I loved Elkin's 'lame' essay. It was one of the first meta pieces I'd read in fandom. Ahhh, nostalgia. And now to virulently attack the other one :>
I really doubt he'll go insane... that seems like a weird storyline for a boy bully, anyway. He's just 'unhinged'-- always has been, and I don't see why that should change for the worse or for the better. He's emotional. He's rabid. He's full of vitriol and passion and melodrama-- but this is not true insanity. This is kinda funny 'cause I actually like my Draco raving-- and write him like that often enough-- but I never really mean that he's lost touch with reality.
If anything, this gets into the definition of 'insanity'-- as you said, there are lots of different things people call insane, but calling over-emotional people crazy pisses me off like nothing else. Is it a mood disorder? Is he bipolar, manic at times to the point of ADD (and most likely morose at others)? Maybe, sure. Is he prone to anxiety and panic (freaking out at things that other people would keep their cool about)? Sure, all right, he could have anxiety disorder. But insane in the sense of Bellatrix-- that is, out of touch with reality-- that doesn't describe Draco at all. He's not schizoid, and there have never really been signs of that.
People equating mood disorders with madness is an old popular tradition, not yet conquered by modern psychology I suppose, but it just gets on my nerves like few other things do. If anything, because I'm pretty sure my moods are unstable, but my grip on reality is rather solid. There is a difference between 'logical & rational' & 'sane'. You can be sane and be completely irrational-- if anything, human beings demonstrate that every day.
Everyone's got inner contradictions or conflict-- it bothers me that the idea that Draco has it makes him unique or different somehow. Harry has inner conflict and acts out & freaks out (especially in OoTP) too. Being -really- anxious or depressed doesn't make you mad, it just means you have psychological issues. Draco's cackling might suggest he's out of control (like Harry is with his rage in specific), but it doesn't suggest he has delusional episodes or needs to kill bunnies precisely at 11:05pm every night.
Saying 'madness' as a way of summing up a vast array of completely different disorders is just plain intellectually dishonest, and it crops up in all sorts of supposedly intelligent discussion of literature. Mostly (I'm guessing) because people aren't really self-educated in actual psychiatric terminology; even so, that's no excuse.
Hermione, for instance, is supposedly 'sane' by common standards: she's a rational, logical character with very obvious and linear thinking patterns. But in fact, I think she's more likely to 'crack' than Draco is-- and this relates to Maya's reference to Percy cracking before Draco would-- because obviously, if you -repress- your issues, they're more likely to explode at some inopportune point. I can definitely see Hermione's obsession and pretense at logic becoming a sham and a cover for something quite psychopathic with the right trigger. This kind of 'linear' intelligence needs a trigger much more than Draco's more emotional character, which is actually more resilient.
What it comes down to is, before anyone starts trying to prove Draco or anyone is mad, they'd have to establish what 'sane' is as a baseline standard. I'd like to see them try, btw.
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I really doubt he'll go insane... that seems like a weird storyline for a boy bully, anyway. He's just 'unhinged'-- always has been, and I don't see why that should change for the worse or for the better. He's emotional. He's rabid. He's full of vitriol and passion and melodrama-- but this is not true insanity. This is kinda funny 'cause I actually like my Draco raving-- and write him like that often enough-- but I never really mean that he's lost touch with reality.
If anything, this gets into the definition of 'insanity'-- as you said, there are lots of different things people call insane, but calling over-emotional people crazy pisses me off like nothing else. Is it a mood disorder? Is he bipolar, manic at times to the point of ADD (and most likely morose at others)? Maybe, sure. Is he prone to anxiety and panic (freaking out at things that other people would keep their cool about)? Sure, all right, he could have anxiety disorder. But insane in the sense of Bellatrix-- that is, out of touch with reality-- that doesn't describe Draco at all. He's not schizoid, and there have never really been signs of that.
People equating mood disorders with madness is an old popular tradition, not yet conquered by modern psychology I suppose, but it just gets on my nerves like few other things do. If anything, because I'm pretty sure my moods are unstable, but my grip on reality is rather solid. There is a difference between 'logical & rational' & 'sane'. You can be sane and be completely irrational-- if anything, human beings demonstrate that every day.
Everyone's got inner contradictions or conflict-- it bothers me that the idea that Draco has it makes him unique or different somehow. Harry has inner conflict and acts out & freaks out (especially in OoTP) too. Being -really- anxious or depressed doesn't make you mad, it just means you have psychological issues. Draco's cackling might suggest he's out of control (like Harry is with his rage in specific), but it doesn't suggest he has delusional episodes or needs to kill bunnies precisely at 11:05pm every night.
Saying 'madness' as a way of summing up a vast array of completely different disorders is just plain intellectually dishonest, and it crops up in all sorts of supposedly intelligent discussion of literature. Mostly (I'm guessing) because people aren't really self-educated in actual psychiatric terminology; even so, that's no excuse.
Hermione, for instance, is supposedly 'sane' by common standards: she's a rational, logical character with very obvious and linear thinking patterns. But in fact, I think she's more likely to 'crack' than Draco is-- and this relates to Maya's reference to Percy cracking before Draco would-- because obviously, if you -repress- your issues, they're more likely to explode at some inopportune point. I can definitely see Hermione's obsession and pretense at logic becoming a sham and a cover for something quite psychopathic with the right trigger. This kind of 'linear' intelligence needs a trigger much more than Draco's more emotional character, which is actually more resilient.
What it comes down to is, before anyone starts trying to prove Draco or anyone is mad, they'd have to establish what 'sane' is as a baseline standard. I'd like to see them try, btw.