Poor diet, inherited disease made Gollum mad (duh? could it be because he murdered his friend?)

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1517&e=15&u=/afp/healthliterature ^

[Squeako]

Vitamins or lack thereof are not what drove Smeagol to the caves where there is a lack of vitamins and only blind raw fish to eat. Vitamin deficiency is a symptom of a greater wound. Even if Smeagol returned to a healthy hobbit diet, the possession of sin would have driven him to the same bad habits that keep him out of a state of Grace.

You're right, of course it wouldn't. He did have The Ring, after all, and did murder his friend. I was referring to actual people (which is what was meant by my words "in the real world") in whom simple deficiencies cause similar behavior/symptoms (aside from the murder, generally speaking).

[BossLady]

This sounds like they are defining the "Woyzeck" Defense to me....LOL!

(The French tribute to their German buddy Werner Herzog....)

[Squeako]

IMHO, the author of Lord of the Rings had more to say than to refer to a Vitamen B deficiency. The term Gollum alone syas volumes.

No doubt. I do think it is silly to neglect The Ring in Gollum's diagnosis, sort of like saying, "He has Stage IV metastatic cancer, but this acne is a real problem."

[SaltyJoe]

I agree with you on vitamin deficiency and further point to medical causes that many have long attributed to "evil" (like demonic possession). In Smeagol's case, it was his act of evil, and being possessed by evil (because no one could truly possess the ring of power except Sauron) that continued to wear down his health. Likewise, Frodo suffered from the effects of the ring and it influenced his character.