Was Melkor Bipolar?

[Sarumian]

Originally Posted by Durelin

. Or simply, evil is insanity.

I think, this is it. And more of that, as we are talking not about someone evil but about the one who begot evil. Unable to control his own wrath, Melkor is insane, though his insanity is not a disease, e. g. not something that happened to him, but something he was developing in his soul (or allowed it to be developing) - his hate, anger, violence and deceit seems resembling not a disease but an addiction to drugs or alcohol .

We know that in the begining Melkor was not evil. He was the most powerful and beautiful Ainu, and his power was probably his downfall. When music of Ainur came to being Melkor tried to impose the theme of his own as he thought he could create something better than other Ainur together. Thus he brought about diharmony and Eru had to step in to resolve it.

When Vallar were sent to shape Arda, Melkor again intended to carry out his own project. At that moment he was not evil yet: he wanted to prove he was the best to do the job. But the poison of envy started to corrupt him as he wanted to do everything himself, not collaborating with other Vallar. And then he was trapped: all he could achieve was disrupting and impeding. His choice was either to admit his failure or to fight desperately for the control of Arda (or, at least, Middle Earth) in order to re-shape it in the future. The more he fought, however, the more creative power he wasted. And finally it was only a fight for posession and revenge. That was an ultimate evil and a pure insanity.

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.