What I have a hard time with in the canon...

[daled7350]

No: HPFGUIDX 96249

Geoff wrote:
<snip>
> Let me cite a real life example for comparison.
> 
> Many years ago, my wife and I knew some folk in London. The family 
> lived in the same street as I had until I married and my wife knew 
> the younger son through Sunday School work. There was about an 18 
> year age gap between the two sons.
> 
> When Dave, the younger, was 10, his mother died suddenly and at the 
> end of his First year in secondary school, when he had just turned 
> 12, his father died after an operation. 
<snip>
> So, it is quite possible that Harry, although younger than our 
friend 
> when his problems began, managed to deal with them and still come 
out 
> as a reasonably well-balanced guy at the end.

Geoff,

I agree that most people are more resilent than they seem from the 
outside, but let me point out that your friend Dave was 10 before the 
series of disasters he had hit him.  My frineds who study psychology 
((I am an engineer, BTW) tell me that most of a persons critical 
development occurs between birth and 3 years old, like about 80%! If 
true, then Harry was robbed of 2/3 of that critical development in a 
loving environment...Dave was not.

That's why I find it very difficult to suspend the critical faculty 
in this case.

Respectfully,

Dale