Harry's emotional resilience (was Harry's emotional scars)

[Marla O'Neill]

No: HPFGUIDX 127603


SSSusan (from message #126712):
> <snip> Here's this kid who has lived through a nasty,
> nasty situation with the Dursleys, and yet he is able
> to make friends right away with Ron, shortly thereafter
> with Hermione; he seems to get on well with his fellow
> Gryffindor classmates; he knows how to laugh and
> have fun ... <snip> I don't see these many deep scars
> [Lupinlore] suggested. I see a situation where a child
> might easily be *expected* to have developed many scars,
> but I don't see it *in actuality* in Harry. Any one of *us*
> might have come out of that experience deeply scarred,
> but for whatever reason, I don't think Harry did; he is an
> amazingly resilient young man.

MJF now:
In an otherwise routine-bordering-on-dull workday, I have
come across some genetics research that may explain Harry's "amazing
resilience" vis-a-vis his treatment by the Dursleys:

"Role of genotype in the cycle of violence in maltreated children"
We studied a large sample of male children from birth to adulthood
to determine why some children who are maltreated grow up to develop
antisocial behavior, whereas others do not. A functional polymorphism
in the gene encoding the  neurotransmitter- metabolizing enzyme
monoamine oxidase A (MAOA) was found
to moderate the effect of maltreatment. Maltreated children with a
genotype conferring high levels of MAOA expression were less
likely to develop antisocial problems. These findings may partly
explain why not all victims of maltreatment grow up to victimize
others, and they provide epidemiological evidence that
genotypes can moderate children's sensitivity to environmental insults.

So there you have it -- Harry clearly has a (very) functional
polymorphism of his MAOA gene!
And now back to work,
MJF
P.S. [the reference is Science (2002) 297(5582): 851-4,
for those so inclined]