Abusive Dursleys (was Innocent Alby?)

[horridporrid03]

No: HPFGUIDX 123159


>>Salit:
<snip>
>The Dursleys don't engage in criminal activities (which is the type 
of abuse you were discussing). What they do is not abuse in the legal 
sense but emotional neglect and mistreatment. They are raising a 
child in their home without giving him love or care for his emotional 
needs.
<snip>
>I view this as a type of emotional abuse, which can sometimes be 
worse than physical abuse (which at least shows the person cares 
enough to hit - no I am not in any way justifying it - but the fact 
that neglected kids tend to act out because they think negative 
attention is better than no attention - is a well documented fact).
>Incidentally, Dudley is certainly not fairing much better. Both boys 
suffer from the two sides of the same malaise - the Dursleys' total 
lack of parental skills. The difference is that Harry is unloved and 
uncared for by anyone (to his knowledge) during most of his formative 
years. There are plenty of studies documenting the damage to 
children's development due to lack of care and love even when all 
their physical needs are fulfilled.<

Betsy:
I agree with you, Salit, that the Dursleys do not provide a loving 
home for Harry.  And I want to clarify that I'm in no way condoning 
the behavior of the Dursleys.  What I *was* trying to point out was 
that Harry's treatment *would* go unnoticed by his school teachers 
and neighbors.  So there would be no legal interference.

However, I also want to point out that Harry doesn't act much like a 
victim of emotional (or physical for that matter) abuse.  In PS/SS he 
actually climbs all over Vernon to get to his Hogwarts' letter.  He 
screams at Vernon (yes, there is an all-caps moment) for his letter 
and makes snarky comments when Vernon doesn't give it to him.  
There's no love lost between the Dursley's and Harry, but Harry 
doesn't seem to actually *fear* the Dursley's or to be very hurt that 
they don't love him.  (I think the fact that he's so obviously the 
outsider is a help to Harry.  He can cling to the idea that at one 
point in his life he *did* have loving parents.)

But, if Dumbledore was monitoring Harry in someway, I don't know if 
he'd see Harry hurting in a way that would demand interference.  I 
mean, yeah, the cupboard sucks, but Aunt Petunia's blood is the best 
protection against Voldemort and cronies that Dumbledore can think 
of.  That's not something to be given up lightly.  Especially when 
Harry seems to be handling life at the Dursleys.

Betsy