Stockholm Syndrome - was No sympathy for Kreacher

[Tonks]

No: HPFGUIDX 124566


--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, Jocelyn Grunow <aandj at l...> 
wrote:
> Further to my post of yesterday where I suggested Kreacher might 
have something like Stockholm Syndrome, here are two excerpts from 
info I found at:
> http://web2.iadfw.net/ktrig246/out_of_cave/sss.html and
> http://www.geocities.com/kidhistory/trauma/stockhol.htm

Tonks now:
Thank you Jocelyn for the post on the Stockholm Syndrome. If anyone 
want to study this more, the idea is based on something 
called "object relations theory". It is a theory about personality 
development. When an abused child is developing an internalized 
sense of self they take a representation of the abuser into 
themselves.  It helps them to survive. This is why a child in an 
abusive home often grows up to be an abuser themselves, because the 
abuser that abused them is now inside of them and continuing to 
abuse. This, by the way, is one of the reasons that I have 
compassion on Snape. In a loving home with what is called "good 
enough mothering", the child takes a representation of their good 
parent into themselves and grows up to be a relatively health 
person.  Harry would have done this to some extent while living with 
his parents before they were killed. This is why he can *self 
nurture* in the environment of the Dursleys. The time frame for his 
personality to develop would have extended to the time that he was 
at the Dursleys, but he does not appear to have been damaged by his 
contact with them. This has lead many of us to wonder how it is that 
Harry is so good. That he had his parents for 15 months was an 
important start. But still, his deep *goodness* it is quite 
remarkable given the rest of his early childhood experience. There 
is just *something about Harry* that defies the know theories on 
early childhood development.  Harry must have been very, very 
special from the beginning of his life.  I think that Harry is Love 
incarnate and that is why he has survived so very well in an 
otherwise unloving environment. Of course, one could make a case for 
his *saving people thing* to be the result of the early trauma of 
loosing his parents and an attempt to undo this loss, but I am not 
going to go there.

As to Kreacher, he is the result of his environment and upbringing 
in addition to the fact (as I have said before) that he is not free. 
He is bound to serve the Black family. And to survive in that family 
he must share their values.  He is not *free* to do anything else.  
He is a slave, born to slaves.  I don't blame him for Sirius's 
death.  I don't hold him to the same standard that I do a human 
being with free will.  

Tonks