Harry has PTSD

[docmara1]

No: HPFGUIDX 125088


"Caius Marcius" wrote:
> Bottom line - being a fictitious character, Harry has those 
elements 
> of PTSD that help advance the plot (e.g., the hypersensitivity, 
the 
> outbursts of intense emotion), but fails to manifest those 
symptoms 
> which would not.
> 


Hi everybody,

I've been lurking for many months but this is my first post.  I'm a 
psychologist in real life when I'm not reading Harry Potter or 
LOTR :)

Actually, Harry does display all the requisite symptoms of PTSD in 
OOTP.  The event or events were horrifying, overwhelming and 
involved intense fear, helplessness, or horror.  The traumatic event 
is reexperienced in at least one way (recollections, dreams, etc.), 
persistent avoidance *and numbing of general responsiveness* -- this 
doesn't necessarily mean avoiding thinking or talking about the 
trauma.  While this does happen in many instances, in others, people 
become consumed with elements of the trauma (eg. a survivor of 9/11 
compulsively reading everything he can find about the event and 
subsequent responses of government to the event)it also includes 
restricted "range of affect" (i.e. having trouble feeling certain 
feelings -- like affection or happiness), a sense of foreshortened 
future, feeling of detachment or estrangement from others.  Also, 
persistent symptoms of increased arousal -- sleep disturbance, 
irritibility, outbursts of anger, difficulty concentrating, 
hypervigilance, exaggerated startle response.  And last, the 
symptoms interfere with a person's functioning in significant ways.

I don't have my Harry Potter books here (but I do have my DSM ;)) so 
I can't cite specific canon, but I think that seeing Harry as 
suffering from PTSD does make sense.  That's not *all* he's 
experiencing (experiencing a trauma in the midst of adolescent 
development is really a double-whammy), and I've sure seen more 
extreme cases of PTSD, but it does, for me, make Harry's behavior 
throughout OOTP make a whole lot of sense.  And don't get me started 
on the lack of quality mental health care in the WW -- though, given 
Harry's history, it's not his natural inclination to look for 
emotional support, but rather, to muscle through on his own...it's 
taking him a long time to begin to believe that he can count on 
others -- and there are times when he's sorely disappointed when he 
does.

Anyhow, just thought I'd pitch in to clear this small point up :)

Thanks for all the amazing discussion!

Mara