voldemort showed callousness and lack of empathy towards people in general. Even if those people have not done anything against him, does not have anything he wants, he kills them. He wanted revenge against his muggle father, who had abandoned his mother and him, and just for good measure, he murdered his grandparents as well even though they did not do anything. When he received the prophecy of a child that will be the death of him one day, he moved out to kill the boy before it could ever happen. The boy's parents tried to protect him, but were killed cruelly by Voldemort, even though the one he wanted to kill was the child. Once out of blind rage, he had slashed his wand, killing all that were present, showing no compassion, no empathy.

9. Parasitic Life: score - 1

Although Voldemort is seen to be self-sufficient and obviously capable of leading life on his own, there are certain times where he is seen to lead a parasitic life. As seen from the memories of Dumbledore, Voldemort had no problem accepting money from him. When he did not have a place to go to, without consent, he had made one of his follower's home his base. When he lost his wand, he did not even hesitate to take someone else's wand.

10. Poor Behavioural Controls: Score - 2

Poor behavioural control is one of the more prominent traits of Voldemort. Since he was young, he was not able to control using magic for doing evil, nor was he able to control his thirst for blood and immortality. Whenever he was angry, there was no stopping his wrath, there was no way to stop his killing. When he found out that his secret weapon for being immortal has been discovered, he was so furious, and all hell broke loose as he killed every single person in his sight. There were times where it was illustrated that he, being unable to control his fury, made him feel crazy and frenzied.

11. Promiscuous Sexual Behaviour: Not Applicable

12. Early Behaviour problems: Score - 2

Voldemort as seen from the brief exploration of his childhood at the orphanage had portrayed several early behaviour problems. First of all he had the habit of taking things from other children. These are merely small toys and items, but he took pride in being able to take things from others. He was said to have terrified two children by bringing them to an isolated cave where no one knows what had happened there. He had sworn that they only went exploring, but the superintendent said the 2 children were never quite right after that incident. This shows that Voldemort had, from an early age, been lying to others. There was also an incident where he used magic to control and kill a bunny.

13. Lack of Realistic, Long-Term Goals: Score - 1

Voldemort is not particularly a person who lacks long-term goals, as he had always been planning his way to immortality and to reign over the world. However, he does not have realistic goals whereby he wants to achieve immortality. Something no one, magical or non-magical, has ever achieved. He takes pride in this goal of his, which allows him to instil fear into the hearts of others. He does not have a permanent home, or a permanent job, all that he is obsessed about is defeating Harry Potter, named the-chosen-one who will be Voldemort's opponent.

14. Impulsivity: Score - 1

There are times where Voldemort showed impulsivity, however on most of the occasions he is able to control his impulses, thus allowing 1 Psychopath and Self-Destruction 87 him to succeed in many ventures in his life. However, Voldemort wanting to be the most powerful wizard in the world was also his weak point. He could not bear it when someone might be better than him, thus willing to do anything just to win and conquer. Also, he was obsessed with the purity of his bloodline, so he was angered by the fact that his father is not a wizard.

15. Irresponsibility: Score - 1

Voldemort has not been portrayed as being very irresponsible, only one where he was irresponsible with his first job. After leaving school, he worked at a shop, with the intention to gather information and items that he desired, thus having no commitment whatsoever towards his job. After getting what he wanted, he resigned and vanished with no further explanation.

16. Failure to Accept Responsibility for Own Actions: Score - 1 There were only a few occasions where Voldemort had failed to accept responsibility for his own actions. When he was younger, he was the one who had tortured and scared 2 other children, however he denied blatantly. At school, he had been the one who opened the Chamber of Secrets, and at that time he was the only one capable of doing so. Even though he was the one who did it, he put the blame on another person, who ended up being wrongly accused.

17. Many Short Term Marital Relationships - Not applicable

18. Juvenile Delinquency: score - 2

Voldemort had been a delinquent when he was a teenager, albeit a very well hidden and secretive one. Not many people knew what kind of person he really was, though many claim to know. When in fact he had, during his school years, gathered a group of friends. They were controlled rigidly by Voldemort, thus never detected in any open wrong-doings. He was the one who opened the Chamber of Secrets, that resulted in the death of a fellow student. It was also during his school years that he had committed his first murder. He had killed his own father and grandparents. He then modified his uncle's memory to confess to the crime, thus he was free from any sort of suspicion.

19. Revocation of Conditional Release - 0

20. Criminal Versatility: Score - 2

This is another prominent feature that can be found from Voldemort. Voldemort had killed countless number of people throughout his life, ever since his teenage years. He killed his own father, grandparents, Harry Potter's parents, and many more. Those who were merely bystanders suffered his wrath, just as those who were by his side.

He had his followers wreak havoc in the magical and non-magical world, instilling fear in all who hears his name. Since he was young he had been stealing and in possession of the properties of others, either through thieving or murder. Voldemort finds pleasure in torturing others, to watch others bow down before him.

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J. K. Rowling did not include any sort of sexual elements in her books and it has been implied that he was incapable of these two having being conceived under the effect of the love potion,two of the features (Promiscuous Sexual Behaviour' and Many Short-Term Marital Relationships') are actually inapplicable in this case.

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As such it can be said that Voldemort scored 28 out of 36, thus further proving that Voldemort is indeed a psychopath

That is 77.77%.

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Originally posted by: dexter3108

You could also probably compare the case of Hannibal Lecter as someone (I think CaputDraconis)
pointed out that he shares many personality traits with Maya like Half empathy etc.

A research paper published in 2011 gave him a PCL-R score of 24. So this might give an apt comparison.

Originally posted by: HadhSeJyada

I'd have to thoroughly read all them novels first.

So it might take time.

I'll sure try to give it a shot though.

Choosing Voldy was a very lazy move on my part. *sigh*

*I need to stop being layjeee*

Originally posted by: dexter3108

😆 I totally understand. Even I did not put up a comparison because of the same reason. But since you were doing some comparisons, I tried to shift the work to you. 😆