Post-Hogwarts PTSD (was re: marvin's fanfic)

[Marvin Long]

No: HPFGUIDX 10189

[Ebony speculated on the effects of Post-traumatic Stress Disorder on
a generation of Voldy-fighters and also on the way being regarded as a
messiah might affect HP]

In a way, Harry is already regarded (sort of) as a messiah by most of
the wizarding world.  We've seen lots of examples of the awe and
admiration in which he is held.  (Aside:  once it becomes known that
Voldy is back, will that regard turn to distaste or disappointment
that Harry didn't "prevail" after all, in spite of having been only an
infant at the time?)

I've noticed that the magical world doesn't focus on religion much. 
Hogwarts acknowledges Xmas and Easter, for instance, but doesn't
celebrate them in any sectarian way, and students are not required to
attend chapel.  Even the Dursley's, though they seem to resemble a
kind of priggish protestantism, are not actually portrayed as
church-goers IIRC.  Their obsession seems to be with their
respectablility in terms of their class and without regard to faith.

So my point is, if in the magical world people do not resort to
sectarian explanations of issues of good and evil, perhaps Harry won't
have to worry so much about being a messiah figure, any more than,
say, Winston Churchill had to worry about being canonized.  Certainly
Harry would be celebrated, but maybe if he's lucky wizards are
by-and-large practical people who won't place him on too high a
pedestal.  If Voldy isn't Satan, then defeating Voldy doesn't make one
Jesus.  Just a hero, which has its own set of complications.

(Given the perversity of human nature, it's possible the opposite
might happen, too.  Perhaps the way in which Harry defeats Voldy would
reveal something about him that makes the rest of the wizarding world
more suspicious of him than grateful for him.)

All that having been said, there appears to have been little attempt
in the wizarding world so far to canonize young Harry; I don't recall
there being a "Harry Potter Day," for instance.  Despite the fact that
nobody knows why trying to kill HP cost Voldy his power, people seem
content to admit their ignorance rather than create a mythical
explanation (unlike us!).  Harry gets lots of respect for the events
of his infancy, but so far nobody seems to have attempted an
apotheosis of Harry Potter.  (On the other hand, if he were to die in
the battle with Voldy, he might stand a greater chance of
deification.)

OK, none of this really addresses how Harry might handle the
combination of public adoration and PTSD.  The only thing that really
leaps to mind for me is the problem of loneliness.  If after the War
Harry, Ron, and Hermione all pursue their separate interests (assuming
they live) then Harry will face the problem of handling all the
pressure without a family, and he'll often have the problem of not
knowing if friends are true friends or just hangers-on.  Well, except
for Sirius, again assuming he lives.

It's a tough call.  There are a variety of ways of responding to
trauma and stress, and we can speculate on them, but it's hard to
guess which response JKR would choose to write.  :-)  Except for
standard things like depression, for instance, it doesn't really help
to try to extrapolate from Harry's character as we know him because
one presumes that PTSD, if obvious, is obvious because it's causing
the victim to fall out of character, so to speak.

marvin