Depression in OOP

[barbara_mbowen]

No: HPFGUIDX 110737

This is an excellent thread.  I have to say, I pretty much agree with
psyche 
that Harry shows signs of depression in OOP, although I do agree also
with 
Del that he's been showing slight signs of it all along. 

What is he most afraid of?  It should be Voldemort, but instead, it's
the 
Dementors.  What do the dementors represent?  Lupin thinks it's fear,
but 
JKR has said they represent depression.  They suck the happiness out
of 
people, make them obsess over their worst memories, and then drive
them 
mad.   I think Harry is at great risk for depression through out the
books, and 
part of what so appeals to readers about him is how well he manages
to fend 
it off.  But in OOP, he did seem to stumble.  I don't just mean his
rages.  But 
when he had to summon his patronus to fight off those dementors, it
took him 
three tries:

"Another wisp of of silver smoke, feebler than the last, drifted from
the wand--
he couldn't do it anymore, he couldn't work the spell--
.........Think...something happy...
But there was no happiness in him....The dementor's icy fingers were
closing 
on his throat..."  (OOp, American edition, p.18, )

Where is the kid who could fend off 100 dementors at the end of
Prisoner of 
Azkaban?  He can barely manage to fend off two, and one of them even
has 
its hands around his throat when he does.  Harry is having a hard,
bad time.  
And then there's that time in GoF where he goes and hangs out with
the 
owls, to get away from it all (p.539-540).  To me, this reeked of
sadness and 
weariness.  Of course Harry has every right to be sad, weary, angry
and very 
much *depressed*.  It is very much situational depression, he would
be crazy 
*not* to feel this way.  So it seems to me that Harry has always been
at high 
risk for depression (abused child, orphan, social outcast until he
reaches 
Hogwarts, and even at Hogwarts singled out for abuse by people like
Malfoy 
and Snape).  Harry has us all rooting so very hard for him because he
is 
fighting all this. He is like a Dickensian orphan against the cold,
cruel world, 
only the wizarding world is even colder and crueler than 19th century
London, 
where there were at least no Voldemorts.

Harry's pillars are Ron and Hermione, Dumbledore and Sirius.  They
keep 
him sane and as happy as he can be under the circumstances.  Losing
one 
of those pillars was an excruciating blow.  We can only hope he
doesn't lose 
any of the other three.

Barbara (Marmelade's Mom) who has been situationally depressed and
been 
married to a chemically (clinically) depressed man