Depression and Harry in OotP -- PTSD

[naamagatus]

No: HPFGUIDX 110917

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Shaun Hately" <drednort at a...> 
wrote:

<snip and changed order of paragraphs>

> But I think it's stretching a point way too far to *assume* she has 
> a view of depression as a single thing, just because she hasn't 
> explicitly said she doesn't.


I don't think it's exactly an assumption on my part. She creates 
creatures who personify depression, and their effects are very 
specific: everybody in contact with Dementors feels the same thing 
(albeit in different intensities). I'm not saying that's true in real 
life. I'm sure, as you say, that different people have different 
experiences. Still, it's evidence that *for her* it is one thing. 

<snip>>  
> 
> You could be correct - but I'm still not at all convinced myself.
> 
> I honestly *really* doubt that J.K. Rowling regards depression as a 
> single thing. In fact, if I said I thought that was at all likely, 
> I think I would be insulting the lady, because her writing to me 
> suggest she understands emotion and depression fairly well.

Everybody is limited in some ways by their own experience. You can 
put yourself in another's shoes, but it requires effort, *and* a pre-
existing awareness that the other's experience may be different 
(therefore requiring the effort to emphathise). If an issue isn't 
that interesting to you, and you think you have a pretty good idea of 
its essence, you don't make the effort - you remain with your 
preconceived notion.

> 
> I have no doubt that the Dementors describe the experience JKR has 
> of depression. But I would honestly be very surprised if a writer, 
> who writes emotional content as well as J.K. Rowling does - 
> specifically the emotional content of teenagers, and who is so good 
> at inspiring emotions in her readers, and who therefore must have a 
> pretty good understanding of emotions and feelings, would be so 
> narrow minded as to believe she completely understands depressive 
> illness and all of its emotional implications and experiences for 
> everyone who has suffered it, is suffering it, or will ever suffer 
> it.

That's exactly why I said before "After all, she didn't write the HP 
books as companions to the DSM. Whatever the books are, they are not 
an  exploration or illustrations of various mental disorders in their 
different guises." She is not thinking of "depressive illness", or 
about describing any and every possible variation of it. 
She is not thinking in that direction, therefore she goes with what 
she intuitively feels is depression (which is based on her own 
experience). 
I'm sure that if you were to discuss the issue with her, force her to 
think about it, she would agree that her experience of depression is 
not the only one, that there may be other sets of symptoms. I just 
don't think that she sat down and thought about depression as a 
phenomenon different from what she experienced.  



Naama