The Dursleys and Harry: Neglect or abuse?

[cubfanbudwoman]

No: HPFGUIDX 115296


Female_Jedis wrote:
> > If Petunia completely ignored Harry as a baby and as a young 
> > child, while showering Dudley with attention and affection, 
> > Harry quite simply should be a sociopath at this point and 
> > should be completely unable to form healthy relationships 
> > without intensive therapy.  
 
Alex: 
> Just a quick note here: while lots of abused children do not have
> normal psychological development, the range of responses is quite
> varied.  As far as I know, no one is really sure why one person 
> coming from an abusive background turns out to be, as you say, a 
> sociopath and another with a similar background turns out more-or-
> less OK.  There are lots of theories, but mainly it seems to be a 
> matter of individual psychological resilience.  Harry's fairly-
> normal emotional development is *unusual*--one would probably 
> expect him to have more problems than he does--but not 
> *completely* unrealistic.  If you took a hundred RW kids with 
> backgrounds like Harry's (which wouldn't be tough, provided you 
> left out the almost-killed-by-evil-wizard bit), you'd expect most 
> of them to show some psychological problems, a few to be total 
> sociopaths, and a few more to be basically OK despite it all.  


SSSusan:
Alex is right about this.  And we've talked about it before, for 
instance, in the context of why Tom Riddle might have turned out so 
badly, as one who was left in an orphanage as an infant, whereas 
others in that situation didn't turn into Evil Overlords.

I've postulated--as have others--that a part of the reason Harry 
might be so "okay" is that he had a good 15 months with presumably 
tremendous love & attention from James & Lily.  If one believes Erik 
Erikson, that earliest time is **essential** for developing a sense 
of identity and security.  If he'd been plucked away from J&L at 3 
months or so, he might not have been able to withstand what happened.

'Course...that's RW talk again, and this is JKR'S WW, so it might 
just be because she wants us to recognize that Harry's unusual and 
extraordinary.

Siriusly Snapey Susan