Sociopath!Sirius? Maybe not.

saeva linked me to this post by accioslash which has apparently been making the rounds lately.

My reply:

"Now, most of us think about wishing someone was dead. Sometimes we may even fantasize various ways we would do it. But normal people don't cross that line and actually attempt to do it. Sirius did. Sixteen year olds know that dead is dead. It is final. But he did it anyway. He thought it out very carefully.

Normal people cross that line every day. It's called murder. Not every murderer possesses a serious, treatable chemical imbalance. That he carefully planned the murder does not make him a sociopath or a psychopath. Soldiers, politicians and jealous husbands and wives do this every day. Some of them? Aren't sociopaths or psychopaths.

"Sirius knew that just the knowledge that Remus was a werewolf would get him, at the very least, expelled. Being a werewolf who killed would get him the Kiss. This is what Sirius was willing to do to get revenge for whatever perceived wrong that Severus had done to him. I can't see anything that would possibly justify Sirius murdering Severus. But using Remus as the instrument of that death is unconscionable."

There are many logical, even moral reasons for committing murder. There are a million ways to rationalize murder. You can't see anything that would possibly justify Sirius murdering Severus but you're not Sirius. You can't say with certainty that Sirius didn't have what he thought was a very good reason to believe that he had to do everything necessary to kill Snape. Using his friend to kill an enemy doesn't make Sirius a sociopath, it makes him an arrogant, selfish ass who's convinced that he's a) doing the right thing; b) got a really good plan. Sirius isn't able to see that he was in the wrong. That suggests that for him Snape, and perhaps even Remus in werewolf form don't count, somehow. Many people are able to make this kind of distinction - it's what we're encouraged to do in wartime, in business, in sports, and on the playground. Also, consider the myriad ways the average person uses another person in her daily life, to do her dirty work, to make her life easier. The petty cruelty we are all capable of showing to those who are weaker than or different from us. Want to commit murder? Simple. Rationalize, rationalize, rationalize. You'll be guilt-free in no time.

"Sirius was a sociopath. A psychopath knows what is morally right and wrong but acts on impulse to get his needs met even if he has to resort to using criminal behavior. A sociopath has no real concept of right and wrong. They only know that they want something and will do whatever it takes to achieve those ends, including involving your friends in a murder."

You haven't established that Sirius is a sociopath because you haven't established that he doesn't know the difference between right and wrong. You're drawing heavily on one incident. A good profiler doesn't focus on one part of the subject's life to draw her conclusions - you have to widen the scope of the study before you make this kind of diagnosis. Sirius might be a sociopath. He might not be. Are you sure that he doesn't have the capacity to distinguish between right and wrong theoretically and practically, in other cases? People have blind spots and moral flexibility is a given in most, if not all of us. Sirius tried to kill someone that he loathed and he doesn't see that it was wrong. That does not necessarily mean that he thinks he has the right to murder whoever he likes, whenever he likes, or that he doesn't think that murder in general is wrong.

"He's superficially charming and engaging and knows how to make others like him. Think Ted Bundy."

Ted Bundy? Not quite. Sirius can be superficially charming and engaging, but he can also be petulant, repulsive and terribly unengaging. He shows little to no capacity for manipulating people who dislike him. He got nowhere with Molly and he's hardly successful at getting Hermione unequivocally on his side. Both are generally trusting people. His one great canonical act of manipulation is getting Snape into the Shrieking Shack. I shouldn't think that would be particularly difficult, considering how excitable the man is.


I dislike the tendency to portray every character as intensely cracked. I think it leads to weak characterization and a general dehumanization of canon. If Sirius is a sociopath, than so is Remus. After all, he saw nothing wrong with running free in wolf form and didn't (canonically) protest overmuch about Sirius' actions. Where is the great moral outrage? The scolding of Sirius? Snape is likely a psychopath. Poor impulse control, you understand. Likewise Lucius Malfoy. Watch out Harry! And really, why stop there? Let's just diagnose everyone in the WW with a major psychological dysfunction and be done with it. There's no way Ron is sane, after all. The jealousy and anger issues are clearly masking something deeper.