Was Melkor Bipolar?

[Bêthberry]

Originally Posted by Sarumian

I don't think we can diagnose Melkor with a human disease. Tolkien tried to give us an idea of what happens to a soul once great but heavily damaged.

Originally Posted by Sarumian

My idea was that the way he succumbed to his own dark side is more alike to developing an addiction, it was not as if he fell ill.

I agree with your first statement here-- --that diagnosis with a human disease is not applicable. I meant to reply generally to Ren the Unclean's thread idea of applying modern medical diagnoses to a work which is morally-based and that got tied in with your allusion. It's really tempting to apply modern notions of psychology to texts, but I think it tends to shift the focus of the work away from its compelling questions of the nature of wrong-doing. I don't have my Silm at hand, but I will try to come back when I do to explain in more detail why I think this notion does not do credit to Tolkien's depiction of Melkor's failing.

However, since you have expanded on your post, Sarumian, I would point out that modern medical diagnosis regards addiction as a disease. It is not an illness caused by viruses or bacteria, but is thought of as a psychiatric disorder. It is an illness under those terms.

Is it possible we are arguing the same side of the discussion but getting mixed up with terminology?

[Sarumian]

Originally Posted by Bêthberry

Is it possible we are arguing the same side of the discussion but getting mixed up with terminology?

Yes, I quit agree with you. It is difficult to discuss divine matters without terminology issues. At some point there's no other way but through analogy of some kind, I believe. I don't see a crime in finding likelyhood between two things, but for me it's rather a matter of further questions about roots and reasons (poor old Smeagol ) And if I wanted to work something out of this finding, I would rather ask why Tolkien used those characteristics typical for the disorder to describe the Father of All Troubles? Honestly, I am not ready to give an answer at the moment.

I am sorry, my comment was aborted for some technical reasons and I had to restore it.

[Galadriel55]

Applying modern medicine, psycology, whatever to the legendarium would be the same as asking where exactly are the tectonic plate boundaries in ME. And vice versa: we don't have SOOO may things that ME does - like we don't have the semi-magical athelas. You can't diagnose Morgoth with a disease from our world.