The Soul and the dark magic, the Other, and Harry Potter

I broke the neck of my acoustic guitar today.

Right after I made a new recording with it. Damn!

On the academically related side,

I finally watched Harry Potter 5, the movie, and was very sad to watch Dumbledore got killed.

There was an interesting point being made in the movie, that is, one of the dark magic can split an individual's soul into pieces and thus contain it in different objects. To do so, one must commit mass murder. Performing this dark magic with mass murder will allow an individual to live an eternal live. In the novel/movie, this was how Voldemore was able to continue to have influence in the magical world. His body vanished, but his soul lived on.

This point is similar to an idea that Ed Tick made in his book "Soul and the War" when he discussed the specific difficulties that veterans encounter throughout the war, from the training, the battle field, to their home return. One of the points that Ed made was that some soldiers' souls had to leave their body because they were committing activities involving taking away others' lives during war.

It is interesting to see that many similar "archetypal" points are made in academic books, as well as in movies and fictions.

Killing, regardless of the allegedly legitimate intention, is a dark magic.

Although lives of the killers are preserved, their soul has to be wounded.

I wondered if Snape was protecting Draco from homicidal actions by killing Dumbledore himself. Once your soul left your body, it is hard to come back in. And with regards to killing, it could be hard to stop once you tried it once. Snape clearly had more experiences in controlling and managing his magic.

Another point that was not such an emphasize in the movie/novel has to do with the idea of the "Other."

This is related to my research interest, the distinction between "pure blood" and "muggle,"

the differences between the light side and the dark side.

The idea of contamination, creating an enemy, etc.

You can see them everywhere even in today's politics.

The Obama administration has been trying to pass the health care bill,

but the "enemy" refused to be "friends or allies."

And the "enemy" tried to find more reasons (such as the distinction between pure blood and muggle) so that they are irreconcilable excuses to transform into friends (of their enemy). *

The Others are created and imagined, and they seem to always exist. Always.

In Foucault's term, "when there is power, there is resistance."

So from a Jungian perspective, can the Others be one of the archetypes?

* It seems to me that the friendly side to the bill has been trying their best to show that they are friends with the enemy side of the bill, but the enemy sees the friendly side to be their enemy nevertheless.