It's impossible to interpret this equation in a way that matches it's function. It makes no sense because as you've said, you have negative traits belittling each other and belittling self worth, and then the self worth value being multiplied by more negative traits. It's wrong, there is an error in the equation.
The way to make it make sense while implementing the least amount of changes would be to make it:
loneliness + alienation + fear + despair + self-worth ÷ (mockery x condemnation x misunderstanding × guilt × shame × failure × judgment x folly) = hope
love=lies, life=death, self=dark side
ie: hope is the sum of
self worth (positive value)
divided by mockery, condemnation, misunderstanding, guilt, shame, failure, judgment and folly all compounded on each other and magnified by each other. Essentially making self worth almost 0 value.
(I take folly to mean something akin to 'free will comes from perception and the exercise of judgment, so inevitably wrong decisions will be made, so free will intrinsically leads to folly. If a person were only capable of acting according to what is objectively the right decision, they wouldn't have free will, since they can only do one thing in a given situation (the right thing), so the only way to have free will is to commit folly')
Added to the negative values of loneliness, alienation, fear and despair, yielding a negative value for hope
Ie: There is no hope, which renders self worth meaningless (‘almost 0 value’ and dwarfed by the other variables)
With no self worth or hope, love can only exist through lies (since one cannot be worthy of love if they are worth nothing, and hopeless love cannot last); therefore there is no love, concern for others is meaningless and the only motivation for free will continues to be self worth or hope, which is already established as 0.
With no motivation or purpose for the exercise of free will, life is equivalent to death. Both are the same and nothing has any purpose.
Even though everything is pointless and the self has no value, it is still there, the physical self exists, but lacking will or purpose all it can do is follow.
At this point in reading the equation, the person’s self and free will are proved mathematically to mean nothing. The person loses all sense of identity, and they are readily open to accept another –any other – as being their true self, with the person’s mind and body a mere extension of the other’s self. In this case Dark Side inserts himself as the solution to what self equals, making all who read it subservient to his will.
Any name inserted at the end would make a person subservient to the being they associate with that name.
That's how I think it works.