Emotional/Psychological help [was: Re: Harry's disposition - the WW doesn't deal with pain]

[bufo_viridis at interia.pl]

No: HPFGUIDX 94689

> Laura Ingalls Huntley wrote:
> 
> > If Book Six rolls around and Harry is (once again) battling 
> > depression and self-doubt to the point that he blows up at 
> > innocent bystanders, [snip]

> Del :
> I've been thinking about this, while reading the various posts of 
> this thread which all make very good points. And it became more and 
> more obvious that there's a very simple answer to all those points : 
> there's no such thing as emotional or psychological support in the 
> WW. Not just for Harry I mean, but for *anyone*.
> 
> We all keep wondering why Harry, or Sirius, or whoever, doesn't get 
> the emotional support they need. But in the books, nobody seems to 
> care or wonder about it. It just seems that people are *expected* to 
> just swallow whatever is thrown at them, smile, and go on. I mean, 
> how many times do we see anyone offering any kind of support to 
> someone else ? It does happen, but it's very rare.
[...] 
> One thing that really deeply struck me is that nobody among the 
> students knows about Neville's parents. [...]So when I read the St Mungo's >scene in OoP, and realised > that *nobody* at school, not even *Hermione*, >knew about Neville's parents[...]
> I remember being so glad to see an adult (Moody) taking care of an 
> obviously traumatised Neville after the Unforgivables lesson. But I 
> also remember being *surprised* somehow. Now I know why : it never 
> happened before (an adult giving spontaneous emotional support to 
> one of the kids, I mean). 
[...]
> Just look at Cho as one last example if you're not convinced. The 
> girl lost her boy-friend, she doesn't even know how, she suspects he 
> might have been killed by a mass murderer, the whole WW acts as 
> though it never happened
[...]
> Del

Viridis:
I cut it don' but I hope Del's post still makes sense, as she made very balid points. 
We can argue that WW is harher and old-fashionedd world than ours, which has its advantages and disadvanteges, but the lack of emotional/psychological help in it is interesting (not to say downright disturbing). I'd say it's rather "emotionally cold" world, quite fitting stereotype British, stif upper lip etc. (note: I'm talking about the *stereotype* not reality).
I'm not saying that Harry should be dotted upon and so on, thinking what awates him a bit of hard treatment won't hurt - however it goes overboard here. Leaving hormone ladden teenager who just witnessed a murder etc. and for all his efforts brought dead body as a prize, for a month among very unfriendly people is not exactly the best treatment - the effects shown are pretty accurate and not *very* acute. Sure if providing him with help would endanger him, I am not surprised that Dumble took his chances (better disturbed Harry than calm Harry's cadaver). Yet as Del pointed out Neville, Cho, Sirius, bah, poor Eloise Midgen are not getting any help either, although their life is not immediately threatened.

Skipping the peer part (Ron not comforting Harry etc.) I'd like to adress the professional psychological help - which is nonexistant in WW. As much as JKR is inventive in helping thir character restore their physical health - and we must say thet in Hogwarts medical servises are very good and St. Mungo's isn't bad either - she compltely abandoned the psychically. I guess none of 19th cent. boarding schools had a school psychologist, but - following the analogy - there were other people providing such help, e.g. chaplains (whtever one may think about them, to a large extent they function as moern theraputists - they let the person to talk the things out).

What is more more surprising is that JKR provided Wizards psychologists-to-be with amazing tools, many Muggle theraputists and researchers would give the right arm for: Pensieve, Obliviate, Legilimency, not to mention psychoactive potions. So that lack of psycho-Healers, IMO, constitutes a huge gap in JKR world (and one of main reason why I don't consider her a "world-creator" author). Note: if somebody is going to point out that psychology is a modern science - yes, I know it, but psychoterapy (just under different name) functioned long before Freud and Co. Many very so-called primitive tribes had rituals and other ways for dealing with psychological problems. 

The only reason I see for it has nothing to do with HP books per se. It's the question of the author, who after being cold shouldered for a long time, having nobody to hep her, developed very strong "cope yourself" attitude (she probably doesn't know much about psychology either). Probably having no RL models of psychologists or just friends willing to help or just letting  her pur her grieves out, she didn't introduce them into the world she created. Even though it would be a logcal development of the tools she has shown us.

Thank for patience. Viridis.
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