The Addictive Ring

[littlemanpoet]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/johann...b_6506936.html

The Ring caused Gollum's isolation because he wanted it more than he wanted anything else. Being with Frodo and Samwise brought human contact into Gollum's life, and began to ameliorate his addiction. It was Samwise spoiling that human connection that sent Gollum back into the slavery of his addiction to the Ring.

Tolkien intuitively knew something very important about addictive behavior and the hooks involved, that we're still only beginning to really understand.

[Inziladun]

I think that might oversimplify Gollum's problem.

I don't think he was "addicted" to the Ring: It, being filled with the will and spirit of its maker, had attained almost complete possession over Gollum. From his first sight of the Ring, he had wanted to possess it, but that desire had utterly backfired.
It seems to me Tolkien's point is that when we think we possess something badly enough, we are the ones possessed, in thralldom. Aragorn says as much to Pippin about the latter's casting away of his treasured Lórien brooch: 'He who cannot cast away a treasure at need is in fetters'.

Also, I wouldn't put all the blame for Gollum's ultimate treachery on Sam. True, his misunderstanding of Gollum's behaviour on the Stairs of Cirith Ungol was apparently the last straw. But, as the Slinker/Stinker debate overheard by Sam long before indicates, Gollum had thoughts of turning on Frodo apart from Sam's mistrust of him. And the lust for the Ring was too much for the kindness of Frodo to overcome.

[littlemanpoet]

I grant you both caveats: (1) more to the Ring than mere addiction (2) Gollum had ideas of treachery.

That said, I continue to be interested in Tolkien's prescience, if it can be called that, as to how addiction really works.

[Galadriel55]

Although I am a science student, I always insisted that where psychology and human behaviour get involved, your own intuition is much better than textbooks. I believe that people already have a sense of much (or much more than) that psychologists publish in their papers just because they are people and they live with other people. Maybe most of them don't put it in words and therefore don't know that they know it, but they sense it. People who make Art in particular have a very strong sense of it - otherwise their art would not be genuine or believable. Tolkien, as a particularly good artist, didn't need to study psychology to portray the nuances of his characters. You don't need science to prove something you already know, and he knew it well.

[Zigûr]

Originally Posted by Inziladun

Aragorn says as much to Pippin about the latter's casting away of his treasured Lórien brooch: 'He who cannot cast away a treasure at need is in fetters'.

It only just struck me how deeply that statement foreshadows what happens at Mount Doom

I do think the Ring displays elements of addictive properties, but as Inzil says it is a little more complicated, going back to Tolkien's view that if we externalise our power, be it through Rings, or over-reliance on machines and industry, our through hierarchies, or what have you, we do so to the diminution of ourselves.

If I were to 'philosophize' this myth, or at least the Ring of Sauron, I should say it was a mythical way of representing the truth that potency (or perhaps rather potentiality) if it is to be exercised, and produce results, has to be externalized and so as it were passes, to a greater or less degree, out of one's direct control. A man who wishes to exert 'power' must have subjects, who are not himself. But he then depends on them. -Letter 211

But I would argue this is true of the possessors of the Ring and not solely the Ring-maker, albeit in a psychological rather than metaphysical sense.

[Mithadan]

Symptomatically, Gollum's cravings for the Ring resemble addiction and withdrawal. However, I agree with Inziladun, that the Ring's attraction is far greater than any narcotic addiction.

Tolkien spent extended time in a military hospital at the end of World War I. It is likely that he was exposed there to others suffering from morphine addiction and withdrawal. I wonder if that experience colored his descriptions of Gollum?

[littlemanpoet]

Originally Posted by Mithadan

Symptomatically, Gollum's cravings for the Ring resemble addiction and withdrawal. However, I agree with Inziladun, that the Ring's attraction is far greater than any narcotic addiction.

Tolkien spent extended time in a military hospital at the end of World War I. It is likely that he was exposed there to others suffering from morphine addiction and withdrawal. I wonder if that experience colored his descriptions of Gollum?

But as the link in my post first indicates, the findings are now that a chemical "hook" is not necessary for addiction. It is, as Galadriel reminds us, emotional/psychological.

"So the opposite of addiction is not sobriety. It is human connection."

The Ring effectively cuts off human connection; yes, it has the Dark Lord's taint on it that makes it all the things that the Ring is, but the destruction of human connection is a powerful attribute and speaks to the Ring as an effective symbol of addiction.

[Morthoron]

You bring what you already are when given the Ring. The mean and basest of the those who come in contact with it look to achieve the meanest and basest of goals; ergo, the petty thief and murderer Sméagol kills and eats his prey and he hides from others. However, the mere thought of the Ring being given to her gives Galadriel a terrible vision of a bright and beautiful queen, like Lucifer the Morningstar. Gandalf won't even touch it, Boromir is driven mad merely being in its proximity and Sauron betrays the Istari and the Valar of the Blessed Realm in order to get it (and he, never even close to it). This then is not a "chemical hook"; it is something else altogether.

The Ring effectively cuts off human connection.

Not necessarily. Sméagol was driven away from his clan, he did not leave of his own will. Bilbo existed for decades in the Shire and was beloved by many. Sam did not lose his love for Frodo nor was he driven away even when the Ring reached Mordor. Again, you bring what you are to the Ring, and the Ring merely enhances whatever it is that you are personally, at least your evil aspects are magnified.

[Pitchwife]

Originally Posted by littlemanpoet

But as the link in my post first indicates, the findings are now that a chemical "hook" is not necessary for addiction. It is, as Galadriel reminds us, emotional/psychological.

Indeed, which is why we can get addicted to all kinds of things which aren't chemical in nature, such as sex, being in control, success, gambling and gaming, approval of others etc. Whenever we want X bad enough that we feel maimed and deprived without it and we'll do anything, sacrifice anything to get it we're addicted. That, I think, is clearly the case with Gollum and the Ring.

Originally Posted by lmp

How could the ring not cut off human connection, rendering one invisible at the very least?

Yep. And I think it's symbolic in this context that the act by which Gollum took possession of the Ring, and thus the Ring of him, was murdering Déagol, his friend. He put his lust for the shiny thing above the bonds of friendship. And yes, he was outcast by his clan, as Morth reminds us, but only after he had stopped interacting with them as a kinsman and neighbour but turned against them:

Originally Posted by TFotR, The Shadow of the Past

'He used it to find out secrets, and he put his knowledge to crooked and malicious uses. He became sharp-eyed and keen for all that was hurtful.'

Same with Frodo. Observe his reactions when he feels that others threaten to take the Ring from him, whether it's Bilbo in Rivendell wanting to touch it one more time, or Sam offering to carry it for him in Cirith Ungol. His first reaction is to lash out at his friends like a junkie defending his drug or a game addict if you try to take away his Nintendo. And I'm not sure we can blame it all on Sauron's power reaching out through the Ring, for what did it matter to Sauron whether one halfling or the other held the Ring?

At the end of the day, I don't see much of a contradiction here. Of course what we see at work here is Sauron's power, or rather the externalized part thereof embodied in the Ring, interacting with and working on the mind and will of the bearer, but I'd say addiction is the form this interaction takes.