[Formendacil]

Although I agree that one should strongly avoid diagnosing literary characters with psychological illnesses (unless the diagnosis is made in-story), this thread raises an interesting question in my mind, about whether psychological illnesses are possible for Elves.

Now, let me be clear: I am not asking whether Elf X has Psychological Ailment Y. That falls under the general rubric of "impossible to say, because they're literary characters." However, it strikes me that even before one were to address the question of "does Elf X have condition Y," the question should be asked as to whether any Elf could have any psychological ailment.

We know that Elves were not generally susceptible to disease--but I have always taken that to mean germs (which psychological illness is not caused by) or physical defects (such as genetic illnesses or cancer).

Now, some psychological illnesses, I understand, ARE caused by things like genetic defects, which I would instinctively like to rule out. However, the issue is not 100% straightforward, because these are issues of the mind, and I would say there could be a case made that physical symptoms (such as chemical imbalances in the brain and whatnot) are caused by the mental issue, rather than the other way around--especially if you want to accept (as Tolkien did) that we have free will. Granted, not all mental illness would be attributable to free will originally, but it is certainly possible for a sane man to drive himself crazy.

There are also related issues. The first is that of Elves being biologically similar--if not the same--as Men, since they can interbreed, despite the obvious difference of fate. The second issue is that Elves do not seem to possess the same sort of free will as Men, since they don't share the Gift.

So... out of all this tangle of factoids, I ask the question: can Elves possess psychological illnesses as we know it? In other words, if Celeborn and Maglor wandered down to the Seventh Age, could modern psychology have shed light on some of their kinsmen of old? Even if we, as readers, can never, ever say for sure that any literary character has any psychological ailment, can we rule out psychological problems as we know them for the Eldar, or do we have to say they could still have been in play?