Well, I might of course be wrong about sociopathy; I am no psychiatrist! And I'm sorry if I've been flinging around the word loosely. We actually know so little about Lucius that I couldn't begin to guess what sort of person he *really* is. It's just that this came up in an earlier discussion of Riddle; someone who sounded as if he (or she) knew what he was talking about said that, although individuals like Riddle are quite rare, sociopathy was more common than believed and a fairly high percentage of sociopathic (is that a word?) individuals were quite successful and even had families. They are the harsh, uncaring boss; the ruthlessly successful businessman; perhaps the career soldier; maybe even the highly accomplished surgeon - but they are fixed on getting ahead and don't care whom they trample on to do it.
I also think there are degrees in this disability. It's quite likely that Lucius does love his family, as far as he is capable of loving anyone. It's equally obvious that he can be sadistic towards young children his own son's age, and he did not hesitate to use a little girl as a tool to further one of his master's plots. So I'm no fan of Lucius's.
However, I may well have been using the word too broadly.
As I've defined it, I do think it's possible Bagman is a sociopath. Yes, he is charming. Many such people are; as Gavin De Becker says, charm is overrated. In our very limited view of him so far, have we ever seen him show the slightest concern for anyone other than himself?
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Date: 2006-12-13 03:26 am (UTC)I also think there are degrees in this disability. It's quite likely that Lucius does love his family, as far as he is capable of loving anyone. It's equally obvious that he can be sadistic towards young children his own son's age, and he did not hesitate to use a little girl as a tool to further one of his master's plots. So I'm no fan of Lucius's.
However, I may well have been using the word too broadly.
As I've defined it, I do think it's possible Bagman is a sociopath. Yes, he is charming. Many such people are; as Gavin De Becker says, charm is overrated. In our very limited view of him so far, have we ever seen him show the slightest concern for anyone other than himself?